The Dream Hiker

Have you ever wondered if the world you lived in was real or if it was just a dream? Have your dreams ever felt more real than your waking life? For his high school philosophy class, Jack must write daily log entries on a Collab site. Students from all over the Midwest share entries on the Collab and read and comment on each other’s logs. Jack shares an unusual dream on the Collab, and later that day, two students from different schools write back that they were in the same dream. How is that possible? That night they decide to try to meet up in the dream again. They don’t realize what they are getting themselves into and how much their dream world and their real world are connected.

The Dream Hiker is an enjoyable book. The only critique for the writing style is that there are superfluous dialogue and unnecessary details, almost like stage directions, which distract the reader from the narrative flow. For example, “Jack, in an attempt to break off the interesting but awkward exchange, asked Oeg [a question].” Later Jack asks another character, “’But what is this conch and why is it important for me to get it?’ ‘I sense some confusion here, so let me explain…’”

These concerns aside, the book is a fast-paced page-turner, and it makes you question the nature of reality. The author, Padmaja Kanna, creates a universe filled with multiple worlds as Jack and his friends travel in their minds. Just like Jack, the reader can’t wait to find out what will happen next. An exciting story, The Dream Hiker sets Jack up for a much larger adventure, to be continued in the next book, The Mind Trap.