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Dream Catchers: A Dark Epic Fantasy
And if you gaze into The Darkness…
A prince who will risk everything to save his kingdom.
A magical violinist desperate to unveil the truth about The Darkness.
And a pair of sisters who promise to protect each other at all costs.
United together, Alaric, Legato, Zoe, and Celena join a deadly expedition to investigate the sudden emergence of The Darkness—a creature-infested realm that shadows the entire land in fear.
But as the group attempts to traverse The Darkness, they’ll quickly learn that nightmarish creatures are not the only danger. Cultists who worship The Darkness’s horrors believe it is a necessary evil that should be upheld for the good of the world. Yet despite being caught between creatures and cultists, the greatest threat may very well be the demons of their own ambitions. So if any of them hope to survive, the four companions must accept that those very same things which have brought them together can lead to their undoing.
Because what are they willing to sacrifice? And what will they leave behind? Every decision they make for the people they’ve come to love will determine who will make it out alive—lest they succumb to the shadows within themselves.
A prince who will risk everything to save his kingdom.
A magical violinist desperate to unveil the truth about The Darkness.
And a pair of sisters who promise to protect each other at all costs.
United together, Alaric, Legato, Zoe, and Celena join a deadly expedition to investigate the sudden emergence of The Darkness—a creature-infested realm that shadows the entire land in fear.
But as the group attempts to traverse The Darkness, they’ll quickly learn that nightmarish creatures are not the only danger. Cultists who worship The Darkness’s horrors believe it is a necessary evil that should be upheld for the good of the world. Yet despite being caught between creatures and cultists, the greatest threat may very well be the demons of their own ambitions. So if any of them hope to survive, the four companions must accept that those very same things which have brought them together can lead to their undoing.
Because what are they willing to sacrifice? And what will they leave behind? Every decision they make for the people they’ve come to love will determine who will make it out alive—lest they succumb to the shadows within themselves.
530 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 26, 2026
About the author
Matthew Phen
1 book3 followersHi everyone, my name is Matthew. I love all things fantasy, whether that’s movies, t.v. shows, video games, or… books!
My favourite author is Le Guin along with her Earthsea series, while my favourite video game is Dragon Age.
Dream Catchers is my debut novel, to which I drew upon a little bit of inspiration from both.
I hope you enjoy. Thank you!
My favourite author is Le Guin along with her Earthsea series, while my favourite video game is Dragon Age.
Dream Catchers is my debut novel, to which I drew upon a little bit of inspiration from both.
I hope you enjoy. Thank you!
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Did Not Finish
June 28, 2026e-ARC from NetGalley.
I only made it 1% before I had to give up. This needs a lot more edits; it currently reads like it wasn't even proofread.
My primary issue was the inconsistent tense. It would jump from past to present tense within a single sentence. While I know what the author was trying to do, it wasn't effective.
It also felt wordy for the sake of being wordy in an attempt to add an air of whimsy to the story, but that didn't really work for me either.
Excellent concept. Best of luck to the author.
I only made it 1% before I had to give up. This needs a lot more edits; it currently reads like it wasn't even proofread.
My primary issue was the inconsistent tense. It would jump from past to present tense within a single sentence. While I know what the author was trying to do, it wasn't effective.
It also felt wordy for the sake of being wordy in an attempt to add an air of whimsy to the story, but that didn't really work for me either.
Excellent concept. Best of luck to the author.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I read this as an ARC reader on NetGalley, cross posted my review on Goodreads.
Firstly, I would like to apologise to the author and publisher. I did not like the authors writing style, which makes me unsure of whether I don't like the story, or that it is written poorly. I am sorry to leave such a poor review on a debut authors book, as it is easier for me to criticize than to praise, but I digress.
The book follows four characters, Alaric, Legato, Zoe and Celena. These characters are written to have a connection in which they are all affected by the encroaching "Darkness" creatures which appear through portals. The book is told in four acts, with Act 1 and 2 almost purely exposition to set up the climax and action of Acts 3 and 4.
Starting with what I did like, Celena comes out on top. I thought she was interesting and provided a breath of fresh air to the story. She is written as awkward and unsociable but still cares for the others, albeit later in the book. It was nice to read about a character who was talented at what they do, without it being attributed to reading, like Alyssa was. I liked how she intereacted with other characters, and how she had a clear desire of finding Zoe, and kept her mind set on that throughout the book. I liked the setting that the author has written, having played the Dragon Age series myself, I can see where the inspiration from the rift portals and crystals have come from, as well as the inside of the darkness. I enjoyed the different monsters and the creative descriptions the author used to show that the characters were up against horrors, and I loved that the author didn't hesitate to kill off background characters and let the main cast see what happened in detail.
As a personal preference, I really enjoy when an author writes with more of a firm tone, especially when the characters are doing something monotonous. There's something about writing objectively that really sets the scene for me as a reader, so I really enjoyed the short little sections of this during the book, especially during the prologue, reading "Stare. Stab. Pull the spear." repetitively to suddenly cut it off with "Eli blinked. No. Not this time.", there's just something about it that tickles me.
One of my main criticisms with this book is that it seems like the author was more interested in writing the climax, being Act 3, and the early portions of the book seem to suffer for it. Alyssa and Celena are both awkwardly thrust into their separate storylines, with Celena being immediately accepted and 'adopted' by Zoes parents. I can understand this part, as it is a small village and they were the ones who found her, but what I can't understand is why Alyssa is brought to the palace by an erratic stranger, and the king instantly adopts her and allows her to stay across the hall from his son? Why wouldn't he have delegated this to someone else, especially not knowing the strangers intentions, as well as dealing with his own loss.
None of the conversations between characters flow, as if none of them have ever communicated before the conversations they are having. Almost every conversation is stilted and awkward, with the characters either speaking exceptionally childishly, or speaking in riddles that don't make sense to try and sound more sophisticated. I especially became annoyed with the constant "Ummm, anyway," the characters would use to segway out of almost every conversation. It would have been better for the characters to not even have the conversation at that point.
This may be changed in the official version, but I struggled so much with reading certain conversations in which I would have to read the same blocks of text multiple times with the hope that I could maybe understand it if I tried again. The conversations become less stilted in Act 3, but go back to being almost unbearable in the next act. I have taken a note of an example, taken straight from the book; 'The Lady says "Yes, it's dangerous, and yes, it's important. I wouldn't ask this of you otherwise. But if you do not go, then nothing. Then you go. It's as I said, I'm glad you're here, so I shall not force you to leave."'
This is similar to how the characters are written to capitalise titles they have placed on other characters. Many times, even if it is just written once before a character introduces themselves, the characters whose perspective we are reading from will randomly assign a title to something, as if to give it more meaning. I made notes of 'The Sun', 'The Hooded Girl', 'Winter', 'The Stranger', 'The Hatted Man', 'White Sun', 'Black Moon', 'Old Man'. I can't be certain if this is a stylised choice, or supposed to imply something deeper, but it isn't explored any further than a title.
I am also unsure of what the characters relationships are supposed to be, as some have clearly stated sibling bonds, (Alaric and Alyssa, Zoe and Celena), while also having other characters infer that they have closer relationships or are hiding romantic feelings? Alaric and Alyssa both verbally state they love each other and refer to each other as siblings, only to have what I hope isn't romantic scenes where they stand close enough to breathe each others air and have other characters allude to romance. It's the same with Zoe and Celena, in which Celenas entire character is written around reuniting with her sister Zoe, yet blushing and getting shy when she is asked how she feels about her sister, as well as getting flustered enough to ask Zoe not to say she loves Celena during an exposition moment.
In my personal opinion, the author seems to be stuck between writing the story they want to tell, and trying to make their book and writing sound more poetic, which really threw me off while reading and would fully take me out of scenes I was trying to focus on. The perspective will switch between us being in a characters head and knowing what they are thinking and feeling, to jarringly being spoken to almost directly by the text. A paragraph will go from two characters conversing with each other and suddenly turn into philosophical questions being asked to the reader, ie. "Did they realise? Whose to say. Did they care? Most certainly not.".
This feels especially true for me while reading when the book is interrupted by a long multi-paragraph block of poetry with mild exposition in the form of dreams and characters playing music. From what I understand, these blocks don't add anything substantial to the book and seem to just be fluff to add to the wordcount.
Firstly, I would like to apologise to the author and publisher. I did not like the authors writing style, which makes me unsure of whether I don't like the story, or that it is written poorly. I am sorry to leave such a poor review on a debut authors book, as it is easier for me to criticize than to praise, but I digress.
The book follows four characters, Alaric, Legato, Zoe and Celena. These characters are written to have a connection in which they are all affected by the encroaching "Darkness" creatures which appear through portals. The book is told in four acts, with Act 1 and 2 almost purely exposition to set up the climax and action of Acts 3 and 4.
Starting with what I did like, Celena comes out on top. I thought she was interesting and provided a breath of fresh air to the story. She is written as awkward and unsociable but still cares for the others, albeit later in the book. It was nice to read about a character who was talented at what they do, without it being attributed to reading, like Alyssa was. I liked how she intereacted with other characters, and how she had a clear desire of finding Zoe, and kept her mind set on that throughout the book. I liked the setting that the author has written, having played the Dragon Age series myself, I can see where the inspiration from the rift portals and crystals have come from, as well as the inside of the darkness. I enjoyed the different monsters and the creative descriptions the author used to show that the characters were up against horrors, and I loved that the author didn't hesitate to kill off background characters and let the main cast see what happened in detail.
As a personal preference, I really enjoy when an author writes with more of a firm tone, especially when the characters are doing something monotonous. There's something about writing objectively that really sets the scene for me as a reader, so I really enjoyed the short little sections of this during the book, especially during the prologue, reading "Stare. Stab. Pull the spear." repetitively to suddenly cut it off with "Eli blinked. No. Not this time.", there's just something about it that tickles me.
One of my main criticisms with this book is that it seems like the author was more interested in writing the climax, being Act 3, and the early portions of the book seem to suffer for it. Alyssa and Celena are both awkwardly thrust into their separate storylines, with Celena being immediately accepted and 'adopted' by Zoes parents. I can understand this part, as it is a small village and they were the ones who found her, but what I can't understand is why Alyssa is brought to the palace by an erratic stranger, and the king instantly adopts her and allows her to stay across the hall from his son? Why wouldn't he have delegated this to someone else, especially not knowing the strangers intentions, as well as dealing with his own loss.
None of the conversations between characters flow, as if none of them have ever communicated before the conversations they are having. Almost every conversation is stilted and awkward, with the characters either speaking exceptionally childishly, or speaking in riddles that don't make sense to try and sound more sophisticated. I especially became annoyed with the constant "Ummm, anyway," the characters would use to segway out of almost every conversation. It would have been better for the characters to not even have the conversation at that point.
This may be changed in the official version, but I struggled so much with reading certain conversations in which I would have to read the same blocks of text multiple times with the hope that I could maybe understand it if I tried again. The conversations become less stilted in Act 3, but go back to being almost unbearable in the next act. I have taken a note of an example, taken straight from the book; 'The Lady says "Yes, it's dangerous, and yes, it's important. I wouldn't ask this of you otherwise. But if you do not go, then nothing. Then you go. It's as I said, I'm glad you're here, so I shall not force you to leave."'
This is similar to how the characters are written to capitalise titles they have placed on other characters. Many times, even if it is just written once before a character introduces themselves, the characters whose perspective we are reading from will randomly assign a title to something, as if to give it more meaning. I made notes of 'The Sun', 'The Hooded Girl', 'Winter', 'The Stranger', 'The Hatted Man', 'White Sun', 'Black Moon', 'Old Man'. I can't be certain if this is a stylised choice, or supposed to imply something deeper, but it isn't explored any further than a title.
I am also unsure of what the characters relationships are supposed to be, as some have clearly stated sibling bonds, (Alaric and Alyssa, Zoe and Celena), while also having other characters infer that they have closer relationships or are hiding romantic feelings? Alaric and Alyssa both verbally state they love each other and refer to each other as siblings, only to have what I hope isn't romantic scenes where they stand close enough to breathe each others air and have other characters allude to romance. It's the same with Zoe and Celena, in which Celenas entire character is written around reuniting with her sister Zoe, yet blushing and getting shy when she is asked how she feels about her sister, as well as getting flustered enough to ask Zoe not to say she loves Celena during an exposition moment.
In my personal opinion, the author seems to be stuck between writing the story they want to tell, and trying to make their book and writing sound more poetic, which really threw me off while reading and would fully take me out of scenes I was trying to focus on. The perspective will switch between us being in a characters head and knowing what they are thinking and feeling, to jarringly being spoken to almost directly by the text. A paragraph will go from two characters conversing with each other and suddenly turn into philosophical questions being asked to the reader, ie. "Did they realise? Whose to say. Did they care? Most certainly not.".
This feels especially true for me while reading when the book is interrupted by a long multi-paragraph block of poetry with mild exposition in the form of dreams and characters playing music. From what I understand, these blocks don't add anything substantial to the book and seem to just be fluff to add to the wordcount.
July 2, 2026
really amazing! Zoe was super cute and i loved her relationship with Celena. I actually liked how Alaric was a kinder character than what I'm used to reading about, despite it being a dark fantasy. Legato was also very interesting with his songs, and i thought it was a pretty unique spin on a magic system. the group dynamic between the ensemble was nicely balanced and it really did feel like a genuine character ensemble, where each of the perspectives actually felt fully fleshed out instead of how sometimes one character completely takes over the story while the others are basically glorified side characters.
the setting has somewhat of a darker atmosphere but there were also a lot of lighter, quieter, cozier moments between the characters which i very much enjoyed . definitely made me want to be friends with them IRL lmao.
id definitely recommend!
the setting has somewhat of a darker atmosphere but there were also a lot of lighter, quieter, cozier moments between the characters which i very much enjoyed . definitely made me want to be friends with them IRL lmao.
id definitely recommend!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I’m always here for dark fantasy with found family, mystery and creepy creatures, so this ticked a lot of boxes for me.
I really enjoyed following the different characters and watching all of their paths slowly come together. The world building was detailed, the action kept things moving and there were plenty of moments that had me thinking “okay… one more chapter” and suddenly it was way later than planned.
If you love dark epic fantasy with multiple POVs, monsters, magic and a cast you can root for, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a go. It was an enjoyable ride from start to finish and I’m excited to see what Matthew Phen writes next.
I really enjoyed following the different characters and watching all of their paths slowly come together. The world building was detailed, the action kept things moving and there were plenty of moments that had me thinking “okay… one more chapter” and suddenly it was way later than planned.
If you love dark epic fantasy with multiple POVs, monsters, magic and a cast you can root for, I’d definitely recommend giving this one a go. It was an enjoyable ride from start to finish and I’m excited to see what Matthew Phen writes next.
July 2, 2026
a bit of a slower start (as epic fantasy tends to be) but im glad I stuck with it through to the end. definitely picks up by the end of Act 1 and beyond, due to some pretty pivotal events.
i loved how the author implemented several unique sections such as when the author wrote out Legato's songs whenever he did magic and etc. and i'd say they landed really well.
i agree that the writing style is a little different but i personally ended up appreciating it more as i went through the story.
the fight/actions scenes were sparsely placed but each of them were very well done, and it was nice to see all the various monsters.
as for the characters Celena was definitely my favorite but all of them were distinct and enjoyable in their own right.
ultimately, kind of a slow burn in many ways? sometimes i want a break from all the faster paced stories though so i think this came to me at the right time. and overall, i found it respectable that the author was willing to commit to some bolder narrative decisions.
(no SA in case anyone was wondering.)
i loved how the author implemented several unique sections such as when the author wrote out Legato's songs whenever he did magic and etc. and i'd say they landed really well.
i agree that the writing style is a little different but i personally ended up appreciating it more as i went through the story.
the fight/actions scenes were sparsely placed but each of them were very well done, and it was nice to see all the various monsters.
as for the characters Celena was definitely my favorite but all of them were distinct and enjoyable in their own right.
ultimately, kind of a slow burn in many ways? sometimes i want a break from all the faster paced stories though so i think this came to me at the right time. and overall, i found it respectable that the author was willing to commit to some bolder narrative decisions.
(no SA in case anyone was wondering.)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I really wanted to like this book, the premise was fun and interesting. Unfortunately this just wasn’t for me I DNF’d at 10% into the book. I just couldn’t connect to the story or the characters. Zoe and Celena were the most interesting characters but personally I just found it clunky and felt something was missing.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
ARC received from NetGalley
Overall, I think this had great bones and structure but I had a hard time connecting. To start, I did love the premise of the story and found it to be quite interesting and unique. The setting had a dark tone with a great blend of challenges and monsters.
My biggest problem was the constant change in character perspective as it felt jarring at times.
Overall, I think this had great bones and structure but I had a hard time connecting. To start, I did love the premise of the story and found it to be quite interesting and unique. The setting had a dark tone with a great blend of challenges and monsters.
My biggest problem was the constant change in character perspective as it felt jarring at times.
July 3, 2026
I spent the past few years writing Dream Catchers, not expecting how much time and effort I'd end up pouring into it, because at the very start of it all, I could never begin to understand how much something like this could end up meaning to me. And it really does mean everything. I just hope, that in the end, I was able to create something people will love.
Thank you for your support.
Thank you for your support.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews