Dream State is a generational story that starts with Cece, Charlie and Garrett. Cece is in love with Charlie and is getting married to him in Salish, Montana. Charlie is a cardiac anaesthesiologist with a bright future. Charlie asks his best friend from college, Garrett to officiate the ceremony but Garrett is the opposite of Charlie: depressed and he has a bleak future. Cece ends up spending time with Garrett and makes an impulsive decision that will impact the future forever.

This was so good. This book is written beautifully and I had such a good time reading this. It’s quite a slow read but I enjoyed every second. It’s a story about life, a lot of this is quite mundane but the characters feel so honest and realistic. The question of happiness comes up quite a bit in this book and I loved the way this author presented choices. In this story, Cece doesn’t really know what happiness is but I think that perfectly sums life up. It’s also a story of what if’s and how one choice can change a whole life.

I’m not sure what I make of this novel overall as I definitely enjoyed some parts but others really dragged and rambled.
The first third deals with CeCe, about to marry Charlie In his childhood family home in Montana. CeCe is there early, dealing with all the preparations and meets Garrett, Charlie’s best friend from university and who is due to be their best man. Garrett works in a menial job in an airport having dropped out of college after the death of his and Charlie’s closest friend. On the face of it CeCe and Garrett will not only have nothing in common but will they even get on at all?
The following two thirds of the novel takes us up to 40 years down the line, through marriage , children, divorce…. All of life’s tribulations through the eyes of the original core trio of CeCe , Charlie and Garrett and then also through the eyes of their children.
It list direction for me at numerous points and I just don’t know that I ever got back on track.

Dream State by Eric Puchner

Cece is in Montana to marry her fiance, Charlie at his family's vacation home on the lake. But when his best friend Garrett shows her around and takes her on a hike, the course of all of their lives is changed forever. An epic novel which spans their entire lifetime, from the early 2000s to half a century later.

Wow, what an amazing book this is! So much packed into it and yet it never felt unwieldy - I was drawn in and couldn't put it down at all. The writing is beautiful and carries so much meaning... relationships, friendships, family, health, climate change... it's all here. A fantastic achievement of a novel and very VERY highly recommended.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

I did really enjoy 'Dream State' in many ways - but it is, in my opinion, overly long.

Here we have the story of Cece, an excited bride-to-be about to marry Charlie in his home state of Montana. She obsesses about the big day - she wants it all to be perfect. As she is preparing for the celebration, Charlie's best friend from university, Garrett, turns up to show her the ropes in the area. From that moment on, they fall in love - and this marks a significant series of events in the story.

'Dream State' covers a lot of ground, from Cece's life in her 20s through to old age and illness. Even though it is epic in proportion, I do feel that too many assumptions are made, such as how readers are suddenly immersed in characters' lives much later on without really knowing 'how' they got there. Furthermore, the narrative shifts backwards and forwards - such as when it shows how Cece is suffering from dementia (the narrative, at this point, is a little confusing - perhaps it is meant to be, given what happens, but it also doesn't feel particularly plausible, at least not consistently so.) The plot goes back to an earlier time towards the end of the novel and, again, I am not sure why Puchner does this.

I really liked the novel but I think it tries a little too hard. It is beautifully written and deals with many complex issues, so overall I would recommend it.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Eric Puchner’s Dream State is a doorstopper which takes its readers from wedding preparations in the late twentieth century through to the mid-twenty-first before coming full circle with the wedding itself. Cece has come to the Montana summer house she’s come to love since being embraced by Charlie’s family while he remains in L A. His old college roommate is to officiate at their wedding, not Cece’s choice, nor Garrett’s but Charlie is his best friend. When Garrett invites her for a hike, Cece accepts despite her antipathy towards this taciturn man so different from her fiancé. Over next few weeks, Cece tries to quash doubts about her future while Garrett attempts to stamp out his feelings for her..
When the novel opens, Charlie, Cece and Garrett are in their late twenties. Charlie forges ahead in his career as an anaesthesiologist but while Cece and Garrett have embarked on adult life, they’re not entirely tethered to it. Puchner charts a path for these three that leads through marriage, parenthood, tragedy and ageing over a half-century which sees the climate crisis worsening, always with the friendship between Charlie and Garrett at its foundation, holding firm despite the challenges thrown at it. Puchner knows how to spin an engrossing story, lightening it now and again with a dash of humour, and his characters are well drawn. Given the Midsummer Night’s Dream epigraph and the novel’s title, I wasn’t entirely sure how he meant it to be interpreted but that didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment.

I love this book and it will remain in my memory for a long time. It tells the story of a group of friends through two generations starting with the parents and continuing on with their children in the second half of the book . The families all holiday in a holiday house by the side of a lake in Montana and this house plays a very large part in the novel where the parents meet nearly married and where their children come to spend time holidaying

Early sections of the book are sat in the early 2000s before mobile phones were thing to read your emails wherever you are one of the characters has to go and look for a computer to do this seems immediately archaic that wasn’t that long ago
The ski accident section made me feel nauseous with anxiety and fear
The order I get the more I find stories where the characters age throughout the novel moving and I definitely found this book deeply moving.
The description of the wildfires becoming part of summer life seemed almost apocalyptic but I suppose is a real part of life in the climate warmed world . It took me awhile to realise that this part was probably set in future when climate changes even worse. It is now. It was quite horrifying to read very sad

They also has a beautiful lyrical lyrical pro style which is at the same time highly visual and poetic . There were several sentences that I particularly enjoy I for example,” the mysterious goodwill lights on people who’ve spent countless hours together in various rooms and cars and ski lodges laughing like idiots “ this really described perfectly how I feel about my university friends now I’m in my late 50s
I also loved
“A person afraid of cold water is a bystander of life “ having taken up Cold War to swimming at this even more

What an epic novel this is it will stay with me for a long time
I would recommend this novel for readers who enjoy primarily carrot paste novels watching families through time if you like us by David Nichols or a little life by Hanya Yanagihara, then you may well enjoy this book as much as I did
I read an only copy of the novel on NetGalley UK in return for a review
The Book is published in the UK on the 18th of February 2025 by Hodder and Stoughton
This review will appear on NetGalley UK, StoryGraph, Goodreads and my book blog bionicsarahsbooks. wordpress.com. After publication it will also appear on Amazon UK.

Dream State by Eric Puchner through the three main characters explores relationships in a love triangle, friendship, parenthood, and climate change.