The Spinner of Dreams

Annalise was born with one hand twice the size of the other, and, in addition, that "great hand" was marked with the smashed-heart symbol of Kismet, the Spinner of Fates. Determining people's destinies often means determining their disasters; Kismet is, therefore, as universally hated as her twin sister, Reverie, the dream spinner who grants true dreamers their most heart-felt wish, is universally loved. The loathing that the people of Carriwitchet feel for Kismet is transferred to Annalise with some justification since, on the day of her birth, the clouds moved in, the trees' leaves turned black, and the town seemed to be generally cursed. However, the townspeople carry this hatred to extremes. The local radio station carries nothing but warnings and sightings of the family, for example, and their house is, by necessity, surrounded by fences and locked gates to prevent vandalism and destruction. Annalise's parents and grandparents feel she has a great destiny and is very special, and they love her dearly while attempting to protect her from the hatred and spite that surrounds her, but with scant success. Annalise has her coping mechanisms – she strokes her hair and taps her leg in groups of four and always chooses right over left, for example – but it is only when her dream of finally owning a real pet, a cat, is thwarted, apparently by the threat posed by her large hand, that she decides, firmly and unequivocably, that "I wish to rule my own destiny and rid myself of this curse." With this declaration, she becomes a true Dreamer, one for whom the path to the labyrinth that leads to the land of dreams becomes available, and the rest of the book is the tale of her adventures on the way, culminating in the astonishing (to her) revelation that her "curse" is, in fact, the flip side of a blessing.

The Spinner of Dreams is fantasy of a very different sort. There is magic, of course, but mostly there is Annalise's determination to do what she feels she must, and her sense of responsibility for the people – and animals – she meets along the way. It unfortunately suffers from there being a bit too much of everything. She encounters too many difficulties, and too many things go wrong that could have gone right. And it is overwritten, overburdened with descriptions of disasters, with too much of Annalise's autistic counting, her panic attacks, too many mentions of Mr Renard's husband and their Dream of opening a candy shop in Carriwitchet. There is even too much of Annalise's parents' totally loving and supportive behaviour in the face of persecution and violence on the part of the neighbours, not to mention there being too much of Annalise's own forgiving compassion for those same neighbours once her dream has been granted. The whole book could have been shortened and tightened up a bit, but these criticisms do not in any way alter the fact that it is enormously imaginative and impressively unique. I can't exactly recommend it, but I hope Reynolds will keep on writing.