Official Review: The Last of the Dream Warriors

[Sarah Schmidt]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Last of the Dream Warriors" by Natalie Armentani.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Last of the Dream Warriors: Two Worlds is a fantasy fiction novel written by Natalie Armentani. The first instalment in The Last of the Dream Warriors series, it gives interested readers a brand-new world, or two, to immerse themselves in.

Nadine Ruth has a lot on her plate. When awake, she contends with a neglectful mother, an absentee brother, and an abusive stepfather. Being unconscious is no better, as her dreams are filled with a kaleidoscopic puzzle that leaves her restless and confused. Natalie’s life takes an abrupt turn when her grandfather passes. With his death, a world-changing secret is revealed, somehow related to the strangeness of her dreamscape. A mysterious stranger suddenly appears in her dreams, offering guidance and a way to control her new powers, though Natalie becomes wary when his help turns dark. She later finds herself among a lost family, remnants of a past that eludes her, along with a steadily growing power seething inside her. Her power comes with responsibilities, however, those she’s not sure she can, or even wants to, handle.

I liked how Armentani created the two worlds for Nadine to navigate. More specifically, Nadine had to balance her life in the Real – the normal, human world – with the one she visited in her dreams – the Realm. She still had to keep up with her life in the waking world, all the while coming to grips with and getting used to another when her physical body was unconscious. Some of the elements tied into this were a tad farfetched, but I liked how the overall constant switches were done.

I did not wish to pigeonhole the characters in this novel or to write the plot off as just another cliché, though I had a hard time of it. Nadine, the female protagonist, checked all the criteria for the simultaneously whiny and overpowered damsel that seeks out distress. This is not to say that she was at fault for the things done to her. It has more to do with how hapless and perpetually victimized she was, and I began to dislike her on principle.

How events are sequenced in this story did not follow a logical direction. In the most obvious case, Nadine suffers abuse at the hands of her stepfather. When her relatives bear witness to hints of this, they oddly vacillate between treating it like something they find atrocious and an occurrence they are well okay with. To a lesser extent, I would have also liked to see how Nadine reconnected or tried to forge a relationship with her daughter in the Realm. Without delving into spoilers, she, apart from finding the fact that she has a daughter slightly strange, goes on to form connections with virtually every other central character in the Realm save her daughter.

The Last of the Dream Warriors: Two Worlds was riddled with errors. They were present in every form, and they were present a lot. From this, I gathered that the novel was not professionally edited. There was a degree of sensitive content that readers should be made aware of, most notably several instances of attempted and actual rape, abuse, and other forms of violence.

I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. The unengaging writing style, number of grammatical and spelling mistakes, and illogical plot all contribute to the deduction of two stars. With these factors in mind, I recommend this book to readers who enjoy low fantasy fiction with dramatic and romantic elements. If these readers can also tolerate triggering content, then this book would be a suitable read. I do not believe that people who enjoy well-constructed fantasy that is virtually free of errors, has decent to great worldbuilding, and or follows an imaginative plot would find this book entertaining.

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The Last of the Dream Warriors
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