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Your Dreams
“I’m so close to falling apart. Fuck it. Who isn’t?”
Thomas Moore’s latest novel Your Dreams, the follow-up to 2021’s devastating Forever, is a visceral yet contained inquiry into the endless need to be understood. Eavesdropping on a debate about cancelled bands, listening to a close friend’s explanation of his disturbing desires, facilitating a conversation about kinks at a party until it goes wrong, Moore’s narrator is less of a character than a witness of desperate disconnection. Your Dreams, despite its impulse to hide, faces the reader head-on in an intimate unmasking, still grasping for closeness in a world of limits.
“Simple words. Deep emotions … beyond prose to another plane. Openness that pours through you.”
Jack Skelley, The Los Angeles Review of Books
“Thomas Moore is one of the best writers the world has in stock.”
Dennis Cooper
Thomas Moore’s latest novel Your Dreams, the follow-up to 2021’s devastating Forever, is a visceral yet contained inquiry into the endless need to be understood. Eavesdropping on a debate about cancelled bands, listening to a close friend’s explanation of his disturbing desires, facilitating a conversation about kinks at a party until it goes wrong, Moore’s narrator is less of a character than a witness of desperate disconnection. Your Dreams, despite its impulse to hide, faces the reader head-on in an intimate unmasking, still grasping for closeness in a world of limits.
“Simple words. Deep emotions … beyond prose to another plane. Openness that pours through you.”
Jack Skelley, The Los Angeles Review of Books
“Thomas Moore is one of the best writers the world has in stock.”
Dennis Cooper
106 pages, Paperback
Published April 26, 2023
3 people are currently reading
606 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Moore
16 books258 followersThomas Moore's writing has appeared in various publications in Europe and America. His novella, GRAVES (2011), and his book of poems, The Night Is An Empire(2013), were both published by Kiddiepunk. His first novel, A Certain Kind of Light(2013), was published by Rebel Satori Press. His book of poems, Skeleton Costumes, was published by Kiddiepunk in 2014 and again as an expanded second edition in 2015. His second novel, In Their Arms, was published by Rebel Satori in October 2016. A collection of poems, When People Die, was published in 2018 by Kiddiepunk. Also in 2018, Moore collaborated with visual artist Steven Purtill on their book Small Talk at the Clinic, published by Amphetamine Sulphate. Thomas Moore's third novel,Alone, was released in June 2020. His fourth novel, Forever, was published by Amphetamine Sulphate in October 2021. His new novel, Your Dreams, was published in 2023 by Amphetamine Sulphate.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 25, 2023
Full Review
Your Dreams is an incredibly amazing and devastating work. It explores trauma and coping mechanisms in a painfully real and honest way. It looks at the distance between people’s fantasies and reality with incredible empathy. It even examines itself as a piece of fiction in a unique way that doesn’t feel like a postmodern gimmick at all. Thomas Moore again proves himself as one of the best writers today. I can think of no other author who explores pain, desire, love, and loneliness as vividly as he does.
Your Dreams is an incredibly amazing and devastating work. It explores trauma and coping mechanisms in a painfully real and honest way. It looks at the distance between people’s fantasies and reality with incredible empathy. It even examines itself as a piece of fiction in a unique way that doesn’t feel like a postmodern gimmick at all. Thomas Moore again proves himself as one of the best writers today. I can think of no other author who explores pain, desire, love, and loneliness as vividly as he does.
May 1, 2023
Review to come
May 2, 2023
The new Thomas Moore novel is everything I could hope for. Deeply incisive and poetic. I'm already reading it again.
June 5, 2023
Absolutely breathtaking. Heartbreaking, comforting, scarring. It is hard to find words to describe literature that is this well crafted whilst also being this vulnerable and obliterating.
It seems impossible to imagine, given the quality of his previous work, but Thomas Moore just gets better and better with every novel.
A singular and groundbreaking writer.
I cannot recommend this novel more highly.
It seems impossible to imagine, given the quality of his previous work, but Thomas Moore just gets better and better with every novel.
A singular and groundbreaking writer.
I cannot recommend this novel more highly.
May 25, 2025
— "I don't hate my body. I've learned to just let it exist as it does separately from - whatever else is left of me? And I certainly won't spend time trying to pull that into view, force something into being definable. I don't want any of my thoughts pinned down, I don't want anything to be concrete, I want ideas to counteract each other, to exist in disagreement, to go in a million directions at once, to be able to change, morph, to be anything and everything at once - different, the same and something else at the same time.
In my dreams I'm barely there."
In my dreams I'm barely there."
May 20, 2023
3.5 stars. Intense. Didn’t quite come together as one cohesive piece for me but I liked a lot of what I read.
May 28, 2023
Let's get something out the way first. This book is not a novel. It's barely a novella. I've read short stories online (for free) that have been longer. And if anything, this book is even more fragmentary and opaque than his last two. However. Having said all that. There is something about it. A sensation? A conjuring? I don't know. It's certainly nothing as simple as a single beautiful line or an insightful paragraph, although there are both of those things here if that's what you're looking for. And yet, I think this is what makes Moore so interesting. Because his writing is now paired back to such an extent that it's actually hardly there anymore. This work is less like a novel and more like a feeling. The feeling that envelopes once you put it down. The feeling behind the words, behind the page, a truth, of sorts, bleeding to the surface through the empty margins. I'm always surprised where I find pieces of myself, and never more when I find them in Moores work, scattered like puzzle pieces, glinting, ephemeral and dreamlike in the empty space around the words, just waiting to jump out and surprise me.
Also, man, those last 2 chapters. Lol. If you know, you know. It's an interesting work. More like an essay than a novel, but like an essay, something to be pulled apart and studied, something to keep coming back to.
Also, man, those last 2 chapters. Lol. If you know, you know. It's an interesting work. More like an essay than a novel, but like an essay, something to be pulled apart and studied, something to keep coming back to.
July 27, 2023
This is the third novel I’ve read by Thomas Moore, and each time his writing has impressed and shocked me a little bit more. He is a talented writer without a doubt, who pushes boundaries about as far as they can be stretched.
It’s not so much that what he writes is shocking, it’s more how he makes you question yourself and how much of yourself you see reflected in his writing. He explores the rawest and most challenging aspects of queer life, and the emotional landscapes they create.
‘Your Dreams’ might be his darkest one yet. Essentially it’s centred around the internet, and the some of the darkest of human fantasies. It looks at consent, boundaries and explores just how much we can tolerate before enough is too much.
It also looks at relationships, and asks us how much do we really want to know? Is the truth actually what we want or need?
This is certainly a dark one, and probably the best, in my opinion, of the three of his works I’ve read so far. But it’s a challenging one, so perhaps don’t go in blind.
It’s not so much that what he writes is shocking, it’s more how he makes you question yourself and how much of yourself you see reflected in his writing. He explores the rawest and most challenging aspects of queer life, and the emotional landscapes they create.
‘Your Dreams’ might be his darkest one yet. Essentially it’s centred around the internet, and the some of the darkest of human fantasies. It looks at consent, boundaries and explores just how much we can tolerate before enough is too much.
It also looks at relationships, and asks us how much do we really want to know? Is the truth actually what we want or need?
This is certainly a dark one, and probably the best, in my opinion, of the three of his works I’ve read so far. But it’s a challenging one, so perhaps don’t go in blind.
June 24, 2023
i have to admit i have a bias when it comes to any of thomas’ work because i adore him but god damn. your dreams is so fuckin heart breaking and raw. the way Thomas encapsulates vulnerabilities and emotions is genuinely unmatched
May 11, 2023
“He uses his work to validate his obsessions. One
of the only ways that he can escape the fact that
he's obsessed with suffering, that he's selfish to his
own desires and cares little about anything else, is to
write it down, to switch the angle until things appear
artful, purposeful, like he's offering. In reality, he's
taking everything he can get and will until the day
that he finally gives up on it all. He's selfish enough
to do that.”
Very queer very bummer collage of desires and memories bumping up against some like superegoic reprimands. In this case, as differing from what I’ve read of Moore in the past, the superego impulse involves a kinda ~ghost from ~recent cancel culture, I.e. characters and feelings that interrupt the revelations of desire to be like uh, no, that’s problematic, or like Wtf u are wrong to think about f*cking kids!! Whereas (still here and) in the other Moore oeuvre the relationships built from sex and friendship are tempered w like depression and trauma. I don’t have the rhetoric to fully argue this point, but I kept thinking how this is the correct counter argument to Munoz’ queer utopianism. the perpetual irresolution of identity or truth isn’t a moral telos, there’s no pot of gold at the end of the queer rainbow. Though the ride certainly beats others imo.
Seems silly to “sum it up” like this. Like reviewing the remains of footsteps in sand.
Really all interior play, the speaker’s emotional and mental dynamics forefronted from “real life” happening “out there,” in clipped fragments like little echoes still reveal grand space. How minimalism inheres maximalism. Safe to say that that is The Moore style. I liked especially the ultimate fully meta ending.
Kinda wish I read it over the space of like weeks rather than 30 minutes though there’s nothing to stop me from doing just that. The physics of the prose lend more to poetry than the novel. So yeah all y’all saying to read it in one sitting are Wrong in my opinion haha.
of the only ways that he can escape the fact that
he's obsessed with suffering, that he's selfish to his
own desires and cares little about anything else, is to
write it down, to switch the angle until things appear
artful, purposeful, like he's offering. In reality, he's
taking everything he can get and will until the day
that he finally gives up on it all. He's selfish enough
to do that.”
Very queer very bummer collage of desires and memories bumping up against some like superegoic reprimands. In this case, as differing from what I’ve read of Moore in the past, the superego impulse involves a kinda ~ghost from ~recent cancel culture, I.e. characters and feelings that interrupt the revelations of desire to be like uh, no, that’s problematic, or like Wtf u are wrong to think about f*cking kids!! Whereas (still here and) in the other Moore oeuvre the relationships built from sex and friendship are tempered w like depression and trauma. I don’t have the rhetoric to fully argue this point, but I kept thinking how this is the correct counter argument to Munoz’ queer utopianism. the perpetual irresolution of identity or truth isn’t a moral telos, there’s no pot of gold at the end of the queer rainbow. Though the ride certainly beats others imo.
Seems silly to “sum it up” like this. Like reviewing the remains of footsteps in sand.
Really all interior play, the speaker’s emotional and mental dynamics forefronted from “real life” happening “out there,” in clipped fragments like little echoes still reveal grand space. How minimalism inheres maximalism. Safe to say that that is The Moore style. I liked especially the ultimate fully meta ending.
Kinda wish I read it over the space of like weeks rather than 30 minutes though there’s nothing to stop me from doing just that. The physics of the prose lend more to poetry than the novel. So yeah all y’all saying to read it in one sitting are Wrong in my opinion haha.
May 17, 2025
“I’m so close to falling apart. Fuck it. Who isn’t?”
I love Thomas Moore. I can’t even recall how I stumbled upon his work, only that I’m grateful that I did. In a world full of commodified and sanitized mainstream queer authors, it’s a breath of fresh air to read from an author that focuses on the transgressive human experience that happens to be from a queer voice. I know the term “transgressive” has become controversial, and a lot of authors hate it, but I use it because it has helped me find these amazing works of fiction by authors and voices that I’m so interested in hearing from. Thomas Moore reminds me of Dennis Cooper, but softer and sweeter. When I say softer and sweeter, that probably doesn’t paint a full picture of his narrative voice. I’m not trying to be condescending. I don’t say this to mean he doesn’t have bite. He does. It’s just that there’s a sad heart to his stories that permeates his work despite the dark and bleak narrative. Your Dreams follows our protagonist to New York as he prepares himself to speak with one of his oldest friends, who’s inner darkness has revealed itself, and the two find themselves at the most honest and raw conversation two people could ever had. The rest of the novel explores the theme of intimacy in a world with limits, reflects on the complexities of human connection and the need for understanding, particularly in the context of desire and the blurring lines between fantasy and reality. I loved what the protagonist had to say about their experience as a queer man, and how they felt divorced from “the community” and people in general. I loved how the author writes about the complexities of having a “body” and how our relationship with our own body and the bodies of others can shape and change us and the way we move through the world. I loved the dreamy aspect of exploring peoples’ fantasies and desires, and navigating understanding each other’s. There’s a chapter that featured internet posts by people looking for sexual and depraved art, and I loved how that part reminded me of Amygdalatropolis, one of my favourite books. I loved the exploration on how all any of us want is someone to love us in all our darkest parts. The ending peels back the narrative and offers a more direct look at Thomas Moore’s raw and honest feelings, and I absolutely loved it. He takes a shot at the literary landscape on social media and admits to pouring very true parts of himself into his work, while also admitting that he keeps the real dark stuff hidden away from even the people he knows in real life. I’m one of the “egotistical” social media users he takes a shot at, and I loved this ending and his work. I hope that his upcoming works aren’t afraid to be “ugly”, raw and real. I want him to lash out. I want him to hurt me. I want him to write from a darker place, exorcize his experiences and use fiction as a vehicle to navigate some dark and depraved stuff. I hope he knows that he’s gained a readership who will follow him through it. Or at least, I know that I will. I loved how dark and fucked up this book was, the ideas it explored and the ideas it was hinting at. Though I do wish it focused more on the narrator and John’s relationship. I wanted to be inside John’s head, read a book from his perspective. John’s conversation with the narrator was so impactful and will always stick with me. There was a dark honesty there that most humans can’t reckon with. I resonated with so much that was said here. I can’t specify what. But a lot of it was towards the end. This book may have a dark heart or was made with dark intentions but it was raw and real and it spoke to me in a way that made me feel less alone. Sometimes you need someone just as messed up as you are to show you are not alone. I hope Thomas Moore knows that he’s reaching people. Like-minded people who feel the same way. Who have survived the same things, who have been hurt and been the person who has done the hurting. I hope he feels less alone. I know I do.
“I love you. Please, no matter what - never give up on me.”
I love Thomas Moore. I can’t even recall how I stumbled upon his work, only that I’m grateful that I did. In a world full of commodified and sanitized mainstream queer authors, it’s a breath of fresh air to read from an author that focuses on the transgressive human experience that happens to be from a queer voice. I know the term “transgressive” has become controversial, and a lot of authors hate it, but I use it because it has helped me find these amazing works of fiction by authors and voices that I’m so interested in hearing from. Thomas Moore reminds me of Dennis Cooper, but softer and sweeter. When I say softer and sweeter, that probably doesn’t paint a full picture of his narrative voice. I’m not trying to be condescending. I don’t say this to mean he doesn’t have bite. He does. It’s just that there’s a sad heart to his stories that permeates his work despite the dark and bleak narrative. Your Dreams follows our protagonist to New York as he prepares himself to speak with one of his oldest friends, who’s inner darkness has revealed itself, and the two find themselves at the most honest and raw conversation two people could ever had. The rest of the novel explores the theme of intimacy in a world with limits, reflects on the complexities of human connection and the need for understanding, particularly in the context of desire and the blurring lines between fantasy and reality. I loved what the protagonist had to say about their experience as a queer man, and how they felt divorced from “the community” and people in general. I loved how the author writes about the complexities of having a “body” and how our relationship with our own body and the bodies of others can shape and change us and the way we move through the world. I loved the dreamy aspect of exploring peoples’ fantasies and desires, and navigating understanding each other’s. There’s a chapter that featured internet posts by people looking for sexual and depraved art, and I loved how that part reminded me of Amygdalatropolis, one of my favourite books. I loved the exploration on how all any of us want is someone to love us in all our darkest parts. The ending peels back the narrative and offers a more direct look at Thomas Moore’s raw and honest feelings, and I absolutely loved it. He takes a shot at the literary landscape on social media and admits to pouring very true parts of himself into his work, while also admitting that he keeps the real dark stuff hidden away from even the people he knows in real life. I’m one of the “egotistical” social media users he takes a shot at, and I loved this ending and his work. I hope that his upcoming works aren’t afraid to be “ugly”, raw and real. I want him to lash out. I want him to hurt me. I want him to write from a darker place, exorcize his experiences and use fiction as a vehicle to navigate some dark and depraved stuff. I hope he knows that he’s gained a readership who will follow him through it. Or at least, I know that I will. I loved how dark and fucked up this book was, the ideas it explored and the ideas it was hinting at. Though I do wish it focused more on the narrator and John’s relationship. I wanted to be inside John’s head, read a book from his perspective. John’s conversation with the narrator was so impactful and will always stick with me. There was a dark honesty there that most humans can’t reckon with. I resonated with so much that was said here. I can’t specify what. But a lot of it was towards the end. This book may have a dark heart or was made with dark intentions but it was raw and real and it spoke to me in a way that made me feel less alone. Sometimes you need someone just as messed up as you are to show you are not alone. I hope Thomas Moore knows that he’s reaching people. Like-minded people who feel the same way. Who have survived the same things, who have been hurt and been the person who has done the hurting. I hope he feels less alone. I know I do.
“I love you. Please, no matter what - never give up on me.”
August 20, 2023
“I used to pretend that dreams were the real world and the real world was a dream.”
Where does the shoreline of reality meet the expanse of our endless dreaming? A narrator boards a flight across the unconscious Atlantic to New York, nocturnal city of dreams, with the dread-inducing aim of confronting an old friend. In a confession of brutal honesty, the book shatters into a myriad of fantasies that ripple outwards. Thomas Moore’s Your Dreams lives at this haunted crossroads: a liminal border at the threshold of fantasies indulged and erased. The narrator wanders through Manhattan, phantoms sodomised beneath a vanished pier. A lonely voice floats through the phone receiver of an adult chat line. Moore’s vignettes chart the moment a fantasy becomes shared with others, an interplay between interior and external worlds: the description of a dripping werewolf cock, an untitled folder on a desktop, the look in a partner’s eyes when they realise they never really knew the secret wish of their lover’s heart. Is the human body a cruel riddle? The book ends with Moore tracing his own reflection in a lacerating exploration of the public and private selves we trade in every day. A mask to fuck and love, a bitter kiss on the lips. Keep looking at me, that’s it. You’re inside my mind now. I think I’m gonna cum.
Where does the shoreline of reality meet the expanse of our endless dreaming? A narrator boards a flight across the unconscious Atlantic to New York, nocturnal city of dreams, with the dread-inducing aim of confronting an old friend. In a confession of brutal honesty, the book shatters into a myriad of fantasies that ripple outwards. Thomas Moore’s Your Dreams lives at this haunted crossroads: a liminal border at the threshold of fantasies indulged and erased. The narrator wanders through Manhattan, phantoms sodomised beneath a vanished pier. A lonely voice floats through the phone receiver of an adult chat line. Moore’s vignettes chart the moment a fantasy becomes shared with others, an interplay between interior and external worlds: the description of a dripping werewolf cock, an untitled folder on a desktop, the look in a partner’s eyes when they realise they never really knew the secret wish of their lover’s heart. Is the human body a cruel riddle? The book ends with Moore tracing his own reflection in a lacerating exploration of the public and private selves we trade in every day. A mask to fuck and love, a bitter kiss on the lips. Keep looking at me, that’s it. You’re inside my mind now. I think I’m gonna cum.
October 12, 2024
This book kind of ebbs and flows from section to section in a way that makes me wonder if it should have been a few shorts instead, but there is an emotive logic and consistency throughout that makes everything feel connected. The way the book started really resonated with some experiences I am having currently until it took a hard turn (if you read this you'll most likely know what I'm referring to), but Thomas writes so evocatively that every moment spent is always a good one. Not sure if I liked this or Forever more, but I really enjoyed this read.
April 30, 2025
masterful. musings on fantasy, on sex, on death. thomas moore is the closest heir to dennis cooper i've found, but is completely unique in his own right. he spins sentences that are so compelling, i couldn't even dream of them. so excited for his newest novel, coming out so soon!
September 20, 2025
Finally got my hands on a book by this guy. I read it very quickly, I will need to read it again for sure. Instant new favourite though, I feel so personally connected to it and I love the writing so much.
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December 16, 2023hurts doc
October 1, 2024
Sorry if I was screaming at the end. I couldn't help it. It was THAT GOOD!
December 17, 2024
God damn
September 17, 2023
I've been sitting with this book for a few days now after finishing it. I rarely review in full written format books that I have read on this site because I don't really know who will read them or care enough to read them. So, I write reviews on books I enjoy (or in the case of one book I truly hated, do not) to get some thoughts out there. Anyways, onto what I thought of this book
Your Dreams is a brutal read. It is a devastating meditation on disassociation and vulnerability. This is my first book from Moore and after this, I am craving more from him. Your Dreams affected me in ways that a lot of literature (not even just transgressive literature) does not. For a few nights, I found myself trying to sleep and could not get this book out of my head.
This book goes to some dark places and does it in a way that is not shocking for the sake of being shocking. Everything in here has a purpose. I loved the section that felt like a scroll through one's search history after a depraved masturbation session. The feeling I got from it was a great distillation of how this entire book felt for me.
This book reminded me a lot of the album A Promise by Xiu Xiu. A record that is near and dear to my heart. Moore's writing made me feel the way listening to songs off that album felt for me the first time. It felt perverse and voyeuristic, a brief but revealing glimpse into the darkest parts of a person.
This book was fantastic, I look forward to exploring more of Moore's works. I loved this book
Your Dreams is a brutal read. It is a devastating meditation on disassociation and vulnerability. This is my first book from Moore and after this, I am craving more from him. Your Dreams affected me in ways that a lot of literature (not even just transgressive literature) does not. For a few nights, I found myself trying to sleep and could not get this book out of my head.
This book goes to some dark places and does it in a way that is not shocking for the sake of being shocking. Everything in here has a purpose. I loved the section that felt like a scroll through one's search history after a depraved masturbation session. The feeling I got from it was a great distillation of how this entire book felt for me.
This book reminded me a lot of the album A Promise by Xiu Xiu. A record that is near and dear to my heart. Moore's writing made me feel the way listening to songs off that album felt for me the first time. It felt perverse and voyeuristic, a brief but revealing glimpse into the darkest parts of a person.
This book was fantastic, I look forward to exploring more of Moore's works. I loved this book
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews