I'm absolutely delighted to be the last stop on the blog tour for this powerful, evocative and harrowing novel, Dreamtime by Venetia Welby. This read was challenging but very rewarding.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
There is so much in this novel, which packs an incredible punch for something that is 250 pages long. The writing is dreamy and haunting, mixing drugs, cults, folklore, sexual assault, and a strange love story into this extraordinary novel about our not-so-distant future, when climate change has irreparably wrecked the human way of life on Earth.
Told from two perspectives, Sol and Kit, who grew up together in a desert cult and have supported each other through thick and thin, we travel with them to the island of Okinawa in Japan, just as climate directives are ceasing commercial air travel for good. Sol is in search of her long lost father, hanging onto the thread of hope that he might be her personal salvation; Kit is following her, to protect her, hanging onto his own thread that Sol might want to be more than simply friends or pseudo siblings.
This story is dark; there should be multiple trigger warnings for drug use, sexual assault and murder. It is not an easy read, either from the writing or a story perspective. The writing is complex, vivid and evocative; the story is harrowing and urgent. The characters are flawed, intentions are skewed, and motives are hidden. The story is claustrophobic in it's telling, as much as the theme itself is broad and far reaching. The inclusion of Okinawan and Japanese folklore lends it, at times, a magical realism air, but we are never far from the grim realities of war, occupation and immediate, impending disaster.
Dreamtime has some very urgent things to say about where we are headed in the future, but also where we stand at this moment. It is a harsh testament to the nature of political and military power, and the suppression of natives in occupied lands; it is a dangerous prediction of what may happen to the Earth, and the human race, if we do not act now on climate issues.
I would recommend this for anyone who is interested in literary fiction, who is open to a read that will grab them and not let go. I continued to think about Dreamtime long after I finished it, and the imagery will continue to haunt me.
Thank you to Salt Publishing to including me in this blog tour. Find out more about Dreamtime from the publishers here.
Dreamtime is also available to buy now from BookshopOrg, Amazon or Waterstones.