‘Dreamover’ by Dani Diaz follows childhood best-friends Amber and Nico, as they take the leap from being friends to lovers, just before they start high-school together.
The graphic novel begins when the two are still friends, and on a school outing to the beach with their close friends Drew, Stella, and Gracie. It’s the end of middle-school, with only a week left before they officially graduate and Amber doesn’t think she can keep secretly crushing on Nico, so after some fun games at the beach, when everybody else is napping, she takes Nico to an amusement park, they spend the day together, before she confesses her feelings and finds out Nico feels the same way.
Dani Diza playfully captures the carefree nature of middle-graders in the first few pages. The friends are playing silly games on the bus to pass time, which includes making faces and waving at other drivers on the road. The artwork is colorful, cute, and has a casual style which makes it quite apt for a story about teenagers navigating high-school and romance for the first time.
As freshmen, the entire group struggles to settle into their new high school life, but Amber and Nico cope by becoming increasingly dependent on each other, gradually shutting out even their closest friends. Amber, in particular, hates school. She’d rather spend every waking moment with Nico, fantasizing about escaping the pressures and expectations of the real world.
That’s where ‘Dreamover’ takes a fantastical turn. One night, after staying up late playing video games, Amber and Nico fall asleep and begin sharing the same lucid dream. Together they swim through storms, outrun monsters, soar across the skies, and shape the dream world however they please. It’s essentially their own private universe, one with room for only the two of them. But while Amber longs to remain in this perfect escape, Nico doesn’t want the same things. What happens when two people in love stop dreaming the same dream?
The ‘Dreamover’ chapters set inside Amber and Nico’s shared lucid dream are, fittingly, driven more by illustrations than dialogue. The creator relies on a limited palette for these pages. For instance, some feature only cool tones, like blues, grays, and lavenders, to give the dreamscape a deliberately liminal quality. Although, with shifting landscapes, a few scenes in their fantasy world are quite bright and colorful.
There were a few pages where the color choices didn’t quite work for me and felt visually jarring. But well, ultimately this is very much a matter of personal taste, and other readers may respond to those same images quite differently. In-fact, some of the artwork in ‘Dreamover’ might remind graphic novel enthusiasts of Tillie Walden’s works.
Amber and Nico’s relationship is quite relatable, and perhaps one of Dreamover‘s strengths is how Dani Diaz builds their romance on a comfortable, believable foundation (they’re childhood friends after all). Much of their time together is spent playing video games, watching movies, or simply chatting. As the pair navigate the surreal dreamscape, Amber gradually realizes that she’s been focussing all of her energy into Nico as a way of escaping reality, even if the story never states it quite so explicitly.
I do think Dreamover oversimplifies the idea of becoming completely consumed by a romantic relationship. And it doesn’t necessarily justify why Amber feels so overwhelmed with high school. Regardless, it’s a sweet, accessible graphic novel that gently reminds readers love doesn’t have to become the be-all and end-all of life, and that friendships deserve just as much care and attention.
I’m not entirely sure older readers will connect with it as strongly, but for readers around the ages of 13 to 16, it should prove an enjoyable coming-of-age read.
Ending on a cute image of the entire friend group sharing a hearty meal together, ‘Dreamover’ embraces an “all’s well that ends well” conclusion. It’s a simple ending, but one that worked well enough for me.
Rating for ‘Dreamover’: 3.5 stars on 5.
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