When a book is described to me as Gotham meets, well, anything, I’m going to check it out and from the cover to the synopsis everything about City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaeffer said it would be my kind of book. And it very much was. I can’t tell you how glad I am that this is book one of a series and not a standalone. Schaeffer has created a deliciously dark world where nightmares not only come to life, but people turn into their nightmares. From giant spiders, to horrific monsters, to quite literally disappearing, manifestations of nightmares are a reality that people now have to contend with if they dream.

What I liked about the world Schaeffer has created is that while turning into a nightmare is permanent, and “monstrous”, not every nightmare is a non-sentient monster. Some are able to have reconstructive surgery, turning them into a humanoid-monster hybrid, while others become humanoid monsters such as vampires. This means you have a world filled with humans terrified of dreaming and becoming a nightmare, while living alongside the very thing they fear becoming.

City of Nightmares follows one such human, Ness, whose sister turned into a man-eating spider when she was a child. As a result, she has developed a phobia of nightmares that triggers such a strong anxiety reaction that she sleeps in a tiny room alone to avoid anyone turning into a nightmare, and runs back to hide in it when confronted with a nightmare even if it’s miles away. Ness has been trying to work on her fear her entire life and feels like she’s failing constantly. She works for The Friends of the Restful Soul, an organisation that helps people whose lives have been affected by nightmares. The problem is that being able to handle the possibility of facing nightmares is needed to do many jobs there safely, so when The Director suggests to Ness that maybe their work isn’t for her, Ness starts to panic. Leaving The Friends of the Restful Soul would mean leaving her safe place for an overcrowded room in their busy city.

Panicking, Ness asks to do mail delivery for a week to reflect before the Director sends her to another branch. It’s that decision that throws Ness into a hornet’s nest of controversies, politics and scheming and a collision course with a boy who happens to be a nightmare. Cy is a vampire, a nightmare, who Ness meets briefly on the boat while on her first mail delivery – just moments before it blows up. The only two survivors, they end up stuck together in multiple situations as they try to work out what caused the explosion and why someone cares so much that there were survivors…

I loved the world that Schaeffer has created in City of Nightmares. It’s dark, gritty and so completely human. As someone who dreams very vividly every night, I appreciated the thought that went into the variety of nightmares and how they could be interpreted if someone physically became their nightmare. On the surface of this book, things appear to be very simple; girl is terrified of nightmares, girl ends up stuck with nightmare. It sounds tropey, and some of it is, but in City of Nightmares Schaeffer goes a lot deeper than tropes. The darker edge of this novel and how it relates to the human psyche captured my attention just as much as the world-building.

Ness’ anxiety was very well written, as were her thoughts about how it made her feel not to be able to fight it. Her frustration at struggling with her mental health, at responding to her triggers and finding herself in the same position over and over, were very familiar. As were the reactions to her fear from others who didn’t understand it and just expected her to get over it. Ness isn’t necessarily a good person, especially when her anxiety is in full swing, and I liked that Schaeffer showed that side of anxiety. Many people think that being anxious just means you’re going to run away and cry, but when an extremely anxious person’s safe place is at risk, they will do anything to keep it. Such as hurting someone’s foot so that they can steal their job.

I’ve seen some criticism about Ness’ personality and about some of the dialogue between Cy and Ness sounding forced, and honestly, it didn’t feel forced to me. Ness isn’t a heroine, she’s not your normal protagonist. She’s odd, she’s not quite sure where she fits in the world, and she is extremely socially awkward. She literally has one friend, and a handful of people she interacts with regularly. Her world has been very small, and through meeting Cy it begins to open up.

The character development of Ness and all the characters throughout the book felt natural, and the book was well paced. City of Nightmares is not an easy read, and deals with a lot of dark topics, so please take the time to check the content warnings. It was one that I thoroughly enjoyed, and I’m looking forward to seeing where book two takes us.

𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬.
𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐠𝐨 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐞𝐩.

This book is so unique and atmospheric and I absolutely loved it!

The MC, Ness, is not the usual badass female lead. Actually, she is the complete opposite. But that makes her character ARC even more interesting as she gradually overcomes her fears. The absurd, creepy world created by Rebecca Schaeffer, where everyone can turn into their worst nightmare overnight (literally), is fantastic. But what I loved the most is the relationship between Ness and Cy as little by little the fear and distrust develop into the most heart-warming friendship.

Can’t wait to read the sequel!

Being a reader of horror for me fear in reading is the roller coaster and also a useful way to examine my reactions to certain topics and situations. Fear in reading is contained but fear outside of a safe place can be devastating - while a suitable response when facing danger but feeling it all the time isn’t likely to have the best response. Sadly while this is a great idea for a story I found in City of Nightmares by Rebecca Schaefer don’t really live up to the potential the story was offering.

Ness’ sister fell prone to the worst possible thing in their world. She missed one medication and then became a Nightmare in particular a giant spider that ate her father and caused a rampage. Ness has never felt safe since. She now works for the Friends of the Restful Soul (not a cult) who work focused on the Nightmare prone city of Newham is less important to Ness than offering a place to hide from any sign of danger. But her constant fears make her lose friends and her employer’s patience is wearing thin. A simple mail mission though send in an explosion at sea and Ness is rescued by Cy who appears to be a vampire (another dangerous strand of Nightmare). Ness finds herself having all her beliefs and fears challenged by Cy and a view as to exactly why her world is as dangerous and corrupt as it is felt to be.

For a YA fanatsy tale this story’s dark subject matter and exploring what is really PTSD looked a very promising idea. The start where we see a Nightmare transformation is indeed unsettling and having Ness the kind of character who runs at the first sign of danger is very much contrary to our usual hero. But then the tale rapidly lost me. The first person present tense tale I felt was a little clunky getting us to understand the world’s stranger rules. It quickly also turns into a more humdrum wider conspiracy (no surprise) and Ness’ weaknesses conveniently soon vanish - her acceptance of Cy isn’t that organic. It also has a lot of important messages just heavily handed passed to the reader in character conversations - for this type of YA I did not think it need to talk down to the reader.

Overall a disappointment and I can’t see me returning to the next instalment of this series. Sadly not recommended

**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**

Despite the promising initial concepts and the Gotham vibes of the setting I did not enjoy this one. I feel like this story had so much potential but for me the primary plotline just bored me to tears.

I think a lot of this comes down to the protagonist. Now there are times when books have leading protagonists who aren’t the “chosen one” or have anything special going on that have been written really well but I sadly didn’t find that to be the case here. Ness very much felt like a side character in her own story to me throughout the whole book, nothing about her journey ever stood out and just felt very minor in the whole scope of things and the plots that were occurring in the background.

I managed to push through because I wanted to see who was behind some of the more unknown elements of these plot points that were going on in the background as they just felt more interesting but the story never fully followed these other elements.

Ness’s perspective just felt very repetitive and it got tedious fast and I also found literally every supporting character to be more interesting than her. The relationships that formed between the characters were well written but I don’t think they were given enough room to grow.

So it’s safe to say I won’t be picking up the sequel.
Final Rating – 2.5/5 Stars

This was such a surprising read in so many ways. City of Nightmares is a thrilling and captivating story with a lot of twists and turns. While there's definitely some dark and gritty elements in this book, I didn't find it to be outright scary, nor do I think it was ment to be a horror story. Because the dark parts are combined with a lot of humour, although sometimes rather dark humour (which I enjoyed immensely!). I don't quite know how Rebecca Schaeffer did it but she managed to take a lot of more or less random, unique and outright strange ideas and combine them into a brilliant and captivating story starring a really ordinary and realistic girl as the main character.

Cannot wait to see what she will bring us in the future!

The thing is, this is a good book. The author really has a knack for writing horror—it’s great. However, the soap box was so high I was afraid Rebecca will fall and break her neck. There are very clear moments when the characters are nothing more than mouthpieces for the author—which is not inherently a bad thing. A lot of authors do that. But it was done without, how to say it, smoothness. Without grace or finesse. I could see the puppet strings. It’s a personal preference, but that made me enjoy the story less. Aside from that—I really loved Ness as a protagonist. We don’t have enough cowardly leading ladies in our stories. Kuddos for that.

P.S. The pterodactyl was criminally underused. I expect to see more of him in future instalments.


Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an e-ARC copy of this book, in exchange for this honest review.

Oh, man, I really wanted to love this book.

I'm a huge Rebecca fan ever since the Not Even Bones trilogy, and found the premise of this story absolutely insane and amazing. And it truly is! A world where people who dream risk becoming their worst nightmare, drugs that can't stop people from dreaming, illegal market of nightmares, cults created to prey on the vulnerable... And a main character that hates all of this and wants nothing to do with it.

Ness is so traumatized by her sister turning into a nightmare and murdering their father that she can't barely look at a nightmare. When she survives a boat explosion and a Nightmare boy saves her life, however, she starts her journey of overcoming this fear, while acknowledging that the humans in Newham can be much more dangerous than some Nightmares. I loved Ness' development, and her relationship with her best friend Priya and her new friend (and possible love interest) Cy. It's super fast paced; I was in a reading slump but still could finish it super quick. Also, even though it's a duology, I felt like this book could be read like a standalone. There were loose ends to cover in the next book, of course, but the main emotional journey of the MC was covered.

However, this book really lacks editing. It's first person POV, and Ness' inner speech gets very repetitive most of the times. We see the city and her interactions with other characters through her lens, and it heavely leans on her internal monologues instead of dialogues. Some scenes should've been developed more, or inverted, especially Ness and Cy's bonding scenes, which happened way too quickly for two people with trusting issues. I also disliked the whole "sexy vampire movies" speech – like, i understand the point was to make Ness really judgemental at first to later meet a vampire who challenges her prejudiced view, but the whole "sexy vampire movies are bad and enable abuse" was just... not it. And it's hammered on our faces at least 3 times, so it's hard to ignore that. And it's not just this book – YA literature nowadays is turning into a playbook of what people should or shouldn't do or like. You can add social criticism with subtlety, without making it feel like a guide. She did it well with Market of Monsters, so I really don't understand what happened here.

It was still a 3,5 stars for me, because the idea is just so wholesome and creative and I like the characters a lot. Newham also feels like Gotham, so the marketing is hitting it right! Definitely tuning it for the sequel; I hope her editing team wakes up for this next one.

City of Nightmares

Fall asleep and you may become your worst nightmare !

Ok this may be just one of my new favourite books ! I am obsessed and need the next book NOW !! I just loved the concept of this book thw world building was well done while still keeping the story faced paced. I literally could not stop reading. Would definitely recommend a great YA Dystopian.

Thank you to Netgalley, Hodder and Stoughton and Rebecca Schaeffer for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest Review

Great book, characters and plot. Keep you guessing throughout with a lot of twist and turns which kept you wanting to read more. Really enjoyed and will be reading more from the author!

An engaging read with an intriguing concept; City of Nightmares was a unique and exciting story!

Welcome to Newham, where your nightmares can become a reality… literally.
One hundred years ago, people’s nightmares started changing them - physically and mentally. Fall asleep without having taken dream-suppressing drugs and you risk becoming something else in your sleep. Not every dream is a nightmare, and not every nightmare is evil, but enough are.
Ness has been terrified ever since her sister turned into an enormous spider and ate her father when she was a teenager. Taken in by an aunt, Ness eventually winds up part of the Friends of the Restful Soul, who are definitely not a cult… probably… maybe.
Struggling with her phobia in a world where nightmares are a reality, Ness is desperately trying to prove she can be useful to the Friends and remain a part of the organisation when a series of events lead her to make discoveries about herself and her world that she never would have believed possible.

City of Nightmares was such a quick, fun read. Despite the horrors and nightmares described, the tone was humorous and relatable. Ness is terrified - so would most of us be in a city where the mayor has a pet pterodactyl who eats people that annoy her.

I adored the characters, flaws and all. Both main characters are so down on themselves because of their perceived weaknesses and situations, and I loved how they supported each other on their journeys of self love and acceptance.

The - magic system doesn’t quite seem the right term, but the dynamics of the nightmares - were fascinating. I haven’t come across a concept like this before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can absolutely see the Gotham comparisons.

Overall, I loved City of Nightmares and am excited to see that the sequel is out later this year! I will definitely be continuing the series.

I loved this book! The concept of people turning into their nightmares when they dream was so well done and the city of sin and destruction was captivating to read about. I love Ness as an MC - at first I wasn't that convinced by her as I tend to prefer slightly stronger characters, but her development throughout as she began to face her fears and uncovered the truth was beautifully written. I also love the friendship between her and Cy and how well that was built up. Needless to say I eagerly await book two!

In Newham, everyone who dreams while asleep turns into their worst nightmare. Just like Ness’s older sister, who transformed into a giant spider and devoured their father and some others before she was killed. Since then, Ness has lived in constant fear of Nightmares and turning into one of them. She found a safe haven within the questionable organisation called the Friends of the Restful Soul, but they have no patience left for her paranoia. She is sent on a relatively simple mission to prove her usefulness to the group. Suddenly, everything goes wrong, and she is forced to trust the most unthinkable ally...

City of Nightmares is a thrilling urban fantasy novel. It’s full of action, intrigue, secrets and fascinating characters. The world created by the author is original and surprising. While some dreamers turn into violent monsters, others remain valuable members of society, so the city is full of characters who are not entirely people. How to call those in the age of political correctness? Newham is an exciting place to read about, even as a very unpleasant place to live. Apart from the fact that anyone may turn into a Nightmare, the city is plagued with crime and corruption that no one is dealing with, as the officials are probably too busy planning the assassination of their opponents. On this captivating background, Rebecca Schaeffer builds a great story about a traumatised girl who finally has to face her debilitating fears. I loved every moment of it.

If you think dreaming about your worst nightmare is frightening enough, what about actually becoming it?

City of Nightmares is the place where this happens and to prevent it from happening, the people have to drink water laced with dream-prevention drugs or pop those pills directly into their mouths. Alcohol is also banned because it messes with the effectiveness of the drugs — but, of course, humans aren’t infallible. As such, new human-turned-nightmares do appear every so often and those with enough humanity in them are left to walk among the humans, creating a new world where vampires, anthropomorphic creatures, pterodactyls, dragons and such are the norm.

Our main character is Ness who, as a child, witnessed her sister turn into a giant spider that ate their father while she hid in a nearby cupboard. This, understandably, messes her up so much that she develops a phobia of nightmares. However, with nowhere to go, she ends up working for Friends of the Restful Soul, a society that helps others recover from nightmare trauma, and somehow, gets tangled in a series of events where she uncovers a web of lies and befriends the not-like-other-vampires cute guy called Cy.

What stood out most to me in City of Nightmares was the friendship, though there were aspects that could’ve been better done. For instance, the interactions were very hit-or-miss. Some dialogue felt really unnatural or stiff, and it didn’t help that the prose reads very young. A reviewer said it read like an early teenager’s fanfic published on Wattpad and I can’t help but to agree because that’s the most apt way to describe the writing.

Additionally, in comparison to the friendship Ness has with Cy, the one Ness has with Priya felt decorative after a few chapters. Don’t get me wrong, I like all three of these characters. It’s just that despite the strong intro Priya has, she later fades away to make room for Ness and Cy. On one hand, this makes sense as there are many different types of friendships, plus Priya can’t really just drop her whole life to play detective with Ness and Cy. But, on the other hand, I can’t help wishing they formed a balanced trio. Still, I did enjoy Ness’ growth as a character as her friendship with Cy progressed.

Other than that, the story was average. As incredible as the premise is, the execution of the story brought City of Nightmares down. Juvenile writing aside, the plot was too convenient and events happened as expected. Nothing phased or amazed me, though it was a fun junk food-like read.

First of all, I would like to say thank you for the review copy, which was provided to me by the publisher. This fact does not in any way affect my personal opinion of this book. This post contains advertising and the rights for the book belong to the publisher.

Of course, this is only my personal opinion of the book and just because I give this rating to the book doesn’t mean, that everyone will have that opinion.

When I first heard about „City of Nightmares“, I was instantly hooked. The main idea sounded interesting and gave me „Monsters of Verity“ Vibes, and I loved that duology, so I made sure that I picked it up.
My vibe prediction was, in fact, correct, and I enjoyed my reading time. The book had way more horror and brutal elements than I expected for a YA fantasy book. I don’t read horror or thriller novels, so maybe I’m just not used to it.
The world-building was solid for a first book, so I had a good grasp of the system. The main character was also interesting and different from the average fantasy MCs. I liked how she handled her fears and how much progress she had throughout the book.
The main problem I had with the book was the suspense pacing. There wasn’t a climax at the end, but rather more different little ones during the book, so the big plot twist at the end felt a bit flat for me.
I will read the second book in the duology, but I can safely say, that there is no cliffhanger for you to worry about, and you can think of it as a standalone with a bit of an open ending.
Rebecca Schaeffer was a new author for me, and I will look into their other books for sure. I like the darker vibe that I experienced in City of Nightmares.
Overall this was a solid read for me. I enjoyed reading it, but it was still lacking a bit.

Conclusion
A nice fantasy book for a good reading time!

My rating: 3,5 Stars

This book is fantastic, I think it’s one of the most interesting books I have read in a long time. The unique world-building of how nightmares come to exist is just so fascinating, the writing and characters are perfect. its an addictive read full of twists and turns and I can't wait to read the sequel but sad it’s not here in my hands now


I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

The storyline peaked my interest, so I thought I'd give it a go.

It's very YA, but still interesting and enjoyable! I'd say definitely read this if you want something a little bit different.

I'm looking forward to my Fairyloot edition.

While the concept of this book was really interesting I felt like it didn’t quite hit the mark of what I was expecting.
A lot of the writing and especially dialogue fell on the younger end for me as the reader is being told what characters are feeling rather than shown.

Besides that however, this was a really fun read. I’d personally like to see Cy and Ness continue as a friendship only as we normally get romance subplots and seeing a strong friendship would be a great change.
This book heavily reminds me of This Savage Song by VE Schwab.

The City of Nightmares is a fun, spooky read that is set in a Gotham-like city where you nightmare can literally transform you. I really enjoye the themes of friendship and found family, as well as the growth of our main character Ness.

Ness is a self-proclaimed coward whose greatest fear is nightmares - a slight inconvenience when she lives in a world full of nightmares made flesh.

The friendships between Ness and Priya and Ness and Cy are both so lovely, real and relatable! I really hope we get a sequel to this one.

i like the premise of this book its a interesting idea sounds like it could be scary which i enjoy sometimes but i wasnt completely convinced by the execution of it in this book i felt it lacked the depth and darkness that couldve gone into it and the characters motivations seem contradictory although enjoyed some scenes the emotional parts of the plots seem mostly to happen off screen so it keeps away from feeling strongly about it it reminded a bit of unraveller but has less of darkness that that book showed

Actual rating: 3.5

This was a really fun read!

I loved the setting of Newham, a completely chaotic city where basically everyone was either evil or at the very least somewhat morally dubious. The idea of 'Nightmares' and people in this world turning into their worst fear was also an interesting concept.

The author's note was also very sweet, and I am so glad that she got given a second chance in publishing to write this book, because it was really enjoyable; and I will definitely be picking up the sequel.

However, some of the writing was a bit weak, as was some of the character development. To be honest, from a technical/writing point of view, I'm not sure this is really a 4 star read, but I'm giving it 4 stars anyways because I loved the craziness of Newham and the constantly twisting plot (even though a lot of the twists weren't very surprising).

So overall if you're looking for a quick, entertaining read, and you don't have a problem with body horror or violence, then this is the book for you!