Dreamland by Nancy Bilyeau

 3.5 Stars

I really enjoyed all the family scenes in this book.  Seen from Peggy's point of view the boredom of their lavish existence and the restrictions imposed on female members compared with the debauchery of the male members makes a wonderful contrast.  Unfortunately, this was an all too true depiction of the early 1900s and combined with a real life setting (that I did actually research online) it made for a good read from a sanitised Social History standpoint.

Unfortunately, I found the murder background less intriguing.  The potential that ther eis a serial killer stalking the fairgorund and boardwalks of Coney Island just does not have the necessary suspense and intrigue to relaly suck you in.  Initially it seems like it is going to go but as soon as you realise that the whole focus of this is to paint all of the police force as corrupt and uninterested it takes some of the interest away.  The agenda of the book is very apparent in these sections and whilst it is undoubtedly true of some past and present members it felt like everyone was tarred by the same brush.  Ironic really as that is what the author accuses the fictional characters of doing.  Be it the poorer members of society seeing all people in positions of authority as a danger to their existence or members of the upper echelons seeing all the working class as being less than human.  Whilst true to some extent it does beat the reader over the head with it and it becomes tiresome after a while.

Overall it did give a glimpse in to the life of a girl becoming a woman in society's eyes and how constrained this makes her feel.  In fact, how constrained she actually is.  The descriptions of the desultory summer heat coupled with Peggy's desire to break free from her mould are handled really well and did draw me in and keep me in.

Overall, an author that I will be watching and trying some further novels from.

This review has been a long time coming.  I actually read this book between the 12th and 19th April 2020 so my memory is a bit foggy about all the plot lines.  Fortunately, I have a notebook where I jot some initial thoughts on the book and an overall ranking so between the book blurb and that I did have a reasonable handle on what I thought at the time of reading.