Dreamland

by Olivie Blake

DELUXE EDITION—a beautiful hardcover edition featuring sprayed edges, a designed case stamp, and fully illustrated color endpapers.

From New York Times bestselling author Olivie Blake comes a tantalizing story of power, seduction, and the omens you’ll ignore when everything you’ve dreamed of feels just within reach.

The headlines are calling it the "summer of exsanguination" in LA—girls are being murdered, the Santa Ana winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, and all signs point to fire season.

More pressing for Anya Morris, though, is the drudgery of living at home, working part time at the family store, and contending with her mother's disdain for the acting career Anya knows she's destined for but that feels more impossible by the day.

It’s in this suffocating late summer heat that Anya receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, an invitation to work for the de Witt family, one of LA’s most influential film dynasties. Soon, she’s spending her days and nights at their strange villa high in the Hollywood hills, where she meets Jude, a recluse who is both the family’s heir apparent and its most closely guarded secret.

There’s a magnetism to Jude that Anya cannot resist, despite warning signs that scream like sirens in the night. Because the villa holds generations of bloodstained history, and an occult family curse may even live within its walls—or within Jude himself.

In this city, everyone cuts a deal with the devil. When Anya comes face to face with a devil of her own, she’ll learn just how far she’s willing to go to get everything she’s ever wanted.

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Adult, Gothic, Thriller, Contemporary, Mystery Thriller

368 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication August 20, 2026

About the author

Olivie Blake is the pseudonym of Alexene Farol Follmuth, a lover and writer of stories, many of which involve the fantastic, the paranormal, or the supernatural, but not always. More often, her works revolve around what it means to be human (or not), and the endlessly interesting complexities of life and love.
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Olivie has penned several indie SFF projects, including the webtoon Clara and the Devil with illustrator Little Chmura and the viral Atlas series. As Follmuth, her young adult rom-com My Mechanical Romance releases May 2022.

Olivie lives in Los Angeles with her husband and new baby, where she is generally tolerated by her rescue pit bull.

Reviews

[hamna · Rating 2 out of 5]

breathed a sigh of relief that it's finally over. this book is so painfully uninspired, it actually sucked to read for a good majority. i feel like i know /what/ she's trying to accomplish here, what threads the author is trying to pull, what narrative she's trying to create. it just falls apart so abysmally. there's at least three different ways this book veers off into that lead to nowhere.. which is like, okay maybe it was supposed to play a background role, but the constant emphasis...all for a plot that's simultaneously predictable but also very?? messy??...and kinda awful. if i am being honest. the writing feels overwritten too, or maybe it's just that this book doesn't call to be written in the way that it. is. written. there's no drive to the story, the miscontrued and hastily reconstructed narrative doesn't hold any weight to it, and i did not care about the romance. at all. it felt like a chore to read and was too par the course (derogatory) while also, kinda, coming out of nowhere. anyway, yeah. i mean sure what the hell. it's definitely a book. it's just kind of bland..and ultimately, pointless.
thank you to tor for the advance copy. (if you think this review is confusing, just wait until you read the book.)

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me, Olivie Blake books hit, or they dont. This, unfortunately, didn't. It's way overwritten. This is for someone who isn't me.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't even read it yet, and I already know in my bones that this is going to be pretentious, fucked up, unlikeable as hell and so deeply relatable. I'm going to copy Juliette and count down the days until this release because I needed it on my doorstep yesterday, no, actually years ago. Olivie Blake is unstoppable, and I will read EVERYTHING she writes until I die.

[heba]

another olivie blake to add to my collection, thank you queen💥💳

[larissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

i usually love olivie but this book was a mess, i wish i knew what was going on for the most part!! there were some good moments of writing, but overall it was way too confusing, and i didn’t really care about the characters either

[Jaci Giordano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olivie Blake continuously impresses me with her ability to write uniquely themed and well executed stories. Dreamland is haunting, thrilling, and intoxicatingly grotesque. I couldn’t put it down. If you’re a fan of her books like I am, this one does NOT disappoint.

There’s this underlying question poised– can you survive the cost of your wildest dream? I could see this movie play out in my head which is exactly how she has it written to be (you’ll get it once you read it).

It’s a bit ambiguous at times but I think the ending perfectly encapsulated the frustration of not knowing all the details to every gothic story told and why we can’t know. I can’t wait to have the physical copy sit on my shelf!

[thelamaesque]

Another one, thank you ♥️

[clicktojointhemafia]

ready for another banger by ms blake

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a testament to Olivie Blake that I will happily read anything she writes even when it’s as not-for-me as this book is. Even after reading this book, which is probably one of my least favorites of hers, I think that sentiment only got stronger. I appreciate the experimental writing and genre exploration. However, I was just so lost for so long, and the drive of the story wasn’t really there for me. The “romance” was not convincing, and overall the plot and commentary were just too murky for me to really get invested or get anything out of it. There’s a lot of good atmospheric elements and details, but ultimately the larger threads of the story were not woven together tightly enough for me.
As far as genre categorization goes, I almost want to say it should be put under science fiction? I know one part of Olivie Blake’s books that is so appealing is the unclassifiableness, but so far I’ve seen this under “fantasy” which I don’t think is accurate. It’s also not thrilling enough to be a thriller, for me.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published August 18, 2026.

DNF at 55%

I selected this book because I loved Blake’s GIRL DINNER and I was looking forward to reading more by her. However, this was quite different from that and though I gave it a good try I could just not bring myself to care about the ultimate fates of the two main characters (though it looked to be both bloody and predictable, if I had to guess.) I dreaded going back to the book each time I picked it up. And there was a lot of driving around, which I guess is typical for L.A. but didn’t make it any less boring.

[Happy Booker]

My mother worked in the Hollywood police department-Hobart division. She was the only woman working the Black Dahlia case. I've read many, many books on the Dahlia however not one got the secrets held back by police to this day. My mother finally told me what was held back when she knew her time was close to the end of her life. I've yet read it it any fiction or nonfiction but still look so I can share it before my time is up! Looking very forward to this one!

[louise ʚଓ]

mrs. blake you are on fire

[eerika (taylor's version)]

if this is bad, i will cry. it sounds so good PLEASE DONT LET ME DOWNN OLIVIE BLAKE!!!!!

[Catherine Mathes]

I'd like to thank god (Olivie) for continuously feeding us.