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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
EAN num: 9780142302187
ISBN number: 014230218X
Label: Puffin
Manufacturer: Puffin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 160
Printing Date: September 16, 2002
Publishing house: Puffin
Age index: Young Adult
Sale Popularity Level: 107611
Studio: Puffin
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Product Description:
A young woman locked in rage yet seeking magic, Ash is drawn into a wondrous Otherworld of totems and dryads, living tarots and mystic charms. At the same time, Ash's cousin Nina is stalked by an Otherworld demon-a manitou who can force her mind and soul into the bodies of beasts. Ash must find the strength to overcome her own anger, learn the full power of magic, and save Nina before she becomes the manitou's weapon, turning the faerie realm into an arctic wasteland. De Lint fans will relish this urban and otherworldly fantasy, partially set in the author's trademark Newford.
'One of the most original fantasy writers currently working.' (Booklist)
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Rated by buyers 
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Author, Charles De Lint says, "I was a little nervous when I started my very first book written specifically for a teen audience, not being sure how to approach the actual writing. Do I make the language simpler? Do I tone down the intensity of the story?"
What he actually did was write a rather static story where the characters are very much into navel-gazing and long, dull speeches.
For instance, as the bad guy has his knife poised, ready to skewer one of the heroines, he says: "There is a spirit living in that tower; her name is Ya-wau-tse. She once lived free as the Manitou always have, but then she tasted worship and stepped from the turning of her Wheel. The worship sustained her, raised this tower for her, changed her perceptions of her place in the natural order of the world"...blah, blah, blah.
The really strange thing about this speech is that the reader already learned these details earlier in the book.
The heroines are also a bit too passive and introspective for my taste. I guess I'm used to the British 'get on with it' spirit in children's books. The Boxcar Children make a home for themselves in an abandoned railcar. Harry Potter wins the Triwizard Tournament. Lassie comes home. That sort of thing.
The supernatural themes in this book are handled with De Lint's usual deftness. I particularly like the tarot reading scene where Ashley begins to discover a purpose to her life, and the scene where Nina discovers her true totem.
The primeval forests of Otherworld, peopled with Manitou and other strange spirits are standard De Lint, but always worth a visit.
Rated by buyers 
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Normally, reading a Charles de Lint novel pulls you into an entirely new world, showing vivid landscapes (and dreamscapes), fascinating characters and twisting and twining plots. "The Dreaming Place" is like a junior Charles de Lint novel, just a peek into what he tends to give a reader. For a very first timer, don't judge this as his best work. It's not. But it is a sweet story. It does lay the morality on a bit thickly, but for a young adult, it's a great little book. I enjoyed this short visit into the typical de Lint landscape. Don't take it too seriously, sit back, and enjoy it.
Rated by buyers -
The Dreaming Place is a YA urban fantasy novel about two cousins, sixteen year old girls, who get tangled up in a magical tug-of-war with a Native American spirit of winter. The story is a sweet one, but I felt just a little too heavy-handed with the moral. It did touch me in some spots, but in others I felt it was being too obvious.
The main characters, Nina and Ash, are so typical they verge on being stereotypes. The book ends up being Caitlin's Way crossed with Sabrina the Teenaged Witch...
I ended up liking Ash more than Nina mainly because I could identify with her pain (she lost her mother). And because, despite her predictability, she showed more personality than her cousin. I kept being annoyed by the book because Nina was acting rather vapid and whiny through most of it, and I could feel the author's preference for her on every page.
De Lint, I think, thought more people (or kids) would identify with Nina, who is smart and thinks math is interesting and worries about boys and complexions and reads Sassy magazine. Ash is the bad one--the girl who skips class and doesn't care about things, and walls off her emotions, and can't deal with the world. But Ash, who often sits in the park and has actual conversations with homeless people (oh my!) is a far more complex character in my view. She has bravery and skill as well as brains. This all comes into play when the conflict rears its ugly head, but the end message seems to be "Only when Ash learns that it's better to be more like her cousin than like herself can she save the day and be happy." I'm not down with that.
The idea for this book is a good one. But I think length worked against de Lint in that some areas of the otherworld and Nina's personal power (not to mention Ash's) and what forces led to this confrontation were not as fleshed out as they could have been. This felt like it should have been a longer book but just... wasn't.
The secondary characters need a lot of help themselves. Nina's parents are doing well in their roles until the end, where they come face to face with the weirdness going on in their daughter and niece's lives. However, at that point they become highly unbelievable and one wonders if things might have gone better had they not ever gotten involved. Better for the reader, anyway, not to have to deal with the thin or unbelievable characterization going on.
The most interesting person in the book is a secondary character: Cassie. At one point Ash realizes that she doesn't know much about this woman she calls friend and regrets it. I regret it, too, because I'm far more interested in her role in this and her past than I am in anyone else in the book.
Once we get beyond Ash and Nina, everyone else starts to take on the veneer of Plot Device.
There is a lot of bandying about with different kinds of magic and belief systems. Native American shamans (or, juju men...) hanging out with women who deal magical tarot cards. Then there is the Dreaming Place itself, which is supposed to be faerie or the dreamtime or any quasi-magical not the real world place in mythology. But it's mostly populated by Native American spirits and creatures. There's also something about a Cornish spirit that didn't come through clear to me.
Basically, de Lint is trying to weave several different systems here to create a mysterious, yet coherent, whole. It's not quite working, in my opinion.
Despite all my grousing, I enjoyed most of the book. It wasn't until the end that things started falling apart and losing steam. The premise is good, the execution not so. A good read for the Tween set, as it isn't truly bad, and may teach them a thing or two.
Rated by buyers 
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I loved the intermingling of spirituality and fantasy within the pages of this Charles De Lint novella. I am beginning to seriously wonder if De Lint is pagan or not. It was a wonderful way to celebrate Lammas Eve
Rated by buyers -
This is a delightful SHORT story by CDL. Full of interesting characters with the same sort of style we expect of CDL.
This book, originally printed in 1990 with Brian Froud's illustrations, was part of a special project I beleive conceived by Froud and CDL with others. I am very fond of this book and do not agree with folks that this isn't as good as his later work.
CDL had already written many novels by the time this book was released it was never intended to be a novel but just a short excusion into the world of Newford.
In all honesty I have been more disapointed with his more recent work, it all seems rushed contrived and almost boring in some cases. In fact, much of his new writing is too predictable now whereas this and his other older work is still amazing and new something to truly savor and enjoy.
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