Shadows in Dream Stone

by Kelly K. Branyik

What if the laws of nature resulted in imprisonment at the hands of political tyrants? 

Abaddon Ordell is a teacher, fighter, sister, and wife turned prisoner. In the wake of a devastating miscarriage—a crime in this era—Abaddon is cruelly handed over to the law and condemned to nine years in the brutal Dream Stone prison. 

Hemmed in by aggressive inmates, guards steeped in misogyny, and a warden whose sympathy is nothing but a sham, she grapples with her consuming grief and a deep rage over the oppressive forces that placed her in prison to begin with. 

Just when all seems lost, an unexpected ally offers her the strength and love she needs to endure this darkness, but trusting her could be the best thing for her heart, or the deadliest.

As the dangers of Dream Stone escalate, Abaddon plots to assassinate those at the heart of the oppressive regime. If Abaddon survives Dream Stone, she becomes proof the system can be broken. But if she fails, she’ll never have the chance to dismantle the regime that put her there.

** This is part of a series of sapphic dystopian books for adults. Readers who enjoyed the dystopian world of "The Handmaid's Tale," by Margaret Atwood, or the character-driven narrative of "Crescent City" series, by Sarah J Maas, will enjoy this series.

Genres: LGBT, Science Fiction, Queer

302 pages, Paperback

Published May 5, 2026

About the author

Kelly K. Branyik is an award-winning writer, painter, and photographer.

Kelly grew up in Colorado and has lived there for most of her life. She holds a B.A. in English (Creative Writing) from Colorado State University. Kelly is also a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV) and served in Chongqing, China, from, 2014 - 2016 at Chongqing Tourism School in the Dadukou district. She operates a boutique marketing agency in Southern Colorado, often volunteering her skills to support small businesses, entrepreneurs, and authors in online success.

Kelly lives in Southern Colorado with her partner, DJ, and their four fur babies, Milo, Cooper, Zwicky, and Astro. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and loves playing video games, taking long adventures, and helping others.

Follow her online and subscribe to her newsletter at kellybranyik.com.

Reviews

[Kaycee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feminine grief and rage *chef’s kiss*. Set in a prison 400 years from now, the story unfolds in present day and flashbacks. I love the potential, and can’t wait for the final edit.
A couple of things that didn’t make sense for me: since it’s set so far in the future a twilight joke didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. There were some instances where things like ibuprofen were mentioned - again just didn’t feel very futuristic - but I suppose it helps prove how backwards the world is despite the year. However, I think this is such a rich and important story especially in this political hellscape we are living in currently.

Thanks, NetGalley

[Garnet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book had an amazing amount of potential, and did a lot of things very well. I always enjoy books set in prisons, and if you add lesbians into the mix, well, what’s not to like? I also think that the topics brought up in the book in regards to the way, women are treated were very well done and incredibly relevant right now. I also thought the cast of primary characters was quite well drawn out, and easy to root for. However, sometimes it felt like this book tried to do too much in too short of page count, which made everything feel sort of rushed. I just wish that the main relationship had been able to develop more, as I don’t necessarily buy their feelings for each other as much as I should. however, this is by no means a bad book. The writing was phenomenal, especially the emotional scenes, and I think it did a lot of things right. I received an advanced reader copy of this book for free and I am leaving a review voluntarily.

[Alyssa Radigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC received in exchange for an honest review


My biggest gripe with this book is that it feels like paper dolls acting out a medium article about how 2026 America is bad  for women and minorotiesand in 400 years nothing will change if we don't realize that men suck.  

It's not smart, it's not witty, and it does nothing creative with its premise.  The characters are very flat at best and unlikeable at worst.  There are attempts at "tough girl talk" that comes off as cringe instead of "Orange is the New Black." Abbadon doesn't feel like an oldest child and her dynamics with her sister and friend feel very inauthentic.

There are many editing errors in punctuation, and I think this story would've benefitted from a sensitivity reader.

[Kayla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shadows in Dream Stone is an extremely dark story with feminine rage and a sapphic subplot. It has a trigger/content warning in the front and I HIGHLY recommend paying attention to that list. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I was really looking forward to this book based on the blurb. It sounded like an interesting concept being set 400 years in the future with worse conditions than we have now, with a sapphic romance and the characters rising up against that system. What I got was more the setup with a lot of time skips, graphic scenes, and no real relationship building.

Even with the trigger warnings I was not expecting this to get as overly graphic as it did. I had to pause while reading several times because it was just too much for me to handle. Abbadon and the other women in Dream Stone Prison go through so much and unfortunately we get a front row seat to Abbadon's horrific miscarriage and her constant torture in the prison. It felt like the graphic scenes were the point of the story rather than the plot promised in the blurb. The book also feels unfinished, like it stops before we get any real conclusion.

Abbadon is frustrating. I know she's going through a lot in this story (too much if I'm honest), but she isn't very well fleshed out. I know that I was very disgusted with her thoughts about the miscarriage and almost DNFd there because it was so upsetting. She's not really processing her grief or trauma or even trying to. We don't really see Abbadon building relationships with the other women in the prison either. She does one big thing (which I'll admit I appreciated and cheered for in that chapter) and almost everyone just falls in behind her.

I really liked Kila as a character concept. Unfortunately she doesn't really become more than that and the romance just doesn't click for me. We have so many time skips in the prison and are told that they are growing closer rather than being shown. Abbadon has given Kila no reason to even befriend her, let alone love her. It just didn't have enough there to get to where they are at in the end. I would have loved to get her story, or even just her POV for this one.

I would have liked this better if the story had been focused on the female rage/revenge plot. There could have been flashbacks to the trauma but I don't even think we needed to *see* that in such graphic detail. We are constantly bombarded with the bad in this world. I want to see the characters DO something about it.

I don't know if I will continue on in this series. The second book might be more fun if the overly graphic abuse scenes stop and the plot starts focusing on Abbadon's revenge plan (which hopefully gets thought through a bit better). I would like to see more actual relationship building and processing of the trauma. I would like to see more than just Abbadon's POV.

Overall - I see what the author was trying to do. I don't necessarily hate it, and there were a couple of fun moments and really good insightful quotes in there. It just didn't work for me.

[Ruby Ridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was given this book complimentary from Book Sirens in e-book form in return for my honest review. Everything stated in this review is of my own opinion and I was not compensated monetarily for providing this review.
Where to start on this novel, The first 95% is unrelentingly depressing, not just dark but depressing and it affects your mood as you read along. The hero (or antihero or maybe we should make a new word for her) is fittingly called Abaddon from the Hebrew for destruction one of the angels of the apocalypse, an interesting thing about Abaddon is that while some see the angel as an enemy of God others view it as an instrument of God to punish the wicked and that fits in nicely wit the story. The story is set on earth a few centuries in the future where the pro life movement has been taken to an ultimate extreme where abortion is punishable by death, miscarriage by whatever cause is a Felony always punishable be imprisonment and rape is regarded as an infractions at worse and almost never punished even with cast iron evidence. Women have no rights and no vote - it is the patriarchy run wild. The premise the book is based on is that in a time not to distant from now men made virtual slaves out of women and that women acquiesced and gave up all their hard earned rights and freedoms.
The tone of the book at least for the vast majority of the novel is bleak and depressing light only flickering at the very end (of this part) of the story. Sometimes the book feels very American at other times it is reminiscent of those bleak British/European novels of the 19th century.
Be warned - this book is not an easy read many of the themes and what occurs are triggering to say the least but in this case this is not a bad thing as these are an integral part of the story and the world for the women who are part of it and these are an integral part of the story and not gratuitous.
I have spent longer this usual writing this review as the author is one of a new group of writers of sapphic fiction that is also good literature and I feel the author deserves this courtesy. While this book will unfortunately probably not be discussed in high schools (in the classrooms anyway) I can see it being part of a college curriculum and would love to be a fly on the wall during the discussions.
I toyed with four stars for this book but ultimately settles on five due to the writing which in my opinion elevates this from a story to literature. Looking forward to seeing where #2 goes and hoping the high standard of writing is maintained

[anna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an early copy of this book.

The beginning of this book was compelling and made me eager to keep going, but unfortunately the further I went, the less I liked it. The side characters all felt very flat, and felt like their only purpose was to either cause direct harm to the protagonist or say some vague inspirational lines to her. The topics discussed are important, yes, but I felt they were handled in a very shallow way. Misogyny certainly does exist and can get to the extreme that was shown in this book, but it also exists in subtle ways too. This book does not show any of these subtle ways, every instance is very outwardly violent. It seems like the author did not trust the reader to pick up on the ways that men can be bad without telling us so outright. A lot of this book also revolved around the characters trauma-dumping unprompted, with no other backstory whatsoever. The political and social structure of this world also too closely resembles current day for it to make sense as 400 years into the future. If this is the direction that the world has gone from here, why is it not taken to even more of an extreme? The things happening are awful, but still closely resemble things that are happening currently. I find it hard to believe these politicians would have decided this was their limit and they don't need to take it any further. The futuristic parts of the world have potential and I would be interested in seeing it explored more, but it just gets bogged down by the depressing 2026 flavored politics. One of the characters reveals she had a hysterectomy, but this medically doesn't make any sense when you remember that she was previously in the infirmary due to her debilitating period. Overall I believe this book handled many things very poorly in favor of trying to really hammer in some viewpoints that no one was misunderstanding.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I went into Shadows in Dream Stone expecting something original and immersive, but what I got felt… familiar. Not in a comforting way—in a haven’t I already lived this story? kind of way.
At its core, it reads like a sci-fi reworking of The Handmaid's Tale—same oppressive control, same stripped autonomy, same underlying themes of power and survival—but without quite reaching the same depth or emotional punch. The dystopian framework is there, and the concept around dreams and altered reality has potential, but it never fully separates itself from that shadow of comparison.
There are moments where the writing shines. The atmosphere can be eerie and unsettling in the right ways, and you can see what the author was aiming for—something layered, something symbolic. But the execution doesn’t always land. The pacing drags in parts, then rushes through moments that should have hit harder. It creates this uneven rhythm that makes it hard to stay fully invested.
The characters were where it lost me the most. I wanted to feel something—anger, connection, even frustration—but instead there’s a kind of distance. Their struggles are there on the page, but they don’t always translate into something that sticks emotionally.
That’s not to say it’s a bad book. It’s just one that feels like it’s orbiting bigger, more impactful stories without quite carving out its own identity. The ideas are solid, but they needed more bite, more risk, more distinction.
Final thought: a moody, sci-fi dystopian with glimpses of something powerful—but it never fully steps out of the long shadow of The Handmaid’s Tale

[KMart Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman imprisoned after a miscarriage navigates grief, rage, and a brutal prison system while plotting to dismantle the regime that put her there. The premise is dark and the parallels to our current political climate in the US are impossible to miss. That's clearly intentional and I appreciated the feminine rage at the heart of it.

The sapphic representation and romance are sweet, even if the relationship felt like it came out of nowhere without quite enough buildup to earn it. Still, it was beautiful and soft against the darkness and I appreciated it.

My bigger issue is the world-building for me. This story is so clearly rooted in our own world and political reality that the science fiction elements feel genuinely out of place. And then modern elements get thrown in alongside them and the whole thing starts to feel mismatched in ways that were hard to shake. I never got a solid handle on it. I kind of just wish it was set a little closer to our time.

The ending goes a little off the rails and there are enough plot holes that I had to extend a lot of suspension of disbelief at times. It feels like a story trying to do too many things at once without the world building foundation to support it.

Good bones and real passion behind the themes. It just needed more room to breathe and a clearer sense of its own world.

Thanks to booksirens and the author for the complimentary copy. This review is voluntary and all opinions are my own.

[korinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shadows in Dream Stone is a book that had massive amounts of potential, but unfortunately falls flat in every possible area.

The story is mildly interesting and sports a political message that I believe is relevant, especially in today’s political sphere, though I feel that it lacks the maturity and nuance it needs to broach this subject intellectually. Additionally, none of the characters are very interesting and most, if not all of them, are flat out unlikeable. The pacing is poor and the dialogue is fairly bad, and most importantly, none of them have any synergy—or chemistry. Finally, as a sci-fi fan, I’m disappointed with the sci-fi in this book as well. It felt slightly out of place and I found it a disappointing and weak addition to the overall story.

Ultimately, the book reads like a rough draft rather than a finished product. It needs work to live up to its true potential, which does shine through the cracks here. However, due to its shortcomings I am not interested enough in the story to continue with this trilogy. I do strongly encourage anyone who would like to give this book a chance a go, and wish the author nothing but success moving forward.

I was provided an e-ARC by the author in exchange for an honest review.

[Mehek · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75, rounded up. This book is Chain Gang All Stars meets Orange is The New Black with a little extra sci fi :) I loved the plot and the world it’s set in - Abbadon, Kila, and Shabina are easy characters to be attached to. The writing lost me in a few places - every spot where we’re shown the impact of a world where autonomy is so limited is powerful, but sometimes we’re just told about it or the tenses kind of read awkwardly which took me out of the experience but genuinely, I raced through so much of this that it was a minor gripe at most more than a major dealbreaker.

I did want more from it too - I loved the build up between our leads because it was slow, meaningful, and sizzling, but I would’ve loved to see more from the side characters (Zaru, Mama Red, etc) and learn more about all of them and the sci fi premise of this world as a whole. I know this is the first installment of a series, so hopefully those are just things to be explored next time but this is one of those books that would’ve just had me even more invested if it had like, 50-100 extra pages. Overall, worth the read though and thanks Book Sirens for the ARC :)

[Emily M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, I definitely got in my feelings quite a few times. It really was a deep story and follwed someone through the prison system. It was set in the future but honestly this feels closer to where we are headed now. It had a lot of great depth and drew you into the story. I hope there is a book two as I would like to see how the characters devolop.