The Dreaming is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Queenie Chan, published by Tokyopop. It is a self-contained story and completed in 3 volumes.
As other readers have noted, this manga is not typical. First of all it is set in Australia and secondly, it is written by a Chinese-Australian author. The Dreaming can be best described as horror. Twin sisters, Amber and Jeannie are moving from Sydney to the Australian bushland to attend a private boarding school that might be haunted.
The Greenwich Private College is a prestigious school and an old one. The institution is also burdened with a troublesome history. The school is rumored to have had several girls disappear without a trace. As for the staff, the vice-principal has a twin phobia and the girls’ aunt, Jessica Malkin, is head mistress there but just as the girls are arriving, she is leaving for 3 months to take care of family commitments.
Amber is the most reserved and superstitious. She finds the school odd and sinister. The rumors about the missing girls doesn’t make her feel any better either. On the other hand, her twin sister, Jeannie is excited about attending the school and is more of the extrovert. The girls quickly assimilate into their new school and try to stay focused while batting down these distractions.
Soon after the girls settle in, though, they both begin to have strange dreams where they are dressed up in Victorian gowns and are standing in the middle of the bushland being encircled by strange women dressed up as well in the Victorian style. The girls soon realize that the paintings around the school are eerily similar to their dreams and that the unknown artist was once a student there.
The plot thickens further when another girl goes missing. A search party is sent out a few weeks later after the twins and a group of girls throw a party and hold a séance to summon the ghosts of the girls who went missing at the college.
A good horror story is one that evokes your imagination and makes it go into overdrive. The author did a good job at the subterfuge in building up the intensity and suspense. A lot of the scary stuff involves what you don’t see. I had started reading this GN at night and decided it would be best to complete in the morning. Ok, it wasn’t _that_ bad but I didn’t want to go there at 11 pm.
The Dreaming is not gory or violent. It’s a ghost story, if you will. My review is just for the first volume as I can’t seem to get my hands on the other two volumes. As a first impression of sorts, this promises to be a good story with characters that thus far are well written. If you enjoy gothic stories then this GN is one that you should put on your list to try.
The Sony ebook store had this title but not the other two which was disappointing. Reading this GN on my reader was fun but not perfect. I had to adjust the font to “large” in order to read the dialogue, however, I wish I could have adjusted the font some more for a better reading experience.
The graphics are nicely done. There were a few instances where I couldn’t make out a word or two of dialogue but overall this was a positive experience. The Dreaming vol.1 doesn’t seem to be available in paperback at Amazon but the other two are still available for purchase. Weird. However it is available as a Sony ebook and I’d say this series is worth a look. My grade, B. Off to order.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
well i realy realy love this book because it i just like a mystery well it is so i was surprised at the end but.…once i got to the end i was sad because millie died and it was also geting good [i love your books i still need to read book 2 and ] and i also dont like to read but know i love this book
=)
i have read the book; awsome i couldnt put it down and i am not a reader
Boarding school makes students extroverts in nature. One must attend a boarding school in his life for atleast 2 years. It makes you free and see world from totally new angle. http://www.boardingschools.in
Sounds interesting. I have never heard of this before. I will have to keep it in mind.