I received an eARC as part of the blog tour in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.
Genre: Fantasy
Age range: MG
Star Rating: 4 stars
Series: standalone
Blurb:
In a strange little village called Witchetty Hollow, eleven-year-old Florizel is the first to run into the curious visitors who’ve come to open a brand new Daydream Delicatessen and sack-baby factory.
At first, it seems the daydream confection and cheap sack children are the best things that could have happened to the poor folk of the Hollow – after all, who has the money to rent their child from Storkhouse Services these days? But after a few weeks, Florizel starts to notice something odd happening to the adults of the town. First, they seem dreamy, then they lose all interest in their jobs and families. Soon they’re trading all their worldly goods in the newly-opened Pawnshop for money to buy daydreams. With no money for rent payments, the children of Witchetty Hollow are being reclaimed by Storkhouse Services at an alarming rate. Florizel needs to act.
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
THE PAWNSHOP OF STOLEN DREAMS is a Middle Grade novel that manages the delicate combination of being both charming and hopeful while also being rather dark.
This is an inventive world where there aren’t enough children so they have to be rented from agencies for a varying fee, leaving the children and their families to live in fear of missing payments. Fees varying based on things like academic performance, so children from poorer houses deliberately fail in school to keep their rents down.
The other way the world is profiting off a lack of children is through the creation of “sack babies”, children made from fabric and stuffing. The book uses them to explore how cruel people can be to those deemed “lesser.” Sack babies can walk and talk and thing, but as they’re not human, there is plenty of prejudice against them. However, the primary sack baby we meet is charming and provides much of the comedy of the book as he learns about the world.
It is quite a dark concept, about how capitalism would profit from a lack of children. The book has quite a creepy tone thanks to the dangerous allure of a brand new sweetshop and all the odd happenings around it. However, there is so much hope in the book, as it’s ultimately a tale of friendship and sticking up for your community.
Read my reviews of other books by Victoria Williamson:
Middle Grade:
Standalones:
Young Adult:
Feast of Ashes:
- FEAST OF ASHES (#1)
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 