[LISTENED TO: December 2016] Nightmares! The Sleepwalker Tonic
I though the first Nightmares! book was great. I had listened to both of these books before, but what was fun about listening this time is that the end of book one gives a little hint at what book two would be about.
Towards the end of Book One, the story tells us that Charlotte’s business was doing well, although a new store had opened up in the next town and was also doing very well–possibly taking away her customers.
And that’s essentially what book two is about. (No, not about small town commerce).
But let’s back up. In book one, Charlie Laird and his three friends Paige, Alfie and Rocco prevented the evil president of the Netherworld from taking over the waking world.
Back up some more. Nightmares aren’t bad. They are there to frighten us, yes, but their goal is for us to face our fears and come out stronger. They don’t want to hurt any of us. But the nightmares have an enemy–the goblins. The goblins have been forced out of the nightmare realm never to return. And they are constantly trying to get back into the Netherworld.
In Book One President Fear had goblins as his assistants while he tried to convince the nightmares to take over the waking world. He even managed to make it to the waking world because the portal linking the worlds is in the attic of Charlie’s house. (If you need more about that, you have to read book one).
Charlie and his little brother Jack are able to open and close this portal and physically go into the nightmare realm. Most of us go to the nightmare realm in our dreams. Nothing can hurt us there when we dream, but if you go there in the flesh, you can be hurt or killed.
Anyway, back to this book. Things have been calm for much of the summer until Charlie and Alfie (who has a crush on the weather reporter, erm, meteorologist on TV) see a guy who looks an awful lot like a zombie crash his car and then walk right into a pole.
A quick survey shows that this guy is a real person, not a nightmare. He is wearing a soccer jersey from Orville Falls, the town Nealy. The next morning Rocco calls Charlie to say that he is playing soccer against Orville Falls and half of the people are like zombies. Literally–walking off of bleachers, drooling, grunting. The one boy who is not says he calls them walkers, as in sleepwalkers.
It quickly comes out that the store in Orville Falls that is doing so well is called Tranquility Tonight. And they are selling a tonic that prevents you from having nightmares. It does in fact do this, but it also basically puts you in a walking coma–people forget to eat and drink and just seem to be in a daze all the time.
Not having nightmares may seem okay, but it’s dangerous for the nightmare realm. When we have nightmares it builds the dream realm. Since we mostly dream about places we know, our collective dreams build the towns we live in. But if no one in a town dreams, that town disappears. And, in this case, it is replaced by a giant gaping hole.
The Nightmares also have a prophecy that a human child will destroy the nightmare realm. It turns ou that Jack has been visiting the nightmare realm a lot over the summer (maybe three dozen times). He has been everywhere and made friends with all kinds of nightmares. But now, he is the prime suspect for how the tonic made it to the waking world–since no one else can cross the portal.
Okay so the nightmare realm is in trouble. I haven’t even talked about the Dream realm (where the good dreams are), but that is also in trouble and now, with these zombies, so is the waking world.
The owner of Tranquility Tonight is a creepy dude and Charlie and his friends can’t get anywhere near him. But then they notice that a big castle in Orville Falls is being built up and populated by the zombies. Finally a clue.
Another clue comes when Medusa (she makes a brief appearance, as do Meduso, Dabney the clown and a dozen or so other nightmares) tells everyone that she thinks there might be another portal. It’s in a nightmare lighthouse. Charlotte knows where the human realm version of the lighthouse is (in Maine).
And then the final clue comes when Charlie’s mom (in the dream realm) and Charlotte reveal some secrets about ICK and INK, two creatures in the nightmare realm who tried to contact them when they were little girls. They were creepy and might have been up to no good.
And that’s pretty much the first two discs of six. Segel packed so much into this story which was really exciting and kept throwing unexpected problems at the kids.
There’s also some new characters. There’s Ollie Tobias, a boy in town who is really smart but also really dumb. He gets straight As but he eats bath beads (the instruction said, dissolve in water, it never said “don’t eat”). And there’s Poppy, a girl who the kids find in that castle. Poppy is immune to the tonic–and might be a way to find an antidote.
Alfie and Paige are Charlie’s main cohorts in this book–Rocco is kind of replaced by Ollie, but that’s okay, Ollie is a great character.
So, can the kids reverse the effects of the tonic without getting captured or killed? And can they save the nightmare realm and convince everyone there that Jack is innocent? Oh yea, and because Charlotte’s business is not doing so well, and she took out a lien against their house to pay for it, there’s a possibility they will lose their house. That in itself is terrible, but that’s where the portal is–who would prevent the nightmares from crossing over?
Holy cow.
Once again, Segel does a great job reading the book. In fact, if I may say so, I feel like he does an even better job. His voices sound more consistent and more confident. He does a great job with the creepy goblin voices and the kids are all equally distinguishable. The only problem he has I’d say is adult female voices. Well, he does the more extreme ones very well. but Charlotte is still a little too close to his normal speaking voice. But that’s a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent narration. There’s a scene where he switches between the goofy clown voice of Dabney, the deep changeling voice of Bruce, Charlie, his own narration, the wonderful diva of Medusa and a harpie. And it’s easy to forget that it’s all the same person.
I think the fact that he wrote it only makes it better.
I know that there are illustrations in these books (by Karl Kwansy), and I’ve missed them. I have to wonder if there are any illustrations of the book that Charlotte is making about the Nightmare world, because it sounds amazing.
So Book 3 just came out and there’s an audio book of it as well. I can’t wait!
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