Vault of Dreamers

The Vault of Dreamers always kind of intrigued me with that cover but I've only now gotten around to reading it. The premise was one that I rather liked, as well. A girl named Rosie Sinclair attends a school where their waking hours are broadcast for a type of reality show, where fans determine the students' popularity rank by who they choose to follow. The school is geared towards artistic kids, to the point where they actually give students sleeping pills at night to make sure they sleep so many hours- ostensibly to nurture their creativity. Or something like that. Okay, it sounds a little sketchy, maybe, but a school where they make you sleep at night- because that isn't ominous, right?- definitely appealed. 

Rosie of course doesn't sleep, or at least not always- sometimes she fakes taking her pill and wanders around, so she can think or just because she wants to be up at night (she is a teen). And by doing so she observes some suspicious behavior, naturally. It appears that some students are being taken away at night, for unknown purposes, and as she investigates she soon finds that the school has a secret. Not only that, but she is the one of the students who is apparently being experimented on, as she discovers IV marks on her arm and notices her sleeping pod has been disturbed. Complicating matters is the fact that she's on camera at all times, except late at night when they're supposed to be sleeping. So in true YA fashion Rosie takes it upon herself to uncover the truth. 

In spite of some realism issues I liked this. The premise is fairly interesting, although the reality show angle I could have done without- I think the story would have worked without it. But it does add an interesting wrinkle. Rosie is pretty well developed, she comes from a poor background so the school is kind of her only way to advance, which partly explains why she stays when things look iffy. Even so her motivations, while laudable, seemed a little unrealistic towards the end, when things get intense. And her friends Janice and Paige could have used a little more development. 

The other issue I had is that this was clearly setting up a sequel, and has a pretty big cliffhanger. I would have liked a little more closure. I'm intrigued enough to continue though, and I think the plot itself is actually pretty unique. As you can imagine from the title, dreams play a big role in the story, and I thought some of the reveals were pretty well done. And in spite of my issues I enjoyed this book a lot, it was definitely a page turner. There was some nice suspense, and I'll be jumping right into the next book.