The Vault of Dreamers by Caragh M. O’Brien (review)

The Forge Show, a reality show set at the Forge School of the Arts, is one of the most popular things around, and if Rosie can make the first cut from 100 potential students to fifty, she’ll be guaranteed a spectacular education and a huge following as folks at home watch the students every day. Of course, the weird, drugged, mandated twelve hours of sleep every night is slightly offputting, even with reassurances that it boosts student creativity, and the constant jockeying for rank is exhausting, but a good education in this futuristic world seems rare enough to make most students ignore any problems. Deeply inquisitive Rosie has a hard time following the rules, landing her in a series of harrowing situations that put herself and some of her friends in substantial danger. The reality show background unfortunately isn’t developed fully, with the book never mentioning the actual ways in which the show is edited or interpreted by the home audience. In addition, Rosie’s willingness to drag innocent bystanders into her heedless quest to expose all of the many secrets this school/show holds makes her an unsympathetic protagonist and undercuts the impact of what she discovers. Even so, this is a sharp novel about the ways in which everyone can be manipulated, either through careful editing or one’s own desire to go the easiest path. A startling cliffhanger certainly demands a sequel, and readers will likely be torn about what it all means and how much is left to explain.