Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Teeth, Richard Roberts

Genre: Fantasy, Horror

Rating: 4.5 Stars

In the world of dreams, there are two sides: the side where the happy dreams are made and then there is the side where the nightmares are made.  Fang is a nightmare.  He is the large, scary thing that's right behind you, jaws snapping at your heels, just a second away from catching you.  It's not that he's mean or evil or anything, he just really likes chasing, and since he's a nightmare, he's able to.  Fang's best friend is an amazing nightmare, probably the best there is, but he has high aspirations, and they are dangerous.  And they are going to get everyone into trouble.

This is such an interesting take on dreams and nightmares.  Fang is a likeable nightmare.  He knows he's not going to catch you, but he wants to scare you while he's chasing you, just like someone who is waiting behind a corner to jump out at you means no harm.  He enjoys that thrill and he tries to make his nightmares as beautiful as they can be.  His friends are varied and unusual.  There's his muse/girlfriend. She lives in a house (you know the house, where every hallway is never ending and any door you open is never the one that lets you out?) in the nightmare world and she cries constantly.  Fang talks to her, but she never hears him, never stops crying.  But he's in love with her.  Then there's the others: Anna, the girl who wandered into the nightmares from a dream and stayed and her evil counterpart, Lucy; the fallen angel, Lily; the fish shaped dream turned nightmare, Coy; the demiUrge Self Loathing (or sometimes Masochism).  And then there's his best friend, Jeffrey.  Jeffrey is so interesting.  He's so focused on achieving his goal that he's willing to use Fang.  He doesn't care about the wrath that his goal will bring down on them, he only wants to do it.

I really enjoyed the book.  It was odd but sweet.  Who would think that nightmares were sweet, yet Richards has humanized them so they aren't the unidentifiable evil thing lurking behind you.  He's given them fallacies and insecurities and consciences (though not about scaring you). Richards created a whole other world, very detailed, that is fascinating as it is scary.  I don't know if there will be a second book after this, but the epilogue left me to think that there would be.  I hope so - I'm dying to find out how things end up with Jeffrey!

Also, totally unrelated to the book, but does anyone else have the Eurythmics stuck in their heads? Well, if you didn't before, you do now!