Review of "The Real Dreamwalker Presents: El Nino" by Ashlyn Jacobs

Score: 94/100 (9.4 out of 10)

In the iconic song by Eurythmics, we're told:

"Sweet dreams are made of this...
Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused"

Few stories embody those lyrics more vividly than The Real Dreamwalker Presents: El Niño by Ashlyn Jacobs!

Indeed, the line between dreams and nightmares can be razor thin. The same dreams that drive us toward triumph and fulfillment can also bring about tragedy, death, and our downfall. Ask any bank robber who now finds themselves behind bars without freedom or agency--all for some extra cash. Ask any guy who thought they were marrying the girl of their dreams only to end up with a hysterical control freak and paying child support.

This book centers around the mysterious, enigmatic figure known as the Dreamwalker, a dark force that haunts dreams, appears at unexpected times, and often brings about the unraveling of lives, sometimes through a distorted version of wish fulfillment.

"You asked for it, you got it...ten-fold" is pretty much what he operates by. If you dream about wealth, he'll pretty much bury you alive in it. If you say you want to win the lottery, he'll drive you crazy with paranoia. If you wish for your dead loved one to come back to life, he'll reanimate every corpse in the cemetery to surround and horrify you, maggots and all.

You know who he reminded us of? Calypso from the Twisted Metal video games. Calypso would often punish the winner of the Twisted Metal tournament by twisting their own wish in a dark ironic way. For example, Axel wishes to be freed from the machine he’s chained to, and Calypso “frees” him by tearing off his arms. Warthog asks for the body of a 20-year-old, and gets a young body with his original old head still attached. Twister wants unmatched speed, so she’s granted such velocity that she outruns time and meets a prehistoric end. Thumper wishes to rule the world, and becomes king of a dead, ruined planet with no one left to rule. Dollface begs for the world’s biggest runway to become a supermodel, and Calypso teleports her onto an airport runway where a landing plane crushes her.

Dreamwalker really comes across as a villain and an antagonist, seemingly a sick, twisted, sadistic one who brings about a lot of pain, suffering, and misery. He rarely ever talks. At one point, his voice and thoughts seem to play through a stereo speaker that some basketball boys have on. However, there seems to be at least one instance in which he actually talks and has a conversation with someone, from what we recall. That conversation happens with Camilla, the girl who escapes her bleak living situation by creating art, particularly of a dragon, which she calls her "Baku" (a Japanese spirit demon her mother had told her about before dying, which she seems to view as a guardian or protector). Not only does Dreamwalker have a conversation with Camilla, but he actually explicitly asks her what she wants and wishes for.

This is special because, from what we recall, Dreamwalker acted mostly like a Freddy Krueger-like dream stalker or psychic who would basically eavesdrop or figure out what you desired from what you said or thought about. He actually provides a lot more courtesy to Camilla than he does other characters.

Well, why would he give Camilla more courtesy than other characters?

We think that it's because Camilla is actually a good and innocent person deep down inside, unlike many of the other characters who tend to be selfish, greedy, vain, promiscuous, or out for revenge. But perhaps more than that, Camilla is an innocent victim. Not only did her mother die, but it's strongly implied that her father is sexually and physically abusive toward her. So, in this instance, Dreamwalker almost (kinda) drops divine justice.

Most of the time, though, he's an a-hole.

We'd love to compare him to someone like the Grim Reaper (from multiple stories) or Death from Interview with Death by V.K. Pasanen, but Dreamwalker is just not as benevolent or morally neutral as those characters. It really does seem like he goes out of his way to make everyone as miserable as possible.

For example, what did Chase do that was so evil, immoral, or wrong to deserve his father dying at a Dodger's game, then being terrified and traumatized by zombies? Yeah, you could argue he may have sought vengeance and retribution against Dreamwalker for the death of his father, but wouldn't you? Also, it isn't clear that Chase really intends to get back at Dreamwalker, it seems like he just wants answers and his father back. Do you blame him? The poor kid!

And think of Dashawn. What did Dashawn really do that was so evil, immoral, or wrong that he deserved to be lured into a cranberry bog and fed to a giant spider? Dashawn trash-talked, showboated, and took a dumb bet. That's classic teen bravado, not mortal sin. Oh, and by the way, Dashawn is also not used to success. He's looked down on as a poor basketball player yet dreams of making it big in D1 someday. Do you blame him for being excited and happy for winning a game and succeeding at his favorite sport for once in his otherwise-dismal life? Give the kid a break!

Like, look at Archie Manning flexing on that one Sam Houston player after a touchdown following three weeks of mediocre play and being told he sucks and is overhyped/overrated. Um, hello, Dreamwalker... instead of picking on little kids who just want to be the next Michael Jordan, there are full-grown college football players with silver spoons in their mouth showboating against future Uber drivers.

The Dreamwalker dangles a treasure chest and then weaponizes the kids’ competitiveness against them. That isn’t justice, it seems like entrapment dressed as a “lesson.” Same with Chase: grief isn’t a crime. He wants answers and his dad back. Punishing raw, honest grief with zombies and terror feels vindictive, not corrective.

There's a chapter/scene in which Dreamwalker plays literally freeze tag with kids (literally freezing/petrifying them), leaving only one of them alive. The survivor then falls upon great fortune, finding stacks of $10 bills (ok, that's kinda humorous) and getting invited on a date with the cutest girl in school. But the guilt eats him up inside. He is haunted by his dead friends until he eventually takes a razor blade and, well... we'll leave it there.

That's... pretty effed up.

Dreamwalker is not a good, decent, or even just/fair guy. He just isn't.

Now, there are aspects of his character that are interesting. He seems to know what people are thinking and what they want. He smells good. His alluring scent is actually one of his defining characteristics. He's often covered in or holding a blanket. Wolf spiders often appear from him or when he's around (if we recall). Sorry if our memories are fuzzy. This book is pretty whacky, wild, and surreal. It got our heads twisted in a knot at times.

Oh, and by the way, he also "appears" to the reader at one point, "staring" at the reader and menacing them like he's Moro from the Dragon Ball Super manga chapter 43. That's... pretty meta, creepy, and cool.

We also thought it was kind of humorous that he terrorizes Ellie, Tina, and Lorna as a werewolf after they obsess over werewolves. Ok, we might be stretching about the "obsessed" and fangirl parts, but our head-canon is that they're huge fans of Twilight and other such books.

That thought is a humorous to us because we get a lot of werewolf novels and werewolf smut sent our way, including smutty-werewolves-in-space books, believe it or not. There was also that one book in the previous contest in which the girl and the werewolf were going at it the whole book like rabbits on a trampoline.

Anyway, we're not sure if the girls did anything to deserve Dreamwalker terrorizing them either.

It needs to be said that we started this book off being very lost and bewildered. The book is surreal. It skips around a lot and never seems to maintain a focus on any one character or group of characters except for maybe Dreamwalker himself.

This is more like a short-story collection or anthology than a novel with a single cohesive plot. Another thing that left us somewhat baffled is... what's with the El Nino thing? Like, we know what El Nino is, but what did it have to do with what Dreamwalker was doing? Like a lot of this book, it kind of seems to be a motif that's tacked on or shoved in during a later draft.

Another example is how the narrative tries to set a precedence for Dreamwalker by introducing us to concepts like the baku and the yokai. We found this to be distracting more than anything, adding fluff to the book. But we get why it's there. Like we said, it's supposed to set a precedence that people around the world and throughout history have encountered Dreamwalker or beings like him.

Check it out on Amazon!