Dreamland Lake

Rating:
Summary: Dreamland Lake
Review: A moody, unsettling novel for the teen and pre-teen audience; however, I'm slightly older than that and I thought it was pretty terrific.

The novel covers three seasons in the life of two young fellows who go poking in the woods beside Dreamland Lake, where once upon a time a merry amusement park stood. But the remains of the long-gone roller coaster--a few concrete supports--are not half as eye-catching as the skeletal remains lying half-obscured under foliage by the lakeshore. This pile of bones has not been there too long either, so how did it get there?

Authorities and residents of Dunthorpe let the incident become yesterday's news pretty fast; local opinion says the dead man was a tramp, not missed by anyone. But Brian and Flip's unsettling adventures are just beginning, because they sense a mystery that brings them back to the scene of the crime, to take pictures. The pictures show, later on, that the two friends are not necessarily alone when they creep about in the woods. There's also the little matter of the swastika carved near the scene that wasn't there, originally--and who left the fancy knife, complete with sheath and also decorated with Nazi iconography, for the boys to find when they returned.

Brian, as narrator, makes all of this quite exciting; the book is written as if Brian were looking back at this period in his life. Slowly, the focus of the book does shift to a coming-of-age theme, so despite all the sinister build-up, the reader is not being led through the thriller of the ages. Indeed, the book seems to shift gears entirely, as we get a vivid flashback sequence involving Flip's dictatorial father forcing Flip (plus Brian) to take swimming lessons (this Navy-man father is ashamed that his grown boy can't swim) from a cool fellow named Ralph Harvey. The boys idolize Ralph so much that they write stories about him, usually swimming to rescue some drowning damsel and then leaving her heartbroken when he goes off to save more people. The flashback reveals that, first, the boys embarrass themselves in front of Ralph in a humourous, if somewhat edgy, showerroom scene, and then, Ralph shatters their heroic illusions of him.

A further digression from the main plot is when Brian's father, a trucker, finally gives in to his son's request to take him on the road with him just once. What ensues--trouble involving a speedster--works as another life-lesson for Brian, but does not have anything to do with the creepy stuff going on everytime Brian and Flip go into the woods.

Thankfully, these distractions don't mean there are going to be actual loose ends. Always the book does wend its way back to the central mystery, meaning that, yes, the book does fashion itself as some kind of sophisticated crime novel for young readers. And the Nazi angle, together with the two friends' insistence that something sinister is lurking just out of sight in the trees, gives the whole affair a bit of a horror feel.

Finally, the characters of the two main boys are strongly created. Flip is just a little braver, and a little nastier, than Brian, and it threatens to fracture their friendship.

I enjoyed discovering this thoughtful tale originally aimed at young readers.

Rating:
Summary: DREAMLAND LAKE
Review: DREAM LAND Lake by Richard Peck is a really good book. This is a mystery novel. It's about a mystery man who was found in the woods. Bryan and flip the two main characters of the book.
TRY TO FIND OUT WHO IT IS.
THE MURDERER USES ALL DIFFRIENT CLUES TRYING TO TROW THEM OFF. THEY DON'T WANT TO TELL THE L.A.P.D. SO THEY KEEP TRYING TO FIND OUT WHO IT IS.

Rating:
Summary: DREAMLAND LAKE
Review: I read this book 12 years ago and even today it remains one of the more hair raising books I've read. Granted I was probably 12 years old, but it had the whole evil-in-the-woods thing going.

Rating:
Summary: A good exciting read...
Review: I read this book 12 years ago and even today it remains one of the more hair raising books I've read. Granted I was probably 12 years old, but it had the whole evil-in-the-woods thing going.

Rating:
Summary: An old favorite of mine
Review: When I was in in middle school I checked this book out a least 100
times, it was and still is a compelling thriller/comming of age story that holds up extremely well despite it's age (early 70's). There are some mature themes (language, violence, sexual suggestion) but nothing more than say PG-13. The character are so well rounded you and the story so absorbing, you will find yourself comming back to this one many times over as I did. And it has a strong message, sometimes the lessons you learn in life are not always easy ones.. Highly recommended.