A Builder of Dreams: A Horror Progression Fantasy

A Practical Guide to Sorcery #6

by Azalea Ellis, Gabrielle de Cuir (Narrator)

Dreams are coming true in Siobhan Naught's village—and it's killing them all.

Siobhan is struggling with loneliness after her mother's death, but even though her grandfather is the only one she has left, he’s more interested in his secretive research than his granddaughter. But when a mysterious stranger arrives to help him with his work, nightmarish phenomena begin to plague their village.

As her neighbors are bewitched by vivid dreams, the town seems to teeter on the brink of madness. Siobhan is the only one who notices.

With her grandfather growing more secretive by the day, Siobhan is determined to uncover the truth before it's too late.

But some doors are locked for a reason.

When dreams become real, nightmares come to life.

A Builder of Dreams is set seven years before the events of the main story, but should be listened to in sequence with the other books in the series to avoid spoilers.

Genres: Fantasy, Magic

Audible Audio

First published September 27, 2025

About the author

Azalea Ellis loves to bend the world to her will. Maybe that's why she likes writing books. Creating worlds and people and then sending them through every ordeal imaginable might even give her some kind of sick thrill. Who knows?
Azalea is also an artist, so perhaps she just likes taking things from her head and bringing them to life. Because of her artistic background, she's lucky enough to also be able to do all of her own book covers, and does freelance illustration when she feels like it.
She's fascinated by almost everything, and wishes she could live to be a thousand, so she would have time to learn and do everything she wants.

Reviews

[WyoGal]

Story ends at 82% point

This book is much shorter than the others in the series. I am somewhat glad it is shorter in that a young Siobhan is not as interesting as her older counterpart. At times I felt like she was too wise for her age. Regardless, this book explains, somewhat, the mystery of Siobhan’s nightmares. It also adds more conflict to her desire to get rid of them.

This book is certainly a horror story for those with vivid imaginations. There are grotesque self-mutilations and cannibalism. Suicide, grief and loss, the death of numerous people (young and old), and desecration of bodies (think zombies) are elements in this book that may be triggering for sensitive readers. It’s not a story for squeamish readers. If I had not already invested in the series, I would not have read this book as horror is not my preference. Let’s just say I’m glad it has fewer pages!

[Winther]

Binged the entire book in one go, had a blast.
If this book was released separately as a prequel I would easily give it 5 stars.
But when released as a continuation of the story it just leaves me feeling that I would've rather read a sequel.

[Aleksandra Janusz]

Another great installment.
I am usually not fond of prequels but this seems more like a huge retrospection in a novel form, and we've been long owed this one. Prequels rarely bring something new to the table - not in this case. The events depicted were alluded to since vol 1. and explain a great deal about Siobhan's character - her nightmares, her insecurities (mistrust of everyone, for example and a habit of pushing them away), her authority figures.
I am relieved that the thing going on with her is not necessarily fatal and seems like a huge issue to overcome more than certain doom. It is entertaining to see that Sebastien's mannerisms belong, essentially, to a younger and less traumatized Siobhan (some trauma is already there before the action starts though), who in turn mimcs her grandfather and what she imagines Thaddeus Lacer to be. Her spectrum-y side was also always there. On a side note, to me she comes across more like indifferent to gender than gender-fluid. She thinks of herself as a woman, it's just the last concern on her list.
I love how each installment builds the world in a meticulous, interconnected way and I wonder if this is great planning on the author's part, or an equally great improvisation.

[Chris Ludlow]

Oh man. I wasn't expecting her forgotten memories, her backstory, to be enough for a whole book. It's so freaking crazy, "horror" barely covers the trigger warning. Lovecraftian body horror for sure.

So much about Siobhan and what makes her unique makes more sense now. I still don't know everything, but what I now know is already CRAZY.

2026-03-12: Caught up on RR
- CHAPTER 276 - THE FIRST CRACK
- Month 5, Day 17, Saturday 2:00 a.m.

[Bayley Allen]

amazing and horrifying

Absolutely worth the wait, but holy shit it makes me bite my nails. It’s super similar to the first arc of circle of inevitably which is one of my favourite arcs of all time and this is definitely on par. Definitely craving more now.

[M Hamed]

my first foray in eastern fantasy was I shall seal the heavens ,lacking any real experience with genres with so much new concepts like online daily or weekly release ,power progression ,translation and entirely different take on mortality

i thought the author was always pulling stuff out of his ass to keep the plot going
later,
as i knew more about that particular literary sphere ,i understood more about
the author's overall plot structure and filler chapters and word count and no editing and so on...

it gives you an overall good story and a good writer can even make filler chapters good enough


this is what i felt reading this.

a good enough writer ,good overall plot,not enough catharsis to satisfy you

all driven by Cowardice

the fear of doing anything truly extraordinary,

there is a line i vividly remember from another book about what are gonna do if you don't like what's happening ,my mountain of a man simply said ''i will go live in the forest away from every one until i get strong enough '' ,there are variations on this line in eastern fantasy

here our lead is simply nesting ,i simple can't think of any male author could write those choices


the plot driven by lies and deception .lies and lies

that basically the plot at this point,shit happens she lies about everything .rinse and repeat

[Tony Hinde]

I can't help feeling this story would have been better if integrated into the earlier novels in flash-back form. As a stand-alone story it doesn't stand out. It's not helped by a super obvious villain/problem-source. Hmm, the curse can influence your dreams and vomits after eating... who does that remind me of?

[Noone]

This one was very strange. As a standalone this could have worked somewhat better, but because too much about the circumstances and the outcome is already known from earlier volumes, the entire story just felt like a waiting game. There is an attempt at putting some sort of strange whodunit mystery in here but the only two realistic options are that its either the only suspect who is so incredibly suspicious you might as well put a red arrow hovering over their head or its some rando the reader can not possibly guess.
The book does this reveling in horrific scenes that is common in b movie splatter, which I do not get, and which undermines the emotional impact instead of enhancing it, at least for me. There is just a level of over the top gruesomeness where it becomes just simply boring and this book reaches well beyond this threshold.
I just don't see the point of ending the 5th book on a cliffhanger that teases a backstory reveal that has been teased since the first book and then making the entire 6th book this single flashback.
This could have been one chapter without loosing anything of value.

[Ice]

Just finished this haunting prequel to A Practical Guide to Sorcery, and I’m floored. Azalea Ellis dives deep into Siobhan’s childhood, blending grief, isolation, and the terrifying power of dreams into a psychological horror-fantasy that lingers long after the last page If you’re into magical realism, horror fantasy, or character-driven lore, this is a must-read.
waiting for the story to progress.

[Nafiz Faiaz]

I've been reading the series for a long time and I've really liked every track it took. I didn't expect it to delve into horror, but this book did it perfectly. Even if I already knew the end result, I was still in suspense the entire time reading it.

[Bas]

Fun and interesting backstory of the protagonist. I hoped it would also cover the present a bit.

[Ian]

fun. will continue the series happily

[Tory]

Not my favorite of the series, since I generally don’t like prequels, but it did finally clear up a lot of the mysteries in Siobhan’s past!

[Nathan Grieve]

I was wondering why this book was a horror progression, cos the others hadn't seemed overly scary. If you keep reading, you find out why this one is marked as a horror book

[Nelfi]

Started off abit slow, but author nailed the ending!

[Hardwood]

An entire book of flashbacks is my nightmare.

[Alfie]

Rating: [A+] [4.25⭐]

This worked well as a shorter installment/prequel. Much more horror than I expected when I started reading but still enjoyable.

[Cal]

A short prequel story. Slow and not great. Also just what felt like unnecessary horror that didn’t seem to add or fit with the rest of the series

[caro]

Ahhh, cuando estaba leyendo y pensé 'esto suena como un Titan' LO ERA.

Me acabo de enterar que problablemente sean 12 libros en la serie y quiero morir 😭😭😭😭 no por que sean mucho sino que tendré que esperar para poder leerlos todos. Amo el trabajo que la autora ha hecho con esta historia y me encuentro en la búsqueda de otros libros que llenen el vacío hasta que salga el libro 7!!!!!

Pronto espero poder tener los libros físicos.