City of Nightmares
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- 0,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
Gotham meets Strange the Dreamer in this thrilling young adult fantasy about a cowardly girl who finds herself at the center of a criminal syndicate conspiracy, in a city where crooked politicians and sinister cults reign and dreaming means waking up as your worst nightmare.
Ever since her sister became a man-eating spider and slaughtered her way through town, nineteen-year-old Ness has been terrified—terrified of some other Nightmare murdering her, and terrified of ending up like her sister. Because in Newham, the city that never sleeps, dreaming means waking up as your worst fear.
Whether that means becoming a Nightmare that’s monstrous only in appearance, to transforming into a twisted, unrecognizable creature that terrorizes the city, no one is safe. Ness will do anything to avoid becoming another victim, even if that means lying low among the Friends of the Restful Soul, a questionable organization that may or may not be a cult.
But being a member of maybe-cult has a price. In order to prove herself, Ness cons her way into what’s supposed to be a simple job for the organization—only for it to blow up in her face. Literally. Tangled up in the aftermath of an explosive assassination, now Ness and the only other survivor—a Nightmare boy who Ness suspects is planning to eat her—must find their way back to Newham and uncover the sinister truth behind the attack, even as the horrors of her past loom ominously near.
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Dream situations manifest as real-life horrors upon waking in this rollicking fantasy adventure from Schaeffer (the Market of Monsters trilogy), set in the Gotham-esque city of Newham. After her sister neglected to take dream-prevention drugs before bed, she turned into a giant spider and ate the girls' father, forcing then 11-year-old Ness to flee. Now 19 and struggling to survive, Ness—terrified of becoming, or falling prey to, a Nightmare—belongs to the Friends of the Restful Soul, a cult dedicated to helping those affected by Nightmares that provides room and board to initiates. After Ness's nerves cause her to botch yet another work assignment, she volunteers for the Friends' onerous weekly mail run to avoid expulsion. But her ferry explodes on the job, and Ness is rescued by the tragedy's only other survivor: 19-year-old Cy, who recently woke up as a vampire. Despite his heroics, Ness is too frightened to trust Cy—until subsequent events force them to team up. Schaeffer's worldbuilding is economical and inventive, and snappy dialogue, breezy first-person-present narration, and a quirky, ethnically diverse cast add levity, counterbalancing ruminations on fear. Ages 14–up.