As a long time fan of Blake, it's one of my most anticipated books and OH MY GOD, you are not ready for the absolute masterpiece that is Dreamland! Olivie Blake has truly outdone herself with this one, creating a dark, shimmering, and totally addictive gothic fever dream that I haven't been able to stop thinking about! It is easily a 5*PLUS read because it takes the glitz of old Hollywood and rots it from the inside out in the most beautiful way possible.

The story follows Anya, an actress who is so hungry for fame she’s willing to step into a world of occult secrets and blood-stained deals, and honestly, her ambition is so raw and relatable it hurts.

The atmosphere in this book is just incredible; you can practically feel the oppressive Los Angeles heat and the eerie Santa Ana winds blowing through the pages. When Anya meets the mysterious and reclusive Jude de Witt in his crumbling, gilded mansion, the tension is so thick you could cut it with a knife. Their connection is magnetic, dangerous, and completely intoxicating, making it impossible to put the book down. Blake’s writing is at its absolute peak here; it’s poetic, sharp, and so smart that it makes you want to highlight every single sentence.

What really makes this a perfect book is how it looks at the cost of our dreams and the dark side of storytelling. It’s inspired by legendary Hollywood mysteries like the Black Dahlia, and it handles themes of power and sacrifice with so much grace and grit.

If you love stories that are a little bit gory, deeply romantic in a tragic way, and filled with intellectual twists, Dreamland is going to be your new obsession. It is a haunting, gorgeous, and totally unforgettable ride that everyone needs to read immediately!

Thank you very much for the ARC, much much appreciated!!

This was a WILD ride and I loved every 👏🏼 damn 👏🏼 second 👏🏼

This book gave me those creepy Silvia Moreno-Garcia vibes, then added in an unconventional love story, a peek behind the polished veneer of Hollywood and a plot that kept me guessing right to the end.
Our two main characters, Anya and Jude are messy, raw and compelling as helllllllll to read about. They gave us thought-provoking and, at times, relatable narratives - I particularly enjoyed the commentary around ambition and desire, and how unapologetic Anya was in her pursuit of them. Girl, we loveeee to see it 😆
I am so impressed with how Olivie Blake is able to give us something completely different with every book yet each still have that mesmerising, atmospheric writing style that I ADORE 🫶🏻 will read anything she writes at this point!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I found Dreamland to be another completely mesmerising read from an author I already love, and honestly it might be one of my favourites yet. I went in excited and it absolutely delivered that signature Olivie Blake magic it was atmospheric, thought provoking and utterly addictive from the off.
Set against the hazy, dangerous backdrop of Los Angeles during a summer of unease and violence, this story pulled me straight into Anya’s world. Her ambition,frustration, and that desperate hunger for something more. When she stepped into the orbit of the enigmatic de Witt family, I knew things were going to get complicate and I was hooked!
The villa,the legacy, the whispers of something darker lurking beneath the surface all created this intoxicating, almost dreamlike tension. And Jude well!! the mystery, the pull, the danger I couldn’t look away. The dynamic between him and Anya was magnetic and layered with temptation, secrets and that constant sense of “this might end badly” and yet you can’t stop hoping.
What I loved most was how this explored ambition and desire, what we’re willing to ignore, what we justify, and how far we’ll go when everything we’ve ever wanted feels within reach. It’s clever haunting and quietly unsettling in a way that really lingers.
Perfect for fans of The Atlas Six, dark literary fantasy and character driven stories with an edge
This was immersive, beautifully written and completely consumingI was lost in it from beginning to end. The atmosphere, the characters, the underlying unease made it all came together perfectly.
A stunning, seductive and thought provoking read that proves yet again why Olivie Blake is a must-read author for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, this was everything I hoped for and more

Dreamland is a gorgeously dark, intoxicating gothic mystery that takes the glitter of Los Angeles and turns it into something sharp enough to cut. Olivie Blake has a gift for writing stories that feel like fever dreams — lush, unsettling, and threaded with a kind of glamour that’s equal parts seductive and dangerous — and Dreamland captures that beautifully.

Anya Morris is a compelling centre to the chaos. Fresh off a heartbreakingly close brush with Hollywood success, she’s hungry, ambitious, and just vulnerable enough to be drawn into the orbit of the de Witt family. William de Witt, all fading charm and cryptic promises, offers her a shortcut into the world she’s desperate to break into. All she has to do is spend time with his son, Jude — a man hidden away behind illness, mystery, and a magnetic pull that feels almost supernatural.

The de Witt estate is where the novel truly blooms. Blake paints it with a decadent, rotting elegance: rooms heavy with secrets, corridors that seem to breathe, and an atmosphere thick with old blood and older bargains. As Anya is drawn deeper into Jude’s world, the line between reality and something darker begins to blur. Is the house cursed? Is Jude touched by something occult? Or is Hollywood itself the real haunting — a place where ambition becomes a kind of possession?

The backdrop of a burning Los Angeles adds a feverish urgency, mirroring Anya’s own unraveling. The murders, the whispers, the sense that fame demands a price — it all builds into a story that feels both mythic and painfully modern. Blake explores the hunger for recognition with a sharp, knowing edge, asking how far someone might go to be seen, and what they might lose along the way.

Atmospheric, seductive, and quietly devastating, Dreamland is a gothic mystery that lingers like smoke — a story about ambition, obsession, and the monsters we become when the world promises us everything we’ve ever wanted.

With thanks to Olivie Blake, the publisher and netgalley for the ARC