A girl who escapes being collateral damage in an attack must face her overwhelming fears. In the fictional city of Newham, bribes, shootouts, and corruption are widespread, and the water supply is laced with a drug that keeps people from dreaming so that they don't wake up transformed into the worst thing they can imagine. Ness came to Newham after her older sister turned into a giant spider and ate their father. To avoid becoming homeless, she works for the Friends of the Restful Soul, though she's always messing up due to her lack of piety and extreme fear trauma responses to Nightmares. With her position already in jeopardy, she ends up accidentally sucked into a targeted conspiracy that throws her together with a living Nightmare. Ness must then figure out the secrets people are willing to kill her to keep hidden. The worldbuilding's a dream: The magical rules are revealed clearly and concisely when relevant, and the quirky alternate setting maintains internal consistency and is frequently revealed in pithy, hilarious ways. The matter-of-fact tone of the humor effectively keeps the laughs from undermining the scary story elements. Ness' development from being a self-described coward is hard earned and connects to powerful themes of relationships (including friendships) and overcoming manipulation. While immediate threats are neutralized by the end, bigger threats loom. The cosmopolitan world is casually and naturally diverse; Ness lacks racial descriptors. So much fun readers will stay up all night to finish it. (Fantasy/horror. 13-adult) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Fear is king in Newham, where the water is laced with anti-dreaming drugs because nightmares become real, capital-n Nightmares. Nineteen-year-old Ness has feared Nightmares ever since her sister woke up as a giant spider, ate their father in front of Ness, and was eventually destroyed by Nightmare Hunters. Ness finds refuge at the Friends of the Restful Soul--it's not a cult--even as her excessive fear of Nightmares makes her a liability. Desperate to prove herself, Ness forces her way into what should be a simple errand for the Friends, only to end up in the middle of a deadly political scheme alongside a dangerous Nightmare boy. Not is all as it seems in Newham, and Ness will have to set her prejudices and her fear aside if she's going to survive--and keep surviving. While Schaeffer sometimes plays a little fast and loose with the rules of this world, it's conceptually fascinating, and the plot moves along at a gripping pace. Readers of the author's Market of Monsters trilogy (and its WEBTOON adaptation) will be hooked on this next-level exploration of similar ideas.

Dream situations manifest as real-life horrors upon waking in this rollicking fantasy adventure from Schaeffer (the Market of Monsters trilogy), set in the Gotham-esque city of Newham. After her sister neglected to take dream-prevention drugs before bed, she turned into a giant spider and ate the girls' father, forcing then 11-year-old Ness to flee. Now 19 and struggling to survive, Ness--terrified of becoming, or falling prey to, a Nightmare--belongs to the Friends of the Restful Soul, a cult dedicated to helping those affected by Nightmares that provides room and board to initiates. After Ness's nerves cause her to botch yet another work assignment, she volunteers for the Friends' onerous weekly mail run to avoid expulsion. But her ferry explodes on the job, and Ness is rescued by the tragedy's only other survivor: 19-year-old Cy, who recently woke up as a vampire. Despite his heroics, Ness is too frightened to trust Cy--until subsequent events force them to team up. Schaeffer's worldbuilding is economical and inventive, and snappy dialogue, breezy first-person-present narration, and a quirky, ethnically diverse cast add levity, counterbalancing ruminations on fear. Ages 14--up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Jan.)