Dreamland Social Club

The story begins with Jane, Marcus and their father riding in a taxi to their new house, the house they inherited from Jane and Marcus' grandfather, Preemie. As they enter the dusty dirty house, they discover an old carousel horse chained with a triple length of chain to the radiator and locked with......more

Rollercoasters, carousels, and bumper cars; hot dogs, dive bars, and beach umbrellas. The heyday of Atlantic Ocean resort towns. Boardwalk Empire. The Darling Mermaid Darlings. Circus animals, freak shows, carnies. I like all of these things. This book set them around high school. I’m a little enamor......more

I think this book may have been the genesis for the Beach Reads idea. I took one look at the cover, with it's bright colors, boardwalk and mermaid, and I had this yearning to be at the beach.  (Minus the boardwalk craziness, though a mermaid would be cool.  But still; you get what I'm saying.)  It s......more

I really enjoyed this book – it was interesting, kooky, strange, mysterious and a whole lot of fun. Dreamland Social Club follows Jane who has just moved to Coney Island, the place of her late mother’s youth, with her father and brother. Because of her father’s erratic job as a roller coaster designe......more

4 is my grown-up weirdo-loving adult rating; 3 would probably be my reading like an "average" teen rating. Just like I have a hard time selling How to Say Goodbye in Robot or Marcelo in the Real World to most teen readers, this one is tough to advertise effectively. If you want to know what it's like......more