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Dickensen Academy

de Christine Grabowski

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20121,091,121 (4.5)Nenhum(a)
Dickensen Academy isn't a typical boarding school. The faculty is hiding an unbelievable secret within their fine arts program. When Autumn Mattison receives an invitation to attend the high school, she yearns to escape her overbearing father yet remains reluctant to leave her mother and brother. Her doubts fade away when a vivid dream convinces her she belongs there.Away from home, Autumn discovers a unique school environment that awakens her creative potential, and her new friends become like a second family. However, as she uncovers more about the dark side of the school and struggles with its curriculum, she questions whether Dickensen Academy is truly where she belongs. When tragedy strikes, Autumn must learn to believe in her own power and stand up to her greatest fear or risk having her memories destroyed to protect the school's secrets. Caught between secrets and dreams, can she find her true self?… (mais)
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Mostrando 1-5 de 11 (seguinte | mostrar todas)
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
No stars. DNF.

I made it to page 19 and had to stop. I just couldn't get into it and I really really disliked the main character. She was shallow and her priorities were just dumb and inconsequential that I really didn't care what would happen to her in the story. Definitely more geared towards the younger generation.
  booklover3258 | Sep 1, 2020 |
An interesting romp through school, tragedy, and dreams—with a bit of mystery. Autumn the MC is intriguing with a solid back story that supports her inner monologue. I enjoyed watching her acclimate to the academy and delve into its secrets. Characters were well written, and the teenage drama and angst wasn’t blown out of proportion. The use of dreams was interesting and thought provoking. I even found the story influence my own dreams one night. I’m keen to read book 2. Nice job! ( )
  Jim.Stein | Jun 3, 2019 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
Autumn is delighted she has been accepted to Dickensen Academy because of the fine arts program. When she arrives, she learns there is more to this boarding school than meets the eye and Autumn’s creative potential is unlocked.

The strength of this novel is in Autumn’s struggles. Although she desperately wants to succeed in the dream aspect of the school, she is not immediately successful. She has to fight for it and is creative in how she approaches the fight. Her interaction with her friends and siblings made her more realistic and genuine.

There were some weakness in the story, however. Autumn’s attraction to Ben seemed underdeveloped and I found I didn’t care whether they became a couple or not. It could have been removed and the story would not have suffered. I’d expected more danger-there were hints of darkness through the story-but this is never resolved. Perhaps in a sequel it will be addressed?

Overall, it is an interesting YA book I would recommend to readers looking for a contemporary/fantasy read. I was given a copy from the author for reviewing purposes. ( )
  TheQuietReader | Dec 14, 2018 |
Dickensen Academy is a boarding school that fosters creativity in its students; it's also a boarding school that trains its students to send and receive dreams. A bit I adored was the teachers at Dickensen using dreams to allow their students to witness historical events and participate in experiences they otherwise couldn't in the waking world. It added a charming lightheartedness to the story that was sometimes needed by the reader as well as by Autumn, who struggles with homesickness, her father's expectations, and with her ability to send dreams. Fortunately she has her new friends and family to rely on and with them--and sometimes for them--she figures it out. #DickensenAcademy #NetGalley ( )
  tldegray | Dec 2, 2018 |
This review was written for LibraryThing Member Giveaways.
I received this book as a part of Member Giveaway on Library Thing in exchange for my honest opinion.

When the time for high school comes around, Autumn is given the option to attend Dickensen Academy, a boarding school that specializes in fostering creativity in their students. But, there is more to it, in that this creativity is put to a top-secret purpose.

Upon arriving at Dickensen (and even a little bit before her arrival), Autumn becomes aware through her own experiences and in talking to others that something mysterious is going on. It has to do with telepathy, people disappearing or enduring frightening punishments, locked doors, upper-classmen sharing secrets, fences that cannot be crossed, a ban on technology for students (though the school itself uses technology to spy on students), and more.

As Autumn overcomes homesickness and tries to put these puzzle pieces of Dickensen Academy together, she is working hard on her studies (which are challenging, exciting, and just plain mystifying). Eventually she learns that the school seeks out creative students because they will become dream conveyors, combining artistic skills of writing and art (to create scripts and design scenery, respectively) with telepathy, and she struggles with mastering the basics of this skill for quite a while.

Throughout the school year, Autumn learns about personal freedom, friendships (and more-than-friendships), and what it means to be herself, both in listening to her own wants/needs and interacting with other people. To top it all off, although her relationships with her mom and brother seem pretty healthy, she must continue to navigate her tumultuous relationship with her father. He is demanding where academics are concerned and very vocal about being disappointed that Autumn's professional interests aren't falling more in line with his own. Autumn is conflicted because she is still under father's thumb, even while she is making her own choices and finding independence at her new school--sort of like the clashing of two worlds that just won't mesh. There is also the fact that, due to the school's secrets, she cannot reveal the true nature and difficulty of the dream class (her lowest grade) to her father, which means he only sees it as failing what should be an easy-A elective class. She may have to leave Dickensen, not just because she continues to be unsuccessful at the core skills of dream conveyance (so the school may ask her to leave, which could involve unusual measures taken to Autumn's memories to preserve their secret), but also because her father feels she cannot be trusted on her own to make the grades and does not understand how hard she is truly working.

I was pretty sure the denouement would end up being something like Autumn learns to focus on the other person during her dream conveyance and not herself, and I was right. While Autumn is self-aware, her motivations in sending the dreams weren't aligned with the task and her thoughts were too muddled with the expectations of other people, and that was why she lacked success. Eventually, a family crisis brings everything to a head (haha, accidental pun!) for Autumn, she gains a new perspective, and she figures out how to be successful at the dream conveyance skill, as well as to be honest with other people about her wants and needs.

The character growth made sense, it was well-written, and the plot was unique and interesting. Autumn wasn't a Mary Sue, which I appreciated. And, although Autumn could be wishy-washy at times and waffled about a lot of things, I think the areas in which she did so made sense, considering she is 15 and everything she had going on. And, she is actually a good example of a strong woman to me, which is refreshing (so many young adults books these days try to create strong women, but fail miserably and end up only doing the opposite). The two best examples of this are when she sets boundaries with her father and her boyfriend. I also liked the subtle reminders of using social media appropriately.

I couldn't really pinpoint any holes or large inconsistencies, which, if you've seen some of my other reviews, says a lot about what I think of the care with which this book was written. I guess the only "complaint" I would have in that area is that we don't really learn for what or whom Dickensen Academy is training these children in dream conveyance. Military work? Medical work? Psychology work? Government work? Some of how the school operates is a little sinister, so, for all we know, if we continue the series Autumn will find out her fears about how this skill used were founded and they put it to nefarious purposes (like espionage, mind control of important world figures, bank robberies, etc.). I think we are left out of this because we learn at Autumn's rate and she is not yet privy to that as a part of her studies and future, but I had wished we as the reader got some sort of glimpse into it.

This is a very enjoyable piece of young adult fiction that will appeal to fans of the Harry Potter series and other similar books about magical or paranormal school chums, Shannon Hale's Princess Academy and Ever After High series, the Circle of Magic and Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce, and maybe even the Finishing School series by Gail Carriger or His Fair Assassin series by Robin LaFevers (though these last two are more adult). I'd say this is definitely geared toward preteen and mid-teen girls, but it was very readable as an adult. I think if I were 13 or 14 I'd be super-duper into this and probably read it over and over. I did go with 4 stars out of 5 because, basically, even though I did enjoy this immensely, it didn't make a huge impact on me (I think if I were a still teen, though, it'd be a 5-star book for me). Seems like it was left open as a series, and, if that is the case, I would certainly read the next one (or, really, anything else new from this author). ( )
2 vote wordcauldron | Oct 5, 2018 |
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Dickensen Academy isn't a typical boarding school. The faculty is hiding an unbelievable secret within their fine arts program. When Autumn Mattison receives an invitation to attend the high school, she yearns to escape her overbearing father yet remains reluctant to leave her mother and brother. Her doubts fade away when a vivid dream convinces her she belongs there.Away from home, Autumn discovers a unique school environment that awakens her creative potential, and her new friends become like a second family. However, as she uncovers more about the dark side of the school and struggles with its curriculum, she questions whether Dickensen Academy is truly where she belongs. When tragedy strikes, Autumn must learn to believe in her own power and stand up to her greatest fear or risk having her memories destroyed to protect the school's secrets. Caught between secrets and dreams, can she find her true self?

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