This is an early book from one of my favourite authors, Charles de Lint, who is considered a pioneer of urban fantasy. I particularly liked the setting, Ottawa in the mid-80‘s. ( )

dream life is real for Cat, until dream vampire steals them, pretty good concept

3.5 stars

Cat is an author and gets her inspiration through dreams. Unfortunately, she has not been dreaming for a few months and is now blocked. What she doesn’t know is that there is… something out there feeding on her dreams! And he’s feeding on others, as well, but Cat’s dreams are the ones he really wants.

This was good. I liked the real world sections of the book more than the dream sections, but that’s not a surprise to me. Cat didn’t really have friends in the real world, so I enjoyed the sections where she was making friends (though that was more secondary to the story). There were a lot of characters introduced at the very start of the book, so I was afraid I would get them confused, but surprisingly, it was rare to not figure out who we were following in the story fairly quickly – de Lint must have given enough clues to be able to follow easily. ( )

Cat Midhir is a best-selling fantasy author, but now she's blocked. Her stories come from her dreaming life in the Other World, and now she's no longer dreaming. Someone is stealing her dreams.
Charles de Lint is one of my favorite fantasy authors. This is one of his very early works (I'm pretty sure I've read it before a long time ago). I found it a bit uneven, especially in the beginning where there are a lot of characters to keep track of. About a third into the book the story found it's pace and cohesion, and it was all good from there.
Yarrow is a bit more gritty than most of Mr. de Lint's books. References to the eighties time period didn't make it seem dated though there were times when I wished Ben or Peter had a cell phone in the more harrowing parts.
The writing is best (in my opinion) when Cat is in the Otherworld. The descriptions and characters draw the reader in so you never want Cat to wake up. Still, it's a satisfying urban fantasy tale and a solid story from this master author. ( )

Enjoyed the way the realities intertwined. ( )