Anna Undreaming: 1 (Metiks Fade Trilogy) Paperback – Import, 20 March 2018

“A spark caught, and she felt something awaken. Something angry and defiant.”This is a book that has haunted me and my physical TBR shelf since May 2018. Anna Undreaming was the first physical book that I was sent for review and one that I have been really excited to read, but mood reading stinks. I knew in my bones that this was a story that I would absolutely love, and wanted to wait for the absolute right time to read it… and it just so happens that the right time was eight months later. I’m sorry Thomas, but this book was definitely worth the wait!“Anna… in a world of dwindling light, you’re a bonfire in the night.”This book is beautifully written and fast paced, an effortless and engaging read right from the first pages. Welsh has crafted a magical feeling world just behind the veil of our understanding, a world ruled by Dreamers where monsters roam.“People experience Hazes… they don’t see them. The mind rationalizes it all away.”Hazes are described as part of our world (I kind of think of them like the Fade in the Dragon Age games) and they are created, ruled, and maintained by Dreamers. Anything goes within their Hazes and “within the Haze the dreamer is God and can dream anything into reality. They can change the rules of existence, and they can make and unmake life itself.” Think of it like Inception.Our protagonist is Anna, a 20-something graduate who has recently experienced the death of her husband. At the beginning of the book, Anna and her friend Sue are slipped something at a bar she is at by the guy her friend is with “to loosen her up.” Lovely. (As a note, you can skip the first chapter to avoid this scene.) The side effect of this special drink is that she becomes aware of the Hazes, and her life will never be the same. Turns out she is a rare foil to the power of the Dreamers; as an Undreamer she has the ability to destroy the Hazes, and there is a faction of Dreamers called the Doxa that will stop at nothing to destroy her before she realizes her power.The entire book is a masterful exposition into a new world just beyond the understanding of our reality. There is a lot of worldbuilding but it never once felt like an infodump. The way that Welsh unveiled the intricacies of the new world that Anna’s found herself in is through a mentor, Teej. We are learning about everything alongside Anna, with information doled out as it is necessary in the plot. I never felt overloaded or confused, but definitely was eager to learn more.We never really learn Anna’s age, but early on we find out that she was Anna is a recent graduate, who wrote a thesis called “Absurdism and Camus.” I would definitely love to talk to her at a party, because philosophy and I are like best friends and no one wants to talk Nietzsche to me.“… that darkness you feel. It doesn’t go away, but eventually, you see it as just a different kind of light.”Anna Undreaming is definitely a plot driven narrative. There are glimpses about the pasts of Anna and Teej, but I didn’t really learn a lot about the characters in this book. Somehow despite this there is excellent character development, which is honestly masterful. Anna and Teej’s relationship evolves from skepticism to loyalty, and their interactions all felt realistic to me. I fell and rooted for them, and was intrigued by the secrets of the past that was alluded to throughout the story. I really enjoy this narrative technique when it is done well, like the narrator is “the characters have a secret, and if you keep reading I will tell you what it is.” The setting and world of Anna Undreaming is almost a character itself, and with all the necessary worldbuilding done, I am really excited for the rest of the trilogy.The concepts of light and darkness run throughout the book. Anna is referred to as a beacon of light in a dark world, and Anna has been succumbing to the darkness of her own despair. One of the Hazes that Anna is brought into brings the darkness and despair in a place where everyone eventually drowns themselves. I found it to be a beautiful metaphor for her own grief. I absolutely loved the ending so much, but I mention it because I want you to be aware and in the right headspace before picking this book up.This book reads like a Young Adult fantasy in style, but actually features a new adult aged protagonist and other adult characters. If you’ve been looking for a YA style fantasy with NA aged characters… READ THIS BOOK. I know the NA classification has come to largely encompass a specific genre, but this is a true gem and what I want to see published more often. This book also has crossover appeal with teenagers.This book is like reading a dream. It has hints of Alice in Wonderland, and I felt like both Anna and I went through the looking glass into a fantastical Inception-like world. The book is fast-paced and captivating, and I really enjoyed it.Overall this is an incredible story written in the young adult fantasy style but with new adult aged characters! I was immersed into the story with its Don’t sleep on this book and trilogy, friends! Anna Undreaming was published in March 2018 and has flown under the radar with just 26 reviews on Goodreads as of my writing this review (with a 4.31 average on 72 ratings). The second book in the Metiks Fade Trilogy, Anna and the Moonlight Road, will be released this Spring by Owl Hollow Press and I cannot wait!I received a finished paperback copy of this book for free from the author and his publicist in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. I enjoyed the book so much that I bought a copy on Kindle for myself so I can read on the go.

Thomas Welsh’s debut novel is an inventive story that pulls on the heartstrings and introduces a character in Anna that will resonate with many.A broken widow, a world unseen, and a battle for life itself.Torn apart by grief and trying desperately to battle the pull of desolation, Anna is tossed into a world where she can choose to fight for survival or have her wish for death granted.When Anna stumbles into a Haze her whole world as she knows it changes. Attacked and fighting for her life, the only person she can turn to for answers is the mysterious Teej, the guy she met over the internet and has been avoiding because he’s completely mad.From the first moment Anna encounters the Haze, and this new world she was unaware of, her life is in danger. Now struggling to overcome the grief eating her up inside she is faced with a new battle – the one for her life. An enemy called the Midnight Man wants her dead because she is his undoing and that of all the Astethes. He has sent his monsters after her and she has nowhere to hide.Thrown into this new world and finding out she has strange powers, Anna becomes the saviour not only of herself but of the mysterious Teej. The choice for Anna now is whether to believe the unimaginable and fight back or hide and pretend none of it is real.This book had me hooked from page one and in reading I became Anna. I felt her pain and suffering, understood the desolation that she wanted to give in to, and I felt the power thrum through me as she battled and became the heroine to save them all. Her strength and determination, her courage, her will to live, flowed through the pages and into part of me as well. Although she knew nothing of this new world she stood her ground and fought.It’s not often we get a book where the female character has to save the male and this is what made Anna Undreaming such a joy to read. It was real, it was emotional, it was moving at times, and it was an adventure I didn’t want to end. Adrenaline coursed through my veins in parts as I held my breath and hoped for success. The descriptions of the monsters in the Haze were excellent and I found myself shivering as Anna tried desperately to escape. I felt it all and I enjoyed every single moment of this book, from the gory to the fantastical, this is a book that will take you away to another world and remind you why we strive to live.It’s entertaining and imaginative, and yet poignant and emotionally deep at times. It reminds readers of the power we all have within to survive no matter what life throws at us. A truly excellent start to what I’m sure will be an outstanding series.

Dark Fantasy. I had no idea what to expect from this book. I've never read a dark fantasy novel before, and to my surprise, I enjoyed the story. Though, I'll admit (and I'm not sure the exact range of how dark a dark fantasy novel can get) that I'm not sure I'd be able to handle a much darker, graphic story-line. But again, that's a personal preference. Thomas writes a well-balanced story for Anna of both the real world and the world "Behind the Veil".Anna is an Undreamer. What is an Undreamer you ask? Welcome to Thomas Welsh's creation of an alternate, co-existing reality. Within the regular world, artistic realities in which dream-like-states, called Hazes manifest into a physical reality, overlapping parts of the real world. These Hazes are created and maintained by Dreamers; on a side note, not all Hazes are friendly and inviting.

I love a good book. And this ladies and gentlemen is a damn good book.I found the first third of the book intriguing; I liked Anna and wanted to know more, I wanted to see where this bizarre new world would take me.After that, it really takes off. The author finds his feet, his inner lunatic and writes the hell out of this mad world. Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen, those moments when I'd think 'no, no surely you're not THAT predictable'... well, it wasn't.I was constantly surprised and entertained by this book, I loved how human the characters are and I wanted them to be okay.Welsh manages to write different voices very convincingly: to make me feel sorrow and empathy for a bad guy and to desperately want to hug and reassure the protagonist.My only complaint? Where the heck is the sequel already?

Anna Undreaming was a fast-paced, throw everything in the world at you thriller that kept me turning pages (digital ones on my kindle) until there were no more left to turn. The novel follows Anna, an Undreamer, as she traverses worlds and realities derived through art, while trying to find her place in the madness. Welsh does a fantastic job illustrating these various locations and settings while never losing the reader in too much detail. I highly recommend this novel for fans of portal fantasy, urban fantasy, and fans of Alice in Wonderland. A solid debut novel from an writer that will hopefully be putting pen to page for a long time coming.