Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I feel I am being generous giving this book a 2 star rating. The whole is a great big empty plot line with a couple of narcissistic characters. I think it could have been so much more but instead of developing the plot line around Kirstin and Henry there is just one more mention of her before she boards a plane to London. It feels like the author got dragged down in describing Henry, his lifestyle and his ego mania and forgot to develop the narrative completely. As a reader I want a book to define the situation and then take me through into the scenario described. This simply failed to capture my attention in any way. The ending was also absolutely dire

Dream Sequence is ostensibly a story about a woman who becomes obsessed with an actor and a book about "psychological damage, stalking, and the perils of celebrity" (quote taken from the blurb). But what it is actually about it something quite different - it's more of a portrait of a boring and self absorbed actor, and 60 something percent in to the book the woman (Kristin) actually becomes part of the narrative before the rushed ending falls flat. It was just really hard to believe in the motivations of any of the characters or care about what happened to any of them.

This book centers Henry Banks, who is a successful and very handsome actor, hoping to be the lead in a film by a genius Spanish director. Meanwhile, Kristin is a divorcée, who watches his British TV show all the time. Having seen him once at the airport, somehow she has an obsession that they are destined together.

This book is just over 200 pages, so it’s very condensed and I loved that there was nothing unnecessary in the story dragging on and on. Foulds gave us a really good characterisation of Henry and Kristin, which made the story very believable and successful. Henry is confident outside as most women fall for him just with a look, but inside is he that secure? And what is going on in his head? Foulds gives us an equally good analysis of Kristin, who’s deluded about Henry and can’t quite make the difference between his celebrity self and reality. Therefore we have an interesting relationship with beautiful writing, sometimes wit, interesting turn of events and a very good ending 🙂

All the characters were flawed, in already difficult and broken ‘celebrity’ dynamics of today. Foulds opened a slice of life in contemporary celebrity world with very well exploited characters and his interesting, enjoyable writing. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and would recommend definitely.

Thanks a lot to NeyGalley and the publisher for granting this free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly this book I found was not for me. I found difficulty in connecting with the characters and the story.
Thank you to both NetGalley and Random House for my eARC in exchange for my honest unbiased review

Exquisite, limpid prose and exceptional characterizations made this an engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable read. I loathe spoilers so don't want to discuss the plot itself, other than to say it's a celebrity-stalking gone wrong (although has there ever been one that's gone well?). As the lovestruck delusion plays out to its fatal conclusion we are given privileged back-of-the-eyes access to both the stalker and her unsuspecting beloved. Phrase by perfect phrase, sentence by limpid sentence Mr Foulds expertly invites us into greater intimacy with this star-crossed pair until we understand both them so well that, when their paths intersect for the second time we already know they (we?) are heading for disaster. By the third time, we can do nothing but look on, helplessly, as the victim, failing to spot who and what he is dealing with, carelessly ratchets the stakes up for himself. By their fourth meeting, I was busy trying to work out how to read from behind the sofa with my hands over my eyes. When the end finally came, I initially found it rather abrupt. But on reflection, I now feel the shock I was left with mirrors the shock all concerned would have felt when it happened. (I nearly said 'must have felt' when it happened, for such is how vivid these characters still seem.)

With thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for letting me see an advance copy of Dream Sequence in exchange for an unbiased review.

Dream Sequence is a slick and shallow tale of the dangers of celebrity.
Henry is a pretty boy actor who wants to be taken seriously after six years in a historical tv drama. He believes he is entitled to the cosseted world of celebrity, and all its' privileges. Henry sees himself in the process of becoming a demigod.
Kristin has had what she sees as a ‘meet-cute’ with Henry at an airport. She believes they are destined to be together. To Henry, he doesn't notice anyone who touches the hem of his garment unless they are famous or a supermodel.
Adam Foulds presents a serious off fascinatingly bland set pieces, wherein Henry's celebrity stock rises. Meanwhile, delusional Kristin propels herself towards her destiny with Henry. It all ends in tears.

This is one of the bizarrely beautiful books, it just doesn't surprise you that the writer, Adam Foulds also writes poetry, it adds up. I really enjoyed reading this, it's like a capsule I swallowed in one gulp.
I admired the way Foulds portrayed the self-centrist, superficial and from time to time annoying actor Henry. It was a pleasure to read him being "assessed" by the weird but wonderful(!) genius director, the scene will be stuck in my head forever. The whole book is a parody of how weird people can become for the things they've been obsessed, really.
Henry wants to be successful but does he understand success? He believes the director called Miguel will take him into the level he deserves. His personal choices are all dependant on his obsessions. The superficial-ness of the world he wanders in is erecting as a sharp witted humour.
From Henry to Virginia, or to poor Kristin, all the characters are broken in some way, and I loved this short novel for being an accurate slice of today's world in the context of celebrities (oups! C word.) Throughly enjoyed and I would not be surprised if this book is long-listed for a prize. Loved the ending.

Adam Foulds is a stunning writer and after reading The Quickening Maze, I started Dream Sequence with a degree of anticipation. There are passages of outstanding prose - Foulds has the ability to find the exact language for aspects of the human experience that would be almost impossible to put into words by a less skilled writer. But as a whole this novel doesn't deliver; I found it both predictable and irritating and would have liked a more even-handed, balanced treatment of the two main characters.

Henry Banks has spent the last six years in The Grange, a British TV series that we gather is something a bit like Downton Abbey. As he enters our story, he finds himself a front-runner for the lead role in the next Miguel Garcia movie. This is the kind of break aspiring actors pray for: Garcia makes <b>art</b> not just films and taking the lead in one of his productions would really put Henry on the map.

Meanwhile, and this is where the book actually opens, Kristin is recently divorced and now living on her own in Philadelphia. She has seen all the episodes of The Grange several times and, based on a brief accidental meeting at an airport, she believes Henry Banks is her soul-mate, even if he doesn’t know anything about it, and she writes to him twice a week declaring her love and planning their future together.

So, we have two people and both of them are obsessed with Henry Banks. A story is set in motion.

Well, sort of. This is my first Foulds novel and I have to say that it didn’t work for me. A lot of the reviews in the media praise the book for its acute observation and “psychological acuity”. And it is true that Foulds notices a lot. For my taste, he notices way too much and it starts to get in the way of the story. After we meet Kristin in the short opening chapter, we move to Henry and it is 125 pages (more than half the book) before we hear about Kristin again. Given that it is clear from the outset that the two of them are on a collision course, this felt to me far too long, far too much time spent telling a completely different story about Henry. It could have been fewer pages without all the detours for clever observations, but even then, it seems to be part of a different story about Henry than story that is set up in the opening chapter.

All that would be OK, I think (why not tell a couple of different stories - plenty of people have done similar things before?), if it weren’t for two other things. Firstly, I couldn’t get my head round Kristin and her actions: they are just the wrong side of believable. And secondly, the ending, when it comes, is like an emergency stop in a Formula 1 car. From 200mph to dead stop in about half a page.

So, with apologies to Adam Foulds, I have to acknowledge that this book just wasn’t for me. I can see that there is good writing here, but I couldn’t engage with either of the lead characters despite all the nice little turns of phrase. Add that to a rather implausible stalker and an ending that threatens to put you through the windscreen and iI just couldn’t make it work.

My thanks to Vintage Publishing for a copy of this book via NetGalley. Unfortunately, it was in exchange for an “honest review” and this is my honest reaction to the book.

I’m a bit ambivalent this book. It has good things about it but in the end I didn’t think it amounted to much.

Dream Sequence is the story (although the description “story” might be pushing it a bit) of Henry, a successful English TV actor hoping to be about to make it big in films and Kristin, a comfortably wealthy, drifting divorcée in the USA who once exchanged a word or two with Henry in passing at an airport and has now become obsessed with him, believing their love to be decreed by fate. We get separate accounts of their lives for the great bulk of the book as Henry goes about the business of being an actor and Kristin sets out for London to try to meet him.

Depending on your point of view it’s either full of beautifully observed detail which brings rich pictures of the characters, or a great deal of Fine Writing for its own sake which doesn’t tell us much we didn’t already know. I’m in the second camp, I’m afraid; to me, it seemed an awful lot of very little, exquisitely described. It was good enough to finish and things do take an unsettling turn right at the end, but I don’t really feel any better off for having read it. Adam Foulds does write beautifully much of the time, but even that gives way to a mannered style in places. He does like to hammer us with staccato nouns and adjectives; for example, I found these two sequential sentences a bit much: “He needed change, music, air. The flat was modern, built in the nineties, clean, spare, hard.” And then a couple of pages later (of Docklands), “Its appearance was anonymous, modular, global, financial.” Enough, already!

To be fair, much of it is perfectly readable; it’s just that I kept wondering why I was bothering to read it. Others may disagree, but for me this has far more style than style than substance (and the cynic in me is therefore rather expecting it to be nominated for the Booker Prize). Personally, I can’t really recommend it.

(My thanks to Vintage for an ARC via NetGalley.)

There are tragi-comic elements to this familiar literary theme of obsession with an unattainable object of desire. The narration switches between the two main characters - one a narcissistic actor and the other, his disturbed and delusional female stalker, with fateful (and indeed fatal) consequences. Their unlikely intertwined destiny is marked with portentous synchronicity: a Spider-Man toy which echoes the actor’s upcoming movie role as a super hero, and the connection of the inevitable dramatic conclusion to his previous theatrical role as Hamlet. Though the plot may seem contrived in parts, with a few implausible coincidences, the writing makes up for it with Foulds’ exquisite observational descriptions and felicitous turns of phrase – of which I noted these gems, among many:

A character’s large, square-framed glasses described as being ‘in the style of no style’

A man's body being 'simplified inside the diagram of his suit’

‘All of adulthood was a thin covering, a cheap electroplating ...'

And check out this lyrical evocation of a cormorant by the canal –
‘drying it's laundry of wet green wings’.

… magical!

This book delivers a glimpse into two lives that are worlds apart but which come together with, let's just say, an interesting conclusion.
Henry is an actor. When we first meet him he is desperate to land the lead what is billed as the next blockbuster film, having recently finished in a major tv drama. We are also introduced to Kristin who is a bit obsessed with Henry. Writing to him constantly and following him avidly on the internet and social media. She deludes herself that they are destined to be together and spots an opportunity when Henry is to appear on stage. So she ups and leaves her Philadelphia home and travels to London in order to realise her dreams.
This book was a little (lot) different to what I usual read. That said, I do like character driven books and you can't get much character driven that this one! Not that I actually liked many of the characters depicted in this story. Henry came across as rather entitled but also secretly insecure. But he didn't seem to have that air of vulnerability which would have endeared him to me more. Kristin was pretty much just bonkers in her celebrity stalking, but whether that was cause or effect of the way her life had turned out, I'm not too sure. Her descent is, at times, hard to watch as she becomes more and more determined to meet Henry but it was well planned and executed by the author. Henry's journey to the conclusion was a bit more colourful and really enhanced him as a character, albeit it more negatively than positively for me.
I like to feel satisfied when I conclude a book and I guess I was with this one. I was also shocked and a bit numb to be honest which did leave me a bit uncomfortable. But I guess that's probably the point the author was trying to make.
This is my first Adam Foulds book and, even though his style wasn't quite what I am used to, I did enjoy the journey he took his characters. My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

‘Henry. Henry was everywhere and nowhere, shaping everything. He was the key signature in which the music of her life was played.’

Adam Foulds’ new novel is a short (coming in at a little over 200 pages) meditation on the nature of celebrity-obsession. Henry Banks is an actor on the way up: having spent years in a successful TV period drama The Grange (I think we all know what this is an allusion to!), given the lead in a new movie by famed director Miguel Garcia, star of a west End run of Hamlet…. He has it all, and is dashingly good-looking to boot. Meanwhile, in Philadelphia, Kristin is newly divorced, alone, left clinging on to a Superman toy left by one of her stepsons so she wouldn’t feel lonely (again, Foulds has a delicate touch, as this subtly references later when Henry is up for a role in a Marvel superhero franchise). Kristin obsessively recalls a chance meeting with Henry in an airport the year before, and resolves to go to London to meet him again, convinced it is their destiny to be together.

Foulds sets the scene with deft touches: both characters are introduced as they set out one morning, their routines and habits subtly mirroring each other, post arriving, things to do. Their houses suggest their characters too: Kristin’s is ornately decorated, full of colour, while Henry’s Dockside apartment is all bare floors and white walls. The book switches between the 2 main characters as we get inside their heads: Henry is anxious, self-obsessed, insecure, fond of parties, drugs and one-night stands, while Kristin is unemployed, filling her days with yoga and dreaming of Henry. As the two stories start to come together the sense of the inevitable hangs over the book. Without giving away any spoilers, let’s just say it ends with an understated sense of drama and melancholy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and Foulds is a wonderful writer, able to capture a mood or a description with a poet’s compactness. I found the book hovering somewhere between a tragedy and a satire; the mood is often comic (Henry’s parents are a hoot, and his father’s put downs made me laugh out loud at times). Although we are in well-trodden territory there was enough to keep the book fresh and moving along: the fish-out-of-water set piece where Henry attends a film premiere in Qatar; the ‘zoo’ of the celebrity circuit, where normality is some hyper-extension of what us mere mortals experience; the mild-mannered stalker who seemingly has no idea of just how creepy they are… Some of Foulds’ descriptions are wonderful, especially of London itself: ‘London’s surplus of faces, of human versions, every permutation, all preoccupied, unconscious, milling towards something’.

Perhaps the characters were a little too shallow (did we really learn that much about Kristin?) but I found this an interesting take on the stalker theme, with Henry being almost as self-obsessed as Kristin. The sense of fate and destiny, of playing a role, are also crucial – as is the play Hamlet which, for those familiar with it, takes on an extra level of meaning as the novel ends…. Overall, this was a pleasure to read, and Foulds’ control of the English language is a joy to behold. I definitely recommend this.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of the book.)

This is a novel about celebrity and about stalking. I gave it a go but it wasn't to my personal taste.

There's much to admire here. Adam Foulds can certainly write. There are some lovely touches - a model's beauty is 'just this side of grotesque'; a couple visiting London from Bedford are 'just looking forward to getting home again' - and he is able to draw on a poet's gift for image without it looking like description for description's sake. But do the central characters have any depth and does the narrative have anything new to offer, beyond a picture of the emptiness of increasing celebrity? And while the ending is disappointing, the final lines are wistful and lovely. So a mixed pleasure but one worth persisting with.

Dream Sequence is a clear, cleanly written investigation of the murky topics of madness and sanity, focused on Henry, a British actor at the top of his career. A quick read and a modern book, unsettling.
Is madness an increased sensitivity to the world, an ability to glory in a sunlit cloud or a beautiful man? And what is the sanity or madness of an actor, who remakes themselves to an extent to reflect others. And where is the soul in all this?

This scenario has been tackled so many times in genre crime fiction (the psychologically damaged fantasist who believes s/he has a connection with a celebrity) that transferred into a more serious treatment here, it paradoxically appears underpowered. There's lots of detail about the handsome, self-absorbed young actor and his artsy London life, but the clash with his super-fan is more flat than chilling.

Gould's writing, to me, has a muddy quality about it: it's not quite as sharp and clear as I'd like. An interesting take on a familiar story of the perils of celebrity.