In the fall of 1789, on the western edge of the Yorkshire Dales, a dense, persistent fog enshrouds the village of Ingleton. Shadowed spirits hide in the mist and bedevil the townsfolk, heralding a tragedy that has befallen one of their own. Edmond continues to search for Alexandra, his fiancée, who disappeared the same night that the mist set upon their town. Presumed dead by all others, he … visits Alexandra’s empty grave, desperate for any hint of what has become of her. Weary from the sleepless nights on his quest, no longer able to stay awake, Edmond falls into a dream before her headstone and there obtains clues from Alexandra as to her whereabouts. Haunted all the while by a malevolent spirit, Edmond follows the trail that Alexandra left for him and enters the underworld, only to learn that he has been there before, and in fact, quite often. But more, he discovers how he is to blame for Alexandra’s disappearance. A dark literary novel, rich in imagery, Discussion of a Decent Dream unearths the consequences of a child’s decision to surrender his heart in exchange for unholy power and transcendent knowledge.
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This book was entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:
Title: Discussion of a Decent Dream
Author: E Curtis
Star Rating: 4 Stars
Number of Readers:
Stats
Editing: 7/10
Writing Style: 8/10
Content: 8/10
Cover: 9/10
Of the 19 readers:
13 would read another book by this author.
17 thought the cover was good or excellent.
9 felt it was easy to follow.
13 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
7 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘plotting a story’.
12 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘developing the characters’.
10 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
13 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘A wonderfully written story; the prose are superb. I liked the plot but the characters were the strongest part. The only problem was, I kept getting lost.’ Male reader, aged 43
‘A dark tale, complex in many ways with a lot of layers. I struggled my way through parts of it and loved other parts. It was a sort of love/hate thing! All I can suggest is you take your time reading this. The language is almost poetical, the plot almost hidden. You have to fight to find your way through. All in all, it was fascinating. This author is talented but I just wonder if most readers will be gripped or simply fascinated.’ Female reader, aged 50
‘Powerfully written internal monologue.’ Female reader, aged 39
‘A brave story. This author is pushing limits which I like. A magical story written with a gold-tipped pen. It’s a wandering, muddled sort of plot but, possibly, the plot’s not that important. The author seems to be experimenting with language, seeing what works. Battle on and I think most readers would be pleasantly surprised how gripping it is.’ Male reader (publisher), aged 54
To Sum It Up:
‘A wonderfully written story with powerful internal monologue. A FINALIST and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
The writing in Discussion of a Decent Dream has a dreamlike and almost poetic quality, well suited to the title.
Edmond is searching for his fiancée, Alexandra, who he believes is alive whilst everyone else presumes she is dead. He journeys through an alternate existence, and learns about his true identity and a past that he didn’t know he was a part of.
The writing style was both the best and worst of this book. The extravagantly flowery prose was both hypnotic and yet hard to follow, leading to an interesting but also confusing read.
This is very beautiful writing. It flows like a river of soothing prose and the descriptive writing gives you a picture as if being inside a dream. That being said, I had some trouble getting started and concentrating in the first part of the book. Maybe it was a little too dream-like. I have finally learned that it is ok to put a book down and not finish it, but I did not do that with this book. This will sound like a vicious circle but what I think kept me moving forward until I finally found a rhythm in my reading was Curtis’ skillful use of words. I was rather fascinated with each choice. Sometimes, even using my Kindle to look up a word to see if it meant what I really thought it did. On the other hand, all of the descriptive flourishing language that I enjoyed so much might have been what made it seem slow at first.
When I say that it was the story line that seemed to be a bit slow, you must remember that this story has “dream” in its title. I think what I might have found a little sluggish at first, was probably a very good picture of a dream-like setting. This was to me a somewhat sad and yet alluring story. Decent’s journey seems to weave throughout the story as a picture being drawn. A way of defining a character I am not used to but one I did enjoy.
While this is not my normal genre, it was as I have said, beautifully written and definitely worth taking the time to read. Kudos to E. Curtis on a first book.