The Dream Where Losers Go - Softcover

Goobie, Beth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1551434555 ISBN 13: 9781551434551

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers, 2006

Synopsis

No one knows why she hurt herself, least of all Skey. After five long months in treatment for self-destructive behavior, Skey continues to dream of dark tunnels with mysterious designs carved into their stone walls, a place where she is safe and alone. Then she encounters another dreamer, a boy her own age, dreaming the same dream, wandering the same tunnels. A boy with secrets much like her own.

While trying desperately to remember what happened that sent her away and who the boy is that she met in the dream tunnels, Skey's life plummets farther out of control. When she realizes her friends do not have her best interests at heart and they may be the reason she is lost, Skey must face her fears and the truth of the dream tunnels, and find her way back to solid reality.

About this title

About the Author

Beth Goobie grew up in a family in which the appearance of a normal childhood hid many secrets. She moved away to attend university, became a youth residential treatment worker and studied creative writing at the University of Alberta. She is the award-winning author of over twenty novels, including The Pain Eater, The Lottery, the CLA Award-winning Before Wings, and the adult novel The First Principles of Dreaming. Beth makes her home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

From the Back Cover

Suicide, dreaming, gangs

Reviews

Grade 7 Up–A richly layered novel that contains elements of both fantasy and hard-edge realism. At night, 16-year-old Skey dreams of dark tunnels. During the day, she is usually aware of her surroundings, a facility for troubled teens where she has lived since a suicide attempt. But even awake, she can slip into the comforting tunnels that keep her mind safe and where she encounters a wandering boy much like herself. Because her recovery seems to be going so well, Skey begins to attend school during the day. There she hesitantly rejoins her gang of old friends, led by her boyfriend, Jigger. The teens are alluring and dangerous and seem to hold the key to the trauma that pushed Skey over the edge. The deep bonding of a first sexual relationship is exquisitely portrayed, even as Jigger's controlling behavior escalates toward violence. Readers will be held breathless as Skey begins to discover the truth about the gang and its terrible hold over her. Her journey is partly in the real world and partly through the tunnels, the dreams where losers go to find what they have lost. Through her growing friendship with the wandering boy, and the damaged classmate he so closely resembles, Skey ultimately summons the courage to save herself and her new friend. This portrayal of the inner lives of trauma survivors is accurate, respectful, and hopeful. A wise and compelling book that addresses the traumas of sexual assault and emotional betrayal.–Carolyn Lehman, Humboldt State University, Arcata, CA
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

She began dreaming about him in the dark dream, the one with the endless tunnels, stone walls that slid by cold under her fingertips, invisible because it was too dark to see. Hand outstretched, she would move forward, never knowing if she was progressing toward an exit or if at some point she had turned around and begun moving back toward the place she had come from, a place she could not remember.

Edition details

• Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1551434555
• ISBN 13: 9781551434551
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208