This is a truly remarkable book.

I’ve found Olivie Blake to be a bit ‘hit or miss’ for me in the past, but that’s usually due to the subject-matter of her work rather than her writing. Fortunately Dreamland shows her literary skills in full force and the topic engaged me so much that I finished it in a matter of days!

A love letter to Los Angeles? Yes. A cynical tale of an aspiring actress? Also yes. Monsters who take exploitation to a level that ‘Me Too’ would have nightmares about? Absolutely.

Girls are being killed across LA (apparently in line with the weather), but Anya Morris is just looking for her big break. Living with her family, partying with her friends and attending auditions for commercials, when the chance comes for her to meet some real movie stars and make those gold-dust connections, she leaps at it.

Before the evening is out, she finds herself the ‘guardian’ of Jude, the apparently ill son of Hollywood royalty, who has serious issues with an inner demon. Red flags are out in force, but how can she run when this might make her career?

This is the tale of a young woman finding herself in the city of dreams, and it does not go in any direction you can anticipate. Riding the line between healthy aspirations and bleak futures, Anya is pleasingly complex, being both astute and – as she’s repeatedly told – stupid, due to having a very confused idea about what living life actually means.

I appreciated her narration very much, as it gives dimension to the story for us as the reader/audience, with Anya as the main character (and script-writer). She ‘casts’ herself as necessary each day depending on what’s required, but beneath all of that is still a mystery for most of the book. As she finally comes to the realization of who she is and how she may actually be strong enough to do what’s necessary in both the real world and her ‘story’, I found myself both disliking and admiring her simultaneously. This speaks to the quality of the writing 100%.

I think my only quibble with the book is how many LA/America-specific references are used that I just didn’t get, which took me out of the story slightly as even in context they could be confusing. I had to pause for a quick Google from time to time, but as the story flowed forward this became less of an issue – perhaps because Anya herself has to part with her phone, so has to face what’s in front of her rather than what’s happening socially!

Reminding me simultaneously of the light-hearted madness of ‘LA Story’ and the depths of ‘Mulholland Drive’ or Coldheart Canyon, Dreamland carves its own furrow in LA Literature, managing to be unique in a world full of remakes and IPs. A monstrous pleasure.

Dreamland is due for publication on 13th August 2026 from Tor – you can pre-order your copy on Bookshop.org