WTF Are You Reading?: Dark Fantasy Lives And Breathes In "Dreams and Shadows"

Title: Dreams and Shadows
(Dreams and Shadows #1)
Author: C. Robert Cargill
Format: Print
Length: 448 pages
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Rating: 5 Stars

A brilliantly crafted modern tale from acclaimed film critic and screenwriter C. Robert Cargill—part Neil Gaiman, part Guillermo Del Toro, part William S. Burroughs—that charts the lives of two boys from their star-crossed childhood in the realm of magic and mystery to their anguished adulthoods

There is another world than our own—one no closer than a kiss and one no further than our nightmares—where all the stuff of which dreams are made is real and magic is just a step away. But once you see that world, you will never be the same.

Dreams and Shadows takes us beyond this veil. Once bold explorers and youthful denizens of this magical realm, Ewan is now an Austin musician who just met his dream girl, and Colby, meanwhile, cannot escape the consequences of an innocent wish. But while Ewan and Colby left the Limestone Kingdom as children, it has never forgotten them. And in a world where angels relax on rooftops, whiskey-swilling genies argue metaphysics with foul-mouthed wizards, and monsters in the shadows feed on fear, you can never outrun your fate.

Dreams and Shadows is a stunning and evocative debut about the magic and monsters in our world and in our self. -Goodreads

My Thoughts

Welcome to the world of the vivid scream.
A world where children live but childhoods die.
A world where two boys, a djinn, and a changeling meet and are forever...never the same.
A world where bloodied Red Caps thirst for yet shed blood and devils ride night winds.
A world both tangible and transient.
A world where only what is mist and fog survives.
The place of Dreams and Shadows.

Dreams and Shadows is an amazing juxtaposition of extremes. The childhood escape that is the world of magic and fantasy; turned on its ear, given fangs, claws, and bloodlust...and allowed free reign over the imaginations of unsuspecting readers.

Audiences are drawn into a world that warns of danger at every turn. A world where nothing is what it seems, and there is a price to be paid for every boon.
While it is true that this story stars Colby, Ewan, Knocks, and a djinn; it would not do the story justice to limit its scope by saying that it is about them.
Their stories may be your ticket to enter and you coat check when you leave, but they are far from the only ones told at this party.

There are fairies, demons, merfolk, and angels of every elk to be found here...all waiting to whisper a tale or two.

The thing that sets what is at its heart the cautionary tale of Dreams and Shadows apart, is the author's ability to present characters who are by all accounts villains as sympathetic slaves to their baser instincts. In other words, the reader is often faced with the question, "Could this be you in this circumstance?"

Dreams and Shadows explores the part of fantasy where the dark things make their home. As such, this is a very gory read. Though child characters lie at its heart, this book is definitely written for adults.