Dreams Lie Beneath

Dreams Lie Beneath was a disappointment.

The story started off promising to me: the nightmares of the town coming to life on the New Moon of every month, Clem and her father being kicked out of their home by young magicians, and Clem's vow for revenge.

A promising premise is about all it had – the magic system explored further. It was made more confusing by Phalen's telling Clem later on that he didn't have the gift originally and had to work hard at school – but at other times it's alluded to that magic is an inherent gift.
Clem's revenge plan was lackluster as well. I was fully supportive of it, but then the extent of it is to write an expose – and from what we hear of it, it just features old rumors she heard – which will make for a boring expose.

The last act of the book was fine – the ‘twist' wasn't a surprise due to heavy foreshadowing. It leaves you questioning how the heck the economic system is going to work but, ~hand wavy neat tie up~

The writing was the definition of ‘purple prose'. The dialogue was going for ‘old timey fancy language' (I think), but it just came off as pretentious.
If you're looking for an escape read with a magic system and plot you shouldn't investigate too closely, Dreams Lie Beneath is the book for you.

Audiobook Review: It was fine, at best. Which mostly is due to the source material. The Narrator wasn't great at doing voices for the characters. Sometimes it'd switch back to the regular voice halfway through a sentence.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.