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Dreamfire
by Nicole Luiken
Winnipeg, Great Plains
Teen Fiction, 2009, ISBN 978-1-894283-88-5, 190 pp., $14.95 paper.
Dreamfire is another teen fantasy by Edmonton author Nicole Luiken. Her previous novel, Frost, was also published by Great Plains.Dreamfire begins with Brianne Foster (aged about 16 or 17) having a nightmare in the middle of science class. In the dream a huge, terrifying black widow spider is attacking her. Fortunately she falls off her stool, cracking her head, and the dream ends. But Brianne has had similar bad dreams before--she calls them 'true dreams'--and they usually signify that something horrible that is going to happen.
Brianne and her family, including two younger sisters--Suzy, one year younger than Brianne, and Lissa, aged eight--live in Grantmere, Alberta, a town with mining roots somewhere northwest of Edmonton in the foothills of the Rockies. They had moved there ten months before, into the house of Aunt Elise, her mother's sister, after Elise mysteriously died of a gunshot wound. Brianne's parents decided to leave Edmonton to escape the notoriety that Brianne had gained following previous dreams, in which she saw a woman being kidnapped. Brianne was implicated in the crime because of the various details she told the police. Although she was cleared, Brianne and her family were still looked at askance, and so made the decision to move.
The new dream is soon followed by a second one in which her dead aunt contacts Brianne with a warning--"The wulfdraigles are watching . . ."--the same warning she had given Brianne just before she died. Wulfdraigles, Brianne gradually discovers, are creatures that make dreams come true by using people as channels or 'conduits,' and they are trying to blackmail Brianne into becoming one of them. She must find a way to stop them or terrible things will happen to her family, and perhaps the whole town.
Besides the exciting events in the struggle with the wulfdraigles, including a raging forest fire and a flooded mine, the author brings in details of romance--for both Brianne and Suzy--as well as conflicts with parents and teachers. Young teen readers who enjoy fantasy will lap this up.
A couple of minor details bothered me. For instance, the Foster family has been in Grantmere for ten months, but the girls are only just beginning to make friends, and they have learned very little about other members of the community. Also, I wonder if there isn't a slight age discrepancy, since the two older girls both drive, though Brianne appears to be 16 (eight years older than Lissa, who is eight) which would make Suzy only 15. In some ways, Dreamfire reads like a sequel, for Brianne had experienced a whole adventure following the previous dream about the kidnapping.
Nicole Luiken is the author of seven young adult novels, two of which were published while she was still in high school. She is working on a sequel to Dreamfire, which will centre on young Lissa, and will include more confrontations with the wulfdraigles. Perhaps she could also write a prequel about Brianne's experience with the kidnapping incident!
Donna Gamache is the author of Spruce Woods Adventure (Compascore Manitoba) as well as many short stories for both children and adults.
Buy this book at McNally-Robinson Booksellers.