Delve into a world where imaginary friends are real, dreams can be eaten like nectar, the monsters of legends are real and magic is a tangible thing that is hiding behind every tree. It’s a dark, seductive world, one that crawls into your blood and never lets you go. This world is the newest creation by the incredibly talented Merrie Destefano in her novel Feast: Harvest of Dreams.
Halloween is a bad time to return to the woods . . .
Madeline MacFaddin (“Mad Mac” to fans of her bestselling magical stories) spent blissful childhood summers in Ticonderoga Falls. And this is where she wants to be now that her adult life is falling apart. The dense surrounding forest holds many memories, some joyous, some tantalizingly only half-remembered. And she’s always believed there was something living in these wooded hills.
But Maddie doesn’t remember the dark parts—and knows nothing of the mountain legend that holds the area’s terrified residents captive. She has no recollection of Ash, the strange and magnificent creature who once saved her life as a child, even though it is the destiny of his kind to prey upon humanity. And soon it will be the harvest . . . the time to feast.
Once again Maddie’s dreams—and her soul—are in grave danger. But magic runs deep during harvest. Even a spinner of enchanted tales has wondrous powers of her own . . .
Set in a different world, Feast is nothing at all like Destefano’s debut novel Afterlife (my review here), and yet, I can see so many parallel themes between each of the novels. While Afterlife dealt mainly with facing what comes after death, Feast deals with how dreams are the essence of life, both literally and figuratively. These vampire-esque creatures, called Darklings, can only eat human dreams. Dreams are our driving life force and without them, we die. Darklings do abide by a set of rigid rule that only allow them to eat only a couple of dreams from a person at a time. That loss leaves humans weakened, but still alive. But then, there are always those that believe that rules were made to be broken.
Feast is told from the point of view from a multitude of characters, humans and Darklings alike. Each character has a different take on the occurrences that are happening. Because of that readers get to see the whole story and can really connect with each character. The continual changing of the POV never slowed down the fast-paced, emotionally intense novel. If anything, it’ll keep readers on edge because they’ll be desperate to get back to their favorite POV.
I know I’ve said this before but I have to say again that Merrie Destefano is one amazingly talented author. Her stories always captivate readers and leaves them thinking long after the last page. I cannot wait to see what she comes out with next!
