A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance to Dream

A Nightmare on Elm Street

by Natasha Rhodes

When the residents of Elm Street stop dreaming, a top psychiatrist is called in to assess the town and discovers something worrying - on the night that the town's dreams stopped, a young woman identified only as DK escaped from a local high-security mental institution. Her case file hints that DK possesses extraordinary telekinetic powers that enable her to control the dreams of others. Oh, and one more thing - her father was Freddy Krueger...

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Media Tie In, Fantasy

416 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 16, 2006

About the author

NATASHA RHODES is the British-born author of a worrying number of popular novels about vampires and werewolves, including the smash-hit movie blockbusters 'Blade: Trinity,' 'Final Destination: The Movie 1 and 2,' and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street: Perchance To Dream.' Her original Kayla Steele Vampire Hunter novels have been published internationally to occasional critical acclaim.

Natasha currently works on the Research & Threat Intelligence team of a major cybersecurity company. She'd write a book about her experiences if she thought anyone would believe her. She currently lives in in Orange County, California, with her husband (the bass player in a Motley Crue tribute band), and her two rescue cats.

Reviews

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit I really enjoy these Black Flame novels based on horror movies. So far the Friday the 13th series has been my favorite, but the Freddy books aren't bad.

In this one we see "The Dream Child" return, and he has powers he's been using to keep Freddy in check. Of course this doesn't last, and soon Freddy's back and running wild. The characters were mostly cardboard cutouts, but at least you knew them for what they were. There was also a character who turned out to be a psycho that you wouldn't expect, but I won't spoil that here.

The ending turned out to be a little ambiguous, but pretty much every ending in the Elm Street franchise has been.

If you're a fan of the movies, you'll like the books. I personally find most of the books to have much stronger storylines than the movies ever had.

[Lottie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, well, well. This was a hard book to make a decision on rating for. Perchance to Dream is the fourth book in the Black Flame publishing series for A Nightmare on Elm Street. It follows the exploits of the loveable Jacob, who is just a baby in A Nightmare on Elm Street 5: The Dream Child , while he trys to stop that Dream Demon we all adore, Freddy Krueger. Now, the review I am to write will have spoilers, and the three star review might be subjective depending on what your interpretation of Krueger may be. If you enjoy Freddy with a dark personality and little dialogue, then you will enjoy this novel for that. But I enjoy Freddy with a bit more character and pizazz, so keep that in mind while you read my review.

To begin with, Freddy has the WORST dialogue I have read in this Black Flame series. He has NO personality, and he seems to become a card board cut killer. If you don't believe me, this quote comes from the prologue:
"Stop it!" Jacob screamed.
"Ah-hahahahahahahaha!"
"I said stop it!"
"And I said Ah-hahahahahahaHA!"
GAG. Fortunately, that was the worst of his quotes. But his diologue did make me cringe throughout the whole novel, which was a definite turn-off.

Next, we come to some of the characters, who are very stereotypical. Nikki is the token goth girl, Jen is the obvious richy rich party girl, Dr. Sally is the psychiatrist who believes Freddy has motives and wants to put his soul to rest, Henry is the loveable goof, and Ella is the survivor girl. Out of the bunch, Ella and Henry were the most tolerable, but even then they weren't the best of characters. They had no development as characters through the whole story, as they were placed there to assist Jacob in his quest to kill Freddy.

Another character who I grew to loathe (Which is good, he was technically an anti-hero) is Jack Kane. First of all, everytime the man is described I can only imagine the amazing Colonel Sanders of KFC fame, but that is beside the point. During one of the chapters that focuses on him, without saying his name, they described him sharpening knives in his basement, talking about how the kids in school bullied him, and a girl was tied up in the corner! Now, since the author did not name him by name until his wife called from the top of the stairs, I assumed Freddy Krueger was having a flashback or something, because Kane and Freddy's back stories and basements were EXACTLY THE SAME. The author wasn't very creative in coming up with a better senerio for Kane then a Freddy rehashing. It does not work, and it insults me as a fan to read a rehash of Freddy Krueger's backstory fed to me as Kane's.

Now, I'm going to go into the whole dream world logic thrown into the mix. Kane goes to Jacob, and tells him that they could trap Freddy in this thing called a "Deathstone." In my opinion, it could have worked without the tacky, cliche name. But in order to put Freddy's soul in the Deathstone, you also have to have a sacrifice. Again, cliche element. Now, towards the end of the novel, Kane and Freddy battle their dream powers out on a train car, and I was so bored I skimmed the whole thing. Now why would I skim an action packed battle scene? Simply, it was packed literally. It wasn't very well written either. Basically, they used their dream powers to throw Bees, Chainsaws, Hoarfrost (Had to look that one up) and flames haphazardly around to mimic a battle. I couldn't even focus on the battle while trying to figure out who was throwing what next, so I skimmed and found out Kane finally got hit. FINALLY I understand the battle.

The thing that salvaged the book for me a little was the ending. Jacob finally beats Freddy, but wakes up in a hospital with Ella and Henry. The police officer comes to tell Jacob that all of them are going back to Westin Hills, and Jacob is being pumped with Sleeping medication, which causes him to find out Freddy was not truly dead, and is coming for him again. THIS is how a Nightmare movie would end, or any horror movie come to think of it, and that makes it succeed in my opinion. It would be silly to not have a little twist for our characters, and to give them one more horror to face, which you can fantasize they either escape or fall prey to. The end of this made my reading through this book a little less torturous.

Now, I feel obliged to say that these ANOES Black Flame published books are a love them or hate them experience. They each contain a different story, so you can choose to love one author's writing style over another. That is the best part of the series, because they contain different stories written by different authors about that same Freddy Krueger. People can enjoy one novel over the other, and it's totally fine. Each author writes Freddy differently, so your tastes effect which novels you will prefer. So don't let my review deter you, if you like Freddy a little less talkative. Who knows, you might enjoy this novel! I won't judge you, I would love to hear your opinions!

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit I really enjoy these Black Flame novels based on horror movies. So far the Friday the 13th series has been my favorite, but the Freddy books aren't bad.

In this one we see "The Dream Child" return, and he has powers he's been using to keep Freddy in check. Of course this doesn't last, and soon Freddy's back and running wild. The characters were mostly cardboard cutouts, but at least you knew them for what they were. There was also a character who turned out to be a psycho that you wouldn't expect, but I won't spoil that here.

The ending turned out to be a little ambiguous, but pretty much every ending in the Elm Street franchise has been.

If you're a fan of the movies, you'll like the books. I personally find most of the books to have much stronger storylines than the movies ever had. (less)

[Derek Glidewell · Rating 2 out of 5]

So-so effort.
A lot of goofy typos and gaffes ("a red Ford Toyota" made me laugh, same with referring to a video rental as "hiring"). But most nagging, I can't say I liked any of the characters and I found Jacob particularly unlikable in large part due to his limited vocabulary (it seemed his default retort rotated between "You bastard!" and "You son of a bitch!").
For the most dedicated fans of the series only, and even those can probably safely skip this one. It does Alice, Jacob, nor Krueger any justice and works strictly as a fanfic-type piece. Seek it out if you must but set the bar low and you might not come out too scathed.

[Khris Axel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Unique take on the series of NOES. Not much filler at all. I’d say half of the Characters were good small portion of them were kinda throwaway. Also, Jacob from the films returning was cool. Ella Harris was my favorite character of the story and the other main character outside of Jacob. Definitely one of the better out of the five.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

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[Jaine Slash · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ella’s The GOAT Final Girl and she’ll have her revenge.

[Zoe Blinko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another in the series of Black Flame novels published as non-canon elements to Freddy Krueger and the A Nightmare On Elm Street horror franchise.

The plot is fairly standard for A Nightmare On Elm Street connected novel; it's filled with dream theories, cliche and stereotyped main characters and a fair few new methods by Freddy of taunting and killing his victims. Despite the cliches, it's what makes me recognise it as a slasher horror film, and is nostalgic of the original series, so for that reason I am sure fans will at least pick up a copy and read it.

The highlight of this novel is a returning character from the films: Jacob Johnson, son of Alice Johnson who featured in The Dream Master and The Dream Child. The Dream Child is referenced in places, so for any new readers who are awaiting to read this book and have not seen that film in the series yet, it would be wise to watch that first to gain some background understanding.

[Jade McCulloch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book a few years back, and it was one of Natasha Rhodes better works(which doesn't mean much). It was ok, but there are better books in the series.

[Phil Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes! Yes! Yes! After finishing this fourth book in the series I am happy to see this book getting back to the type of story I was hoping to get out of these Black Flame novels.

Freddy is continuing to find ways around the Dream suppressant drug Hyponocil. This book brings in a dirty cop who wants to work with a maximum security resident of Westin Hills to defeat Freddy, although the cops motivation isn't necessarily sincere.

I noticed some ideas used were based off some parts of the Freddy's Dead, but the author did a much better job of bringing it into the final battle than the movie did.

You do not need to read any of the first three books to read this one. Of all the five Black Flame Nightmare on Elm Street Novels that are now out of print, I found this one the most challenging to find a copy.