Dreaming of Amelia is the story of Amelia and Riley. They're bad kids from the bad crowd at bad Brookfield High, and they've just transferred to Ashbury.
Brilliant, mysterious and probably evil, they have the rich kids at Ashbury spellbound.
But just who are Amelia and Riley?
Tantalisingly aloof, they are somehow managing to have an extraordinary impact on all the HSC Ashbury students, and the staff.
Told through memoirs written as part of the gothic fiction elective in the HSC English exam, Dreaming of Amelia is a story about ghosts, secrets, madness, passion, locked doors, femme fatales – and that terrifying moment in the final year of high school when you realise that the future's come to get you.
A brilliant new novel from Jaclyn Moriarty, whose compelling storytelling weaves lyrically around the reader.
I absolutely loved Jaclyn Moriarty's previous novels, and Dreaming of Amelia is no exception. I loved the format - told through memoirs written as part of the gothic fiction elective in the HSC English exam from multiple viewpoints of Year Twelve students at Ashbury High. I love that it's a companion novel to a few of Moriarty's previous titles including Finding Cassie Crazy - I love revisiting all the same characters.
Dreaming of Amelia is just the right balance of spooky and hilariously funny. I love the expansive cast and multiple viewpoints. My onyl complaint would be that it's very lengthy - I personally prefer shorter books, Dreaming of Amelia is 515 pages long - and I that a fair bit could have been cut that was unnecessary to the story. That said it was a wonderfully interesting, unique, original novel - I love love love all the different voices of the characters, so authentic, ridiculously realistic. Dreaming of Amelia is certainly worth checking out, and while you're at it, have a look at some of Jaclyn Moriarty's previous novels (The Spellbook of Listen Taylor is my personal favourite).
Dreaming of Amelia is out now in both Australia and New Zealand, and it'll be out in the UK in April of next year, with this cover:
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http://jaclynmoriarty.com
Dreaming of Amelia on Amazon UK
Jaclyn Moriarty's blog
