#LoveNZYA Throwback Thursday (#1)

Throwback Thursday #LoveNZYA edition is our way of spreading the love of backlist Kiwi books that you might have missed. We'll hopefully be posting a new book regularly, and we'd love you to join us!

Brooklynne's Pick

Title: Dreamhunter (The Dreamhunter Duet #1)
Author: Elizabeth Knox
Released: Published April 27th 2005 by HarperCollins - AU
Publisher: HarperCollins - AU
Add it to Goodreads 

Fast-paced and dazzlingly imaginative, Dreamhunter will draw the reader into an extraordinary fictional world.

 Set in 1906, Dreamhunter describes an alternate world very similar to ours, except here there is an elsewhere, known simply as the Place, where only a select group of people can go. These people are the Dreamhunters, and they harvest dreams - dreams which are then transmitted to the public for the purposes of entertainment, therapy, or political coercion and terror...

Fifteen-year-old cousins Laura Hame and Rose Tiebold both come from famous dreamhunting families, but only Laura proves to be blessed with the gift. Once inside the Place she begins to unravel what happened to her missing Dreamhunter father, which leads to a sinister truth about how the captured dreams are really used - and what they really mean.

Why I Chose It

Elizabeth Knox is probably best known for her adult historical magical realism novel The Vinter's Luck, but this YA Fantasy is brilliant. It is the first book in a duology which focuses on two cousins one of whom (Rose) so deeply wants to be a dreamhunter and the other who (Laura) who is ambivalent about it all. Guess how that turns out?

The world-building in this novel is so intense and interesting, taking place on an island that reminds me so much of New Zealand. The characters are all well written with flaws that make you frustrated at them at various times. All this tied together with a plot that kept me on the edge of my seat. The beginning is slow but the world has enough detail and interest to keep you reading.

It's a more mature YA book with allusions to sex and definitely violence. When I read it I kept thinking, finally a Young Adult book that doesn't treat teens and children. 

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What's your pick for this week? Share on your blog, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, or in the comments below! Make sure you tag your posts with #AusYABloggers so we can share the love.