Book Review: "Escaping Dreamland" by Charlie Lovett
“Escaping Dreamland” by Charlie Lovett
Synopsis: Robert Parrish's childhood obsession with series books like the Hardy Boys and Tom Swift inspired him to become an author. Just as his debut novel becomes a bestseller, his relationship with his girlfriend, Rebecca, begins to fall apart. Robert realizes he must confront his secret demons by fulfilling a youthful promise to solve a mystery surrounding his favorite series--the Tremendous Trio.
Guided by twelve tattered books and an unidentified but tantalizing fragment of a story, Robert journeys into the history of the books that changed his life, hoping they can help him once again. His odyssey takes him to 1906 Manhattan, a time of steamboats, boot blacks, and Fifth Avenue mansions, but every discovery he makes only leads to more questions.
Robert's quest intertwines with the stories of three young people trying to define their places in the world at the dawn of a new and exciting century. Magda, Gene, and Tom not only write the children's books that Robert will one day love, together they explore the vibrant city on their doorstep, from the Polo Grounds to Coney Island's Dreamland, drawing the reader into the Gilded Age as their own friendships deepen.
The connections between the authors, their creations, and Robert's redemptive journey make for a beautifully crafted novel that is an ode to the children's series books of our past, to New York City, and above all, to the power of love and friendship.
Rating: 4.5
Trigger Warnings: anti-LGBTQI violence, parental death
Review: It will surprise you accidentally zero that I was a big reader as a child, and like many similarly situated people, I have a few series that were foundational: Nancy Drew, Babysitter’s Club, anything by Jessica McClintock or Nancy Atherton. I look back at those books with nostalgia, and so when I read the synopsis of “Escaping Dreamland,” I knew it was going to be a book I liked (to be fair, I also thought Robert might be doing some casual time traveling — this is not a book about magic, sadly).
This is another one of those dual-timeline stories that have become such a common trope in popular historical fiction; however, unlike a lot of the others that I’ve read, this one isn’t about a woman living through a war. Instead, our modern-day protagonist is Robert, a successful author who is totally off his game. He’s lost inspiration, he’s losing his lady love, and he’s trapped in a bad headspace that he can’t get out of easily. He decides that the best way to break himself out of this slump is to go back in time a little bit: to solve the literary mystery that defined his childhood.
The Tremendous Trio — or, as we come to know them, Magda, Gene, and Tom — are unlikely friends living in turn of the century New York; the only thing that binds them is circumstance and the desire to have a book published. They all come to their bedraggled study group with their own personal trauma (I’m not going to go into it here, but OMG the descriptions made me so sad for them), and in their quest to write their adventure stories, we get to hear about their personal adventures.
As Robert gets closer to solving his personal mystery (really, what happened to the Tremendous Trio?!), he makes some essential realizations about his real life and the changes that he need to make to get happy. While Robert has ultimately a hopeful end to his story, it’s not necessarily the same for Magda, Tom, and Gene, as their friendship doesn’t quite continue as it started. This is honestly hard to write about without giving spoilers, but we get four amazing personal stories for the price of one with this book — alongside an engrossing literary mystery and a love letter to one of my places in the world, New York.
TL;DR: A book about love, loving books, and loving your life — even when it isn’t what you expected. Combine that with lyrical prose and one of the best true mysteries (note: not whodunits) that I can remember reading, and it’s a winner for me.
If You Liked This, Try These:
“The Lost Book of the Grail” by Charlie Lovett (Bookshop | Kindle)
“Midnight Library” by Matt Haig (Bookshop | Kindle | My Review)
“The Lions of Fifth Avenue” by Fiona Davis (Bookshop | Kindle | Shannon’s Review)
“The Storied Life of AJ Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin (Bookshop | Kindle)
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