Um. Ok. This was a bit like a roller coaster ride where the car you're riding in falls off the track on the last loop. I enjoyed the experience, but I may have to read a book with a happy ending next to balance out this one. I liked how this story incorporates cell phones, the internet, and other modern technology into a rather creepy near-future dystopia that leaves very few happy endings as even possible. I'm curious to see what happens in the next book, for sure. ( )

The Vault of Dreamers disappointed me a little. I was expecting a lot more out of it, but the plot seemed kind of lacking to me. Nothing interesting really happened and so much of it was focused on reality television aspect and overshadowed the science fiction a bit. I'm not sure how I feel about the main character, Rosie, but Linus definitely had me intrigued. The ending was also strange and left me really confused. While The Vault of Dreamers wasn't exactly what I was expecting, I did fairly enjoy it, but not as much as I was hoping to. ( )

"The Forge School is the most prestigious arts school in the country. The secret to its success: every moment of the students' lives is televised as part of the insanely popular Forge Show, and the students' schedule includes twelve hours of induced sleep meant to enhance creativity."

Reality TV in a dystopian world, with something sinister going on during the 12 hours the students are out cold? Yes, please! Rosie Sinclair is a first year student who decides to skip her sleeping pill and go exploring after dark because she just needs a little "me" time, where the cameras aren't watching her every move. She gets embroiled in a mystery that she definitely wasn't expecting.

What a great premise! I loved the characters, or at least the kids, but enjoyed the sinister ones, as well. The story was interesting enough to keep me engrossed, and the ending set up the next book perfectly. The pacing was quick, which made this a quick, enjoyable read.

In summary, I enjoyed this dystopian YA story very much and look forward to reading the next book in the series to find out where it goes from here.

5/5 stars. ( )

I liked this book. I have had this book on my tbr for years but never got around to reading it for one reason or another. I happened to notice that the audiobook was available to borrow from my library and I decided to jump in. I actually really enjoyed the book a lot until the story drew to a close. This is the first book in a trilogy but I felt like this book’s ending was more of a setup for the next installment in the series than anything else. I found this to be a quick read that was rather entertaining.

Rosie is a student at Forge School of the Arts. The prestigious school films every aspect of the students’ lives to be televised. To stay at the school you have to achieve a certain ranking and the pressure to rank higher never ends. While at the school, students are filmed for 12 hours daily and then are induced to sleep for the remaining 12 hours of the day. Rosie is suspicious of what really happens during the students’ drugged sleep and starts taking steps to find out what is really going on.

I liked the characters in this book and I was really curious about what was really happening at the school. I wanted Rosie to be successful in her quest to find the truth. It was interesting to see how the students’ dealt with being on camera at all times. The more I learned the more I wanted to know.

Emily Woo Zeller did an amazing job with the narration. I honestly doubt that I would have enjoyed the book as much as I did if I had not decided to grab the audiobook. I thought that her narration added a lot of excitement and emotion to the story and I really enjoyed the character voices that she used.

I think that a lot of readers might like this one more than I did. I found the ending to be rather weak and felt like the book fizzled out more than anything. I am sure that a lot of the questions that I still have would probably be addressed in the next two books in the trilogy but I am unsure if I will ever pick those up.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group and borrowed a copy of the audiobook from my local library. ( )

I missed night.