Review: Nightmare City by P.S. Newman

The line between dreams and reality is shattered in Nightmare City by author P.S. Newman, the first book in her new Nightmare City series.

Los Angeles has collapsed into a dystopian roller-coaster, one in which the stuff of nightmares crosses over into the real world. To prevent complete destruction, the world has changed, and hunters patrol this new landscape, eliminating the horrors from the depths of dreams. Eden Maybrey is one of these shade hunters, someone who walks the night with sword in hand, cleaving horrific visions from reality.

This is a world where every shade is tracked back to a dreamer by the all-powerful Somni Order, and prime dreamers are often taken by the order for experimentation, in the Order’s endless quest to control the power of these manifestations. Eden has a unique skill set, however, and one that may just get her eliminated, particularly after being tasked to find a deadly shade, and partnered with a suspicious new ally.

Eden has a soft spot for Bella, the daughter of her best friend, Cecelia, and with very good reason…but the young girl has also been identified as one of these prime dreamers. After manifesting a monster that killed her own mother, Bella has already made it onto the radar of the Order, but Eden is determined to keep Bella’s prime dreaming manifestations out of sight. As this twisting plot unfurls, Eden is forced to make the hardest choices, between loyalty and truth, personal identity, and the greater good.

Whether she is trading barbs with her sassy shade sword or decapitating the monsters standing in her way, Eden does it with swagger and style. She is hard as nails and a masterful hunter, but with dangerous secrets of her own, making her a gripping central heroine. The brute physicality and intensity of this novel is delicately countered by the emotional connections the protagonist holds with Cecelia and Bella, and her intense love for Greyson.

Occasionally, the line between real and manifestation occasionally blur to a confusing muddle, and there are scenes that could be pared down to keep the pace up. Additionally, some of Eden’s emotional reactions are more reported than described – she tells us how she’s feeling without revealing her inner life organically through the course of a scene. These issues aside, the dialogue is consistently smart and funny, and here Newman shows off her linguistic skill with sharp subtlety.

What the propels the book along most is the world of Nightmare City, which feels masterfully developed, despite this being only the first book in the series. As more of Eden’s story is revealed, it begins to seem as though the novel can’t possibly have a happy ending, but Newman is a decidedly clever writer, and the world she has created is endless, thanks to her dynamic premise.

All told, Nightmare City is a thrilling start to a promising new saga that will surely please fans of dark urban fantasy.