Customer Reviews
an interesting fantasy - By: VoraciousReader, 08 Dec 2008 
I really enjoyed this book. I don't necessarily think that it is a great work of literary art (but then, most novels aren't) but I certainly found it entertaining, thought-provoking, & interesting. I like Torey Hayden's straightforward writing style, & her insight into the complex worldsin people's heads.
I'd previously read some of her non-fiction books & found them quite gripping, so was keen to see what her fiction would be like. I wasn't disappointed, as some other reviewers seem to be. Then again, I'm something of a fantasy/SF fan & if I had to categorise the genre of this novel I'd definitely say it was more Fantasy than anything else. I get the impression that some of the reviewers who didn't like the book probably wouldn't like fantasy novels by other authors either.
Comes together brilliantly - By: A. Butterfield, 16 Nov 2008 I quite enjoyed this book whilst reading it but as the last chapters drew to a close I REALLY REALLY enjoyed it & blazed through to the end. It's a good story anyway but I was very satisfied with how everything tied together. I even felt the need to tell my totally uninterested husband all about it very excitedly. He remained unimpressed. That's lads for you.
A great biographer does not a good novelist make - By: moon tree, 21 Sep 2008 
I've read most of Torey's memoirs & loved them all, so when I heard she'd written a novel, I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, Overheardin a Dream was a big disappointment.
What I like most about the autobiographical books isn't just the gripping & fascinating subject matter, but the way Torey paints a vivid picture of the characters & settings. You feel as though you've really been there & met these people.
By contrast, I felt this novel was poorly written. The plot was promising, but the characters were wooden & the descriptions were uninspired. As another reviewer commented, there was a lot of telling & not much showing. Rather than entering into the characters' world, I felt I was just being given the "facts" of what happened.
I would say Torey has a great talent for depicting real people, real settings, real details & real emotions. Her ability to take her own experiences & transform them into good books is second to none. However, when it comes to fiction, she doesn't seem to have the imagination to flesh out the details & make her creations live.
This may be something she can improve on, but for now I'll stick with the non-fiction.
Pseudo-intellectual, VC Andrews quality - By: Randombookperson, 12 Sep 2008 Part of the problem going into this book was that I bought into the hype. I was intrigued at the prospect of a book being "too novel", according to the publishers, for what they perceived to be the average English speaker. Having appreciated a few of the insights Hayden offeredin some of her nonfiction works, I figured she would bring that to bear through well-developed characters, vivid writing, & other staples of good novels. Because of the long wait for English publication, however, maybe subconsciously I expected it to be not only entertaining, but something I would keep on my shelf & return to. I mean, there must be some unheard-of creative jewelin there somewhere to make us wait that long, right?
Not exactly. The setup is certainly intriguing -- the son of the famous author Laura Deighton ends upin a psychiatrist's office presenting autistic-like symptoms & communicating increasingly cryptic things via a stuffed cat. Despite the fact that you have no idea what he's talking about until the last third of the novel, Conor is actually the most well-rounded characterin this book, which -- considering that you know him only by his monosyllabic utterances -- doesn't bode well for the portrayal of the other characters. However, the boy's words taken alone are eerie, & along with psychiatrist James you might find yourself rooting for Conor as you try to make sense of them.
Unfortunately, this book really isn't about Conor. Conor himself takes up maybe a fourth of the book. The other (very thick) three fourths of the book are taken up by Laura's sessions with James, which alternate with whole chaptersin italics -- Laura's story about a being called Torgon. Here there is most certainly more telling than showing. Some of this is understandable -- she'sin the shrink's office, after all -- but all the same I feel it might have been handled better differently. When Laura talks to James, even though her words arein quotes, it is not believable human speech. I know Laura is a writer, but even writers have to speak like us poor normal folks sometimes. An occasional sentence fragment or "Um" or a more relaxed vocabulary wouldn't have hurt. She's already forcing him & us to read her writing (more on thatin a moment), & now she's making him listen to an audio book too.
Considering she narrates her life like VC Andrews, this isn't a good thing. I could go into litcrit mode & say that the pretentious narration might be a reflection of Laura's arrogance, but I don't think so -- it just comes across as pretentious writing for lack of better dialogue. I may have been able to swallow it better if the quotation marks had been left off, & it were simply understood that we werein Laura's point of view then -- like a flashback or something. Then I wouldn't have to suspend my disbelief that people used so many adverbs & stage directions -- let alone verbatim dialogue --in real life, out-loud conversation. Phrases like "I retorted indignantly" or "he smiled warmly" look weak & redundant evenin writing, but they feel especially out of placein what is supposed to be speech.
Much of the story that eventually meanders to what's wrong with Conor has to do with the magical Torgon. The stories of Torgon intersect quite obviously with the story of Laura. I cannot tell you how tempted I was to skip those sections. Laura even warns James when she gives him the papers that they aren't very good, because she wrote them when she was a teenager. Believe me, Laura wasn't kidding. I hate to say it, but the chapters that are supposed to be so pivotal made the whole book a drudgery. The chapters dealing with Torgon read like bad teenage fan fiction. Fan fiction for what, I'm not sure, but it's the only form of writing I can use to describe the quality of stilted dialogue, melodrama, & faux-medieval characters about whom, like Laura, I could not care. They have no personality. These parts acted as seriously detrimental speedbumps, bogging down the parts I actually mustered some interest in, such as the villain. (Don't worry, you know who he is & what eventually happened to him almost right away. It requires no effort.)
Much of the conflict -- the intersection of imagination with reality, & how much children really are affected by things -- was interestingin itself. Unfortunately, it was so glossed over. The other children were only given cursory treatment, so that the ambiguous ending hinging on Conor's sister Morgana lacked impact; I couldn't care about her either. I would have liked to know more about Laura's husband & the strain he hinted that her creativity bore on their marriage. But all of the characters were cardboard, even the imaginary ones. I read the book because I wanted to find out what happened to Conor, but believe me it was very long, very annoying hard going. Worse was James' gushing over the character developmentin Laura's books, & Laura telling him "My books are quality literature." If Hayden fancies herself to be Laura's counterpart, she has a long way to go.
The book is at least entertaining if you can slog through it, but little more than a written soap opera. I don't have space on my bookshelf for something I don't want to come back to. If you want something that explores the relationship between an artist & a creation, try The Great Good Thing, The Dark Half, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, or even Frankenstein. If you want a fictional depiction of a writer's life among other things, The World According to Garp is excellent. All of these have actual character development.
Absolutely brilliant - one you can't put down! - By: Mrs. K. M. Brown, 04 Sep 2008 
I had never read any of Torey Hayden's books so had no expectations before reading this one. It was not what I expected from reading the back of the book - there is much more to it than I expected. The stories inter-twine wonderfully & I found myself not wanting to put the book down - I wanted to know more & more with each chapter.
I found the character's easy to envision & I loved the descriptive style of Torey's writing.
Without saying too much, the ending of this book was great & had something which a lot of books lack. I was really pleased with the way it ended rather than being disappointed due to predictability or wanting to know more.
