Book Review: The Dreaming Place

I've long been a fan of Young Adult (YA) fiction, so with Charles de Lint's first YA novel, The Dreaming Place, published in 1990, I found a pretty great story involving two young women, Ashlyn and Nina, cousins who have been living together since Ashylyn's mother died and Nina's parents agreed to take her in.

The novel alternates point of view between Ashlyn and Nina, Ashlyn dealing with her grief and Nina suffering from a series of terrifying nightmares.  Although the story begins in a pretty real world setting, it quickly moves into the Urban fantasy that de Lint is most famous for writing.

Including magic, spiritualism and an intriguing concept regarding the consequences of actions, the story works quite well and would be a good introduction to the author's works.