Dreamland

Like any good novel, I was immersed in Dreamland from the first page and then entertained right through to its end several reading sessions later. In my non-reading moments I was haunted by the imagery of Dreamland, an all-too-plausible future depiction of Britain. As the title hints at, the novel is set in Margate, a town of faded glamour and corresponding hopes. Everything that Rankin-Gee describes in this futuristic work finds its antecedent in the current climate: planned evictions of ‘undesirables’ from London to undesirable locations (such as Margate), combined with the undeniability of climate change rendering such seaside resorts even less appealing. Project forward then to a world where flooding becomes a major risk. A ‘wall’ is built to ‘protect’ the country, yet serves as a defining barrier. This is the world of Rankin-Gee. Reading Dreamland reminded me of Rupert Thomson's Divided Kingdom, John Lanchester's The Wall and Emily St John Mandel's Station Eleven. Consider Dreamland less as dystopian and more as cli-fi or apocalyptic, serving as a potential warning to us all. Part of its compulsion lies not only in the hope and defiance of the potentially inevitable (the narrator is called Chance), but also in the framing of a love story within the other events. Again defined by hope and defiance, it is a poignant coming-of-age narrative between two girls: equality, want and need all feature. Even as the world is seemingly falling apart, Chance still finally finds things to live for. Great storytelling and compelling characterisation. 10 out of 10.

By Rosa Rankin-Gee