The Girl Who Could Not Dream
By: Sarah Beth Durst / Narrated By: Soneela Nankani
Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
Took me two Listens, but I finally found I liked it…
I think most of the problems I had initially with The Girl Who Could Not Dream stemmed from Soneela Nankani’s narration. I mean, she’s okay for our main character, Sophie, but her voice for male characters, mostly Monster, comes out odd, officious (Reminded me of The Narrator from Korean Girl in America sans the phony British accent. And TRUST me: If anything sounds THAT bad?!? I’m bummed…!), ridiculously low in tone, just waaay off.
Then too there’s a stuck-up girl in there, then too there’s a teary, always crying, little girl. There’s an officious sounding flying horse. There’s Mr. Nightmare… also all officious with the added mustache-twirling evil tones. Ya put it all together, and I just wasn’t feeling it.
So I listened to the whole thing start-to-finish again, and okay. I liked it much better the second time when I was more used to the voices used for each of the characters. So sue me: It only took me 9 hours and 18+ minutes to get into the swing of things.
Sophie lives with her parents where they all run a bookstore: The Dream Shop. It turns out, Mom and Dad distill dreams, bottle ‘em up, and sell ‘em to the community. People on diets buy happy dreams of food so they can feel like they’re eating; they buy bad dreams so they can learn to hate favorite foods turned nightmare. Also, Mom and Dad shelter Sophie as she’s a Non-Dreamer: She can’t dream on her own, and she’s been caught dipping into and drinking other people’s dreams. This could have the Night Watchmen on her case, so the family’s verrrry twitchy about a LOT of things. The Night Watchmen are to be avoided at all costs.
But they’ve more to be worried about. A man comes a-calling, Mr. Nightmare, and children who have nightmares start to disappear. Sophie’s folks disappear, and it’s up to Sophie, her friend Ethan, and her pet/friend Monster, to sort it all out.
This is a book with nightmare creatures, flying horses, multi-colored Ninja bunnies. And NATurally, it’s about precocious children (NOT my favorite!) also. They concoct ingenious methods for dealing with Mr. Nightmare and the problem of nightmares come to life. They find and assist the kidnapped. They search in clever ways for lost parents. They battle by using their wits. Which is probably another reason I didn't like it at first: Clever children drive me nuts.
But I really came to like Monster, even tho’, as stated earlier, I think someone other than Nankani would’ve used a better voice for him. I got to like his all-knowing ways, his professorial tones, his good-hearted teasing. I especially liked it when he was grouchy and somewhat threatening to the protagonists in the story. And yeah, yeah, yeah! I came to like Sophie and Ethan AND the two other whiny kids.
About the only thing that I didn’t like even after the second listen was a MAJOR part of the ending. I think Durst missed out on an opportunity to give Kids a lesson on grief and loss, and instead she went for the ol’ Happily Ever After. Yes, I came to accept it, but really: What a missed opportunity!
So all in all, even tho’ I didn’t like aspects of the story, and at times I found the narration grating, I wound up liking the adventures; I wound up liking the characters. But like I said?
It only took me twooooo Listens…
And some people don’t have time for that…
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