What if you could record your dreams? The Experiment of Dreams by Brandon Zenner #amreading #dreams

As all of you probably have figured out by now, I am fascinated by how the mind works. This book caught my attention because it is about a machine that can record your dreams. On a fairly regular basis I remember at least part of my last dream on waking, but who wouldn't want to be able to record their dreams? I know I would. I've written songs, written stories, had dreams that could make a great movie and all kinds of great things in my dreams - that I can only remember a sliver of upon waking. Just think of all the creativity locked inside your dreams!

This book starts out pretty slow and I wasn't a huge fan in the beginning. I swear if the author had typed the name Ben one more time in the first few pages I was about to throw my Kindle across the room! Ben did this. Ben did that. Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben, Ben! We KNOW it's Ben. He's the only one in the damn room. To be fair that really only happened in the beginning and one more time near the end. It wasn't carried on throughout the whole book so it is a minor annoyance.

One other minor annoyance is that the author makes some strange similies. I realize an author's job is to engage all of our senses to give us a full experience, but I have to question something. A few times this author alluded to the "odor of sleep". He's referencing a man who has been sleeping alone in his own apartment with no indication of any hanky panky having gone on, so can someone please tell me - what the heck does sleep smell like? I have absolutely no clue.

Now, minor annoyances aside, I found the book a it slow up until about the halfway point. Once I got there it took off and got a lot more interesting. We really got a chance to know more about the characters at that point, and the plot heated up. Ben's a widower still deep in grieving the loss of his wife, and he's a drunk. He's been working on sleep studies for years and is capable of lucid dreaming which is why he's offered the job of working on this experiment - for cash. He knows his dreams are being recorded - he's getting paid for it - but he's really not quite sure why or what the purpose of the experiment is.  I had a theory - but I was wrong!

There's also a pretty cool plot twist near the end that I really enjoyed.

If you'd like to check out The Experiment of Dreams for yourself click here to find it on Amazon.

Would you like to record your dreams? Why or why not? Please tell me in the comments.

Book Blurb:
Benjamin Walker's lifelong career of testing experimental drugs and medicines, as well as participating in fascinating sleep-related studies, has come to an end. A new and lucrative job opportunity is offered to Ben, working on a project named Lucy, a machine capable of reading and recording a person's dreams in intimate detail. All is finally going well for Ben . . . until strange dreams of a town named Drapery Falls begin to plague him, and memories once hidden begin to reveal themselves. The doctors and staff onboard team Lucy are not who Ben thinks they are, and Mr. Kalispell will stop at nothing to keep Ben's emerging memories buried for good. Ben is put on a collision course that will bring him to the brink of total insanity, and perhaps even death. At the heart of it all, Ben's worst enemy is his own mind, and he must confront his past in order to save his future. The twist and turns in The Experiment of Dreams will keep you guessing, down to the very last line.

About the author:
Brandon Zenner was born and raised in Red Bank New Jersey, only a short distance from the shore. His short fiction has been published in both print and online publications, the first being PLAZM 28, submitted when Brandon was just 19 years old. In 2014 Brandon published his first full-length novel, "The Experiment of Dreams," as a Kindle ebook. The paperback novel followed a year later. His second full-length novel is well on its way.

Throughout his early years writing, Brandon's favorite practice was to open a dictionary to any random page and aimlessly select the first word that this finger touched. He would then feverishly write a short story using his Smith-Corona typewriter. Using a mechanical typewriter, without the aid of auto correct, taught the importance of grammar and spelling (as well as patience and aggravation).