Some Faraway Place

The Bright Sessions #3

by Lauren Shippen, Alanna Fox (Narrator), Charilie Ian (Narrator)

Some Faraway Place, the third Bright Sessions novel from creator Lauren Shippen, features Rose, who has her humdrum life flipped upside down when she starts to travel into dreams.

Rose Atkinson’s mother can see the future. Her father can move things he doesn't touch. Her brother Aaron can read minds. And Rose, well, she makes a mean spaghetti bolognese.

Everyone else in her family is Atypical, which means they manifested an ability that defies the limits of the human experience. At nineteen, well past the average age of manifestation, Rose is stuck defending her decision not to go to college and instead working in the kitchen of a local restaurant, hoping to gain the experience she needs to become a chef.

When a rollerblading accident sends her to the hospital, she meets a girl she can't forget and she starts to feel like maybe her life isn't quite so small. But when she starts falling asleep mid-conversation, she thinks, then again maybe I’m doomed to never have good things.

Rose should be happy to learn that she’s Atypical after all—that diving into dreams makes her a part of her family in the way she always wanted. But the more time she spends in the dreamworld, the more complicated her ability becomes. Trying to balance her work, her power, and a girlfriend who doesn’t know about Atypicals, Rose seeks help. But she soon discovers that being Atypical comes with dangers she never could have imagined. Even her carefully constructed dreamworld isn’t safe.

This is the story of Atypical Rose, who discovers that your dreams coming true isn’t always a good thing.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, LGBT, Queer, Contemporary, Romance, Science Fiction

Audiobook

First published September 28, 2021

About the author

Lauren Shippen is a writer most known for her work in fiction podcasts. She was the creator and sole writer of the popular audio drama The Bright Sessions, which ran from 2015 to 2018. She went on to executive produce The AM Archives and co-produce Passenger List before founding Atypical Artists, a company dedicated to audio storytelling. Most recently, she wrote MARVELS, an audio adaptation of the popular comic, set for release later this year by Marvel and Stitcher.

Lauren was named one of Forbes 2018 30 Under 30 in Media and one of MovieMaker Magazine and Austin Film Festival’s 25 Screenwriters to Watch. Her first novel, The Infinite Noise, will be released through Tor Teen in September 2019. Shippen grew up in New York, where she spent most of her youth reading and going to Panic! at the Disco shows. She now lives in Los Angeles, where she does the same thing.

Reviews

[Lex Kent · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 Stars. I’m sorry to say that this book was not for me. However -and there is a big however- I thought this book could be read as a standalone and now I know I was mistaken. Not only is this the third book of a series, but there is also a podcast involved. This seems to be a whole little world that Shippen created with this maybe being the farewell book. Had I known this, I never would have started reading here as I’m very careful about reading order. While I could see someone new, like me, liking this, I don’t think anyone completely new would understand or could even receive all that this book has to give. Therefore, if you are reading this whole series, ignore my review and read reviews from others who also have. I think my review should only really be of interest for people thinking of jumping into the series with this book.

I loved the premise and truly thought this book would be right up my alley. I love superhero books and while this is not that, there are people walking around with every imaginable superhero power you could think of. With the premise being: what would it be like to be a young woman in a family where everyone has super powers but you? That is until you have an accident and realize maybe you are not so different after all.

I thought this would be a lot of fun, but instead I mostly felt like I was reading this book just to be done with it. It is not that big of a book, but it felt twice as long as it should have and it took me triple the time to finish it than normal. I thought this was going to be YA, but it was actually NA with the mains ranging from 19-29. I don’t always do well with NA, and I could not help but feel like the characters acted younger than they were. I think if Rose, who is one of the main, main characters, would have been 16, and her brother maybe 17 or 18, I think a lot of character actions would have made a lot more sense to me.

I struggled with the writing style, but that is more a personal preference. We are in the POV of 4 different characters, two main characters and two main secondary characters. Each character speaks to us through a different media. One journals, one writes letters, one types on a sub/reddit and the last types on a blog or AO3? I could not tell for sure and as this was an early ARC, and the spacing and different line edits for the different media were not finished, they weren’t always the easiest to read. This is something that will obviously be fixed in the final edit so that wasn’t my real problem. My problem was that I just don’t care for readings books in letter and journal form. There were also some obvious inconsistencies and head hoping, but again, that will be cleaned up so while they slowed my reading speed down, I know this will be a better experience for readers who get the new book that is released in a couple days.

A lot of people complained about Rose, how annoying and selfish she is, which I get, but I liked her character’s story much better than the others. While it was nice to be in the POV of her girlfriend –on a super rare occasion- and be in the POV of her brother, I don’t think either was needed. This book should have been a two POV book. Rose, a character who is on her journey of self-discovery, and Damien, a character from a previous book, who is back for closure.?.

Damien, is where I had some pretty big issues. I was interested in Rose and what was going on with her, but then at close to the midway point this new main character appears. While we do get some previous small appearances, Damien is not really back until the second half and then the story changes to all about him and his old group. Now here was the big problem, I just did not care. This is why I say reading the previous books are a must because I didn’t have any feelings for Damien or his group. They just took up space in the book that I wanted to spend with Rose and her girlfriend instead.

Rose and her girlfriend is where the book shined for me. I thought their dates and time together was really sweet. I found them to be an easy couple to root for since they were so cute together. Unfortunately, the girlfriend would just disappear for pages and pages, randomly in another state or something like that, and it ruined all the adorable momentum they had built up together. It’s obvious to me that Shippen can really write some sweet romance, she just spent too much time on older characters and didn’t give the new characters enough romance time.

While I enjoyed the little romance that was present, I had another big issue with all the characters arguing with each other. The problem was the arguing was constant and super repetitive. I hope some of it gets cut out for the finale book as I felt like I read the same few arguments ten times over. Rose and her brother’s arguments especially really started to get to me. Rose is annoying and selfish, but she makes mistakes because she has a brand new power. Her brother, who everyone talks about how he was horrible to be around when he was figuring out his own power, is constantly telling Rose she is so horrible for trying to figure out hers. He got his get out of jail free card for a long time, from the whole family, yet everyone has a problem with Rose. While that double standard was annoying, all the arguing in general really did me in and I ended up feeling like almost half the dialogue was people arguing.

I think in the end I’m not even sure what this book was truly about, besides arguing and dreaming. While there was a lot of mini conflict -all the arguing- there was no major conflict to drive the storyline. This is a book about super powers yet there are no real heroes and no real villains. That message is okay for a lot of books but I don’t think it worked for this kind of premise. I needed some action or even fun to keep me turning the pages but nothing ever really happened. This is almost entirely a character driven read with no major plot points. I think this book more turned into a swan song for the old character of Damien, and I think Rose, and especially her girlfriend, kind of got left behind.

TLDR: If you are a fan of this series, I would ignore this review. I have not read the series and I know that fact absolutely lowered my enjoyment of this book. Had I known how connected this book was to this world Shippen created, I would never have read this book out of turn. If you are new to this series I would highly suggest not starting here. A great premise, but this particular book, read out of order, was not for me.

An ARC was generously given to me by Tor/Forge for a review.

[carley · Rating 4 out of 5]

it's lauren's world and we're living in it
---
edit after reading:
3.5 stars? maybe 4? i want to give it a higher rating but damien's parts/involvement really sucked. i liked his book enough but i'm tired of him. imo he's the same person he was at the first episode of the podcast. felt like rose deserved to have her own book without so much of him. the romance was nice but i wish we got to see it develop more. excited to see what lauren shippen does next :))

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany)]

I went in with high hopes but ultimately struggled with Some Faraway Place. I read the first book in the Bright Sessions series and loved it, but was under the impression they could all be read as standalones. That isn't really the case because it's clear I'm missing a few things not having read book 2. But beyond that, this felt like a lot of me WANTING to like the story and appreciating certain elements of it, but never feel it gel together in a satisfying way.

Rose is the only member of her family without supernatural abilities. She dreams of becoming a chef and has a new girlfriend she's into. But then things start to get weird when she develops the ability to enter people's dreams.

One of my issues with this book is there are just too many things going on, none of them feeling as well-handled as they should be. There's a romance. There's a fraught brother/sister relationship. There is grief over a family medical issue. There's this new ability portrayed in a way that seems to be a commentary on depression and addiction. But ALSO there's a whole semi-mysterious side plot involving a side character from previous books. It's a lot and it jumps around. Like there are whole sections of the book that are doing nothing with the romance, and then we suddenly get back to it. The pacing is weird and I was left at the end feeling really dissatisfied, wondering what the point of what I just read was. There are good bits and pieces of ideas, but they never really progress much beyond that. Which is unfortunate. I received an advance copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Alexx (obscure.pages) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, wow wow wow. I don't even know how to explain this book. This was a beautiful and heart wrenching story of being human—of getting lost, making mistakes, trying to make a connection with others, of falling in love, dealing with our problems, and more. I came for some magic, (and there is magic, yes), but I think what made this book so compelling is the way the author gave me a glimpse of the complexity of reality instead. I love that. 🤧

The writing style is just brilliant. I absolutely love how the author isn't afraid to dive deep into the psyche of the characters, and show the readers how unstable/unreliable the characters are, how lonely they are, what drives them to do things or to cope with the things around them.

In a way, I see Some Faraway Place as a character study that's just so heartfelt and complex and raw. If I shed a few tears reading the last few chapters, well, no one saw it okay 🤧😂 (Also, I adored the queer rep + fat rep! And the way I got to meet all the previous characters from the past books, too! I think really missed Caleb and Adam)

This series is so underrated and honestly deserves more love.

(Got an a-arc from NetGalley. This, of course, did not affect my overall opinion of the book.)

Find me elsewhere: Instagram | Twitter | Blog

[C Reads Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Big thank you to Tor Teen and Netgalley for providing a free digital copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I would like to point out that this book is the third in a shared world trilogy and I have not read the first two, however I do not feel this affected my understanding of the world or characters in a significant way.

It's very difficult to pin down my feelings about this book, as it seemed to be all over the place. The main character Rose was sometimes relatable, sometimes infuriating. The writing was sometimes beautiful, sometimes juvenile. The plot was sometimes interesting, sometimes dull and repetitive, and as a result I'm left feeling like I enjoyed the book overall but didn't love a lot of the specifics.

The world Shippen has created is interesting; people called Atypicals manifest super abilities like mind reading and telekinesis in adolescence, They need to learn to deal with and control these powers while keeping them general secret from the public, and they receive help from what seems to be a national or international organization called the Atypical Monitors, or AM. It's a cool idea, and I loved the range of different powers and the idea of a possibly shady organization posed as a facility to help Atypicals.

In Some Faraway Place we follow 19 year old Rose, a late bloomer in a family full of Atypicals, who has just discovered her rare ability to dreamdive, which allows her to enter and affect people's dreams. Rose has felt like an outsider as most people get their abilities in their early teens, her brother having gotten his years ago, so she's the only "normie" among her family, and she struggles with feeling like she's different, both before her power appears but also after because her particular power is so unusual.

Here's the thing though: Rose is selfish. She's incredibly, unflinchingly selfish, not to mention totally lacking in common sense, and she only begins taking actual steps to change at the very tail end of the book. Now, I enjoy a flawed protagonist, but Rose kept making the same dumb, selfish mistakes, acknowledging she was making the same dumb selfish mistakes, and then CONTINUING to make the same dumb, selfish mistakes! It was frustrating to read, and while I sympathized with her about feeling like an outsider from her family, when she finally finds out she's like them she immediately jumps into their heads and enters their dreams without their consent, while completely ignoring them irl. In fact, she does this with everyone despite the fact that every single person has gotten upset with her for it. I can't count how many times she says she's going to pay more attention to her sick father and then immediately goes back to avoiding him. She is lied to and used by a "friend" over and over and yet she continues believing everything he tells her, without question, WHILE she's remembering all the times he lied previously. I wanted very much to like Rose because she should've been a great character but more often than not I found myself wanting to smack her.

There are some other things that bothered me, like the fact that a friendship between a 19 year old girl and a 29 year old man is portrayed as acceptable just because they "get" each other and the fact that a lot of time is spent setting up a new relationship which then disappears almost completely except for a random update here and there from the other person's point of view, but the other big issue is that there is a mystery surrounding the AM and things they may or may not be doing on the shady side and then [SPOILERS, kinda] towards to end someone says "I'm going to fix everything, promise" and Rose kind of just goes "OK, good" and that's the end of it. I wanted a lot more out of that whole plot line and was very frustrated that the whole thing fizzled out into nothing.[End spoilers]

Some Faraway Place is written as diary entries interspersed with letters and Reddit and Tumblr (or "Readit" and "Mumblr" ) posts from side characters. The diary format took a while to get used to— I haven't read a book written that way since I was a kid— and I wouldn't say it's my favorite writing style but I didn't mind it and it made for a very easy read. The letters were interesting because there was a mystery with them; you don't know who they're to or from until halfway through the book. The social media posts tended to just restate what had happened in the last entry and ended up being fairly tedious.

This has been mostly negative so I want to point out the positive, since I did like this book more than dislike it. The book has great casual queer rep, and I'm never mad when it book has a lot of queer characters and doesn't feel the need to throw in a random scene featuring homophobia. This book has none of that and between that and the ultimate message of being present for the people you love now because you can't control tomorrow, I wouldn't hesitate to call this book wholesome, which I appreciated.

The characters were a mixed bag but in general I found them compelling. While I didn't always love Rose, she was at least interesting and I liked Aaron, Rose's complicated but ultimately caring older brother. I liked what little we saw of Dr. Bright, I liked Mark, Sam, Caleb, and Adam and wished there had been more of them, but I understand at least some of them are from a previous book. I wanted to like Emily, Rose's new girlfriend, but every time I thought we were getting a glimpse of her personality she would disappear for 40 pages.

It's possible I would feel differently if I had read the first two books in this series first and I enjoyed this one enough to give them a chance. I did enjoy the ride, so to speak, of Some Faraway Place, and had the ending been more satisfying this would have easily been four stars. I'll be reading The Infinite Noise soon because I'm very interested to get Caleb and Adam's story, so stay tuned!

[Celine Ong · Rating 4 out of 5]

“maybe no one knows who they are and we’re all just trying to build the pieces of ourselves with the help of other people.”

✼ thank you to netgalley and torteen for an arc of some faraway place in exchange for an honest review.

two months ago i fell in love with the infinite noise. since then, i've been journeying through the bright sessions universe - books, podcasts, spinoffs, you name it. its a strange feeling to have a universe grow inside your chest, something that started with caleb and adam from the infinite noise evolved into something larger, more complex. with each podcast and book, i fell more and more in love with this universe.

and now we’re reached the final instalment - some faraway place .

so like. we’ve all thought about escaping reality and retreating into a fictional world inside our heads, right?

that's basically it. we follow rose, a late bloomer in a family of atypicals, who discovers that her sleeping spells are a manifestation of her developing ability to dreamdive - entering and influencing dreams. spending time in a dreamworld is complicated, but the trickier part is not losing herself and her loved ones in the process.

if you look up ‘disaster lesbian’ in the dictionary, you’ll see rose proudly staring back at you. she is an absolute disaster. she waxes poetic about hand holding but literally cannot form a single coherent thought around girls. y’know in saphhos' poem 31 where sapphos talks about fainting after hearing a beautiful woman’s laugh? yes exactly that. i love her.

but more than that, rose is a messy protagonist.

flung into a tumultuous period with no instruction manual, rose makes poor choices, throws tantrums, wallows in self pity, pushes people away when she gets scared. but at the core, she’s driven by the best intentions - to stay true to herself while being a good daughter, sister, girlfriend; to right her wrongs; to do all she can to feel enough for herself and those around her.

this book tells you that you need to own your actions, acknowledge mistakes, and accept that they do hurt others. here’s the thing about growth though: its not linear. so she’s flawed but she picks herself up, dusts herself off, falls down, and tries again. as we all do.

lauren shippen is brilliant at character development - both personal and emotional - and her characters speak for a chance at hope and love. i also credit her with turning me into a podcast lover. yes, me! owner of two dying brain cells and the attention span of a goldfish! truly a testimony to what a phenomenal storyteller she is.

social media also plays a big role in this book. that thing these characters do? finding friends and family online, creating a safe corner on the internet with people who understand, love, and support you? most of us readers do that too, finding book communities oceans away through the internet, bound by a common love.. and it was so nice to have that validated as a form of connection that is just as real as in-person ones.

maybe its because the entire tbs universe now occupies a space inside my chest, but this book felt big, like the collision of every past book and podcast in a final hurrah. a farewell to characters who are damaged but healing, struggling but trying, and hurting but loving. just as we are.

goodbyes are always tough and this one is no exception. but i can’t think of a better send-off to this universe. as they say, this is not farewell, but a hope-filled see you later.

[MossyMorels · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this! I listened to the bright sessions and love getting to relearn the story from a new perspective. I love the perspective this book is in, told through journal entries and social media posts. It feels like a good connection to the og podcast told through recordings. And Damien,,,, geez this book really got me to start sympathizing with him. I’m pretty sure this is the last book and I’m sad this story is over but this is a great way to say goodbye.

Rep: sapphic, WLW, POC, side mlm
CW: terminal illness,

[coco's reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

The best thing about Some Faraway Place was how my feelings fluctuated. I started out believing I wasn't going to enjoy it at all, and by the end, I was almost emotional. And by almost, I mean I was emotional.

My main gripe remains unchanged though, and that's the format: I liked the letters and forum/blogs posts, but Rose's journal entries weren't successful. The format's a large reason I had trouble getting into the book, but I also just wasn't compelled by her voice, even if her struggles—not choosing a typical career path, feeling out of place within her family, trying to figure out who she was outside of being a daughter/sister/girlfriend—were excellent. Rose was a much more frustrating character than I expected after listening to the podcast, which was surprising in both good and not so good ways: good because she gained new depths, and not so good because she made so many poor decisions. At least she was never static! Shippen did a wonderful job crafting Rose's parents and brother and showing Rose's relationship with them, as well as—you guessed it—Damien. And Damien? Talk about gutting me, because this trainwreck of a human sold the entire book. Lauren Shippen didn't have to give us all that character development, but she loves him more than anyone, I think, and she went there.

The writing's not the best and I did often struggle to make decent progress, but Some Faraway Place closed out the series nicely.

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Jenly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why am I crying at that ending though?

[Colby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some Faraway Place is the third book in Lauren Shippen's The Bright Sessions series and is the last book she's writing in this universe. I don't know how to explain how it feels to feel one of my favorite fictional universes coming to an end after this many years of calling it home, but this book was not only a wonderful end to this series, but also a fitting farewell to the Bright Universe as a whole.

I expected Some Faraway Place to be similar to the last two books in terms of format, but Shippen threw a curve ball here and did something I really loved: she told this book from four different perspectives—Rose's dream journal, her girlfriend Emily's blog, her twin brother Aaron's forum posts, and Damien's personal letters. When you have a protagonist who's a dreamdiver and spends most of her time lost to sleep or otherwise struggling to live fully in the real world, it was refreshing to see the events of the story from outside of her perspective, but mostly, to see her actions from the points of view of someone who cares about her (Aaron), someone who is trying to get to know her (Emily), and someone who understands her in a way the other two can't (Damien).

What results from this is a multi-layered and complex story that's just as full of Shippen's love, humor, compassion, and hope as the others, but spread out in such a way that makes this story feel larger than the previous two. This book is where the last two books and the context of the podcasts all come together one last time to say goodbye, to provide hope for the characters who made it this far, and to show us Rose's story in the depth I always wanted to see. Unlike Caleb and Damien, Rose is born into a family of Atypicals and her story provides a perspective that we've never seen before in this universe, and witnessing how Rose copes with being the last to come into her powers and doing all she can to feel like enough for herself and those around her made for a really impactful story.

The Infinite Noise felt the lightest to me, with A Neon Darkness being the darkest of the three, and Some Faraway Place lands in a perfect in-between. It's one of a couple of books this year whose depictions of grief have brought me to tears and the feelings of being alone and isolated even when you're surrounded by people who could—and should, all things considered—understand you struck close to home in a way I wasn't entirely ready for. And Rose is a messy protagonist—she doesn't always make good decisions, she often acts younger than she is, she shoves people away, and she can be selfish and self-destructive—but she's immensely loveable as well. At the heart of Rose's story and her character is someone who is trying her hardest and in her efforts to right the things in her life, we find the rest of the Atypicals we've come to know and love crossing her path at various points until the story creates a sort of spiderweb of hope and dreams, full of people who are as damaged and healing and are loving and trying as much as we all are.

I don't think I could've asked for a better send-off to The Bright Sessions world, but fuck, I hate to see it go.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review, and all my thanks to Lauren Shippen for creating one of my favorite fictional universes and for giving us this much to love.

[zae · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huge fan of The Bright Sessions podcast so I was excited to read this one. We follow Rose who can enter other people’s dreams. It was fun to get to know more about her family as they were all atypicals. The dynamic is definitely different. I enjoyed getting to relive this part of the story again, but I ended up giving this 2 stars.

Ultimately my reason is that I’d often get confused in between chapters. There's content that aren’t in Rose’s POV but it didn’t really say which character. I had to initially guess but as we go on with the story it was possible to piece it together. But it did ruin the flow of the story for me as things weren’t completely clear. I’d also get frustrated at Rose a lot. She’s going through so much but if she just communicated with her family better so much of it would be resolved.

[Sawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I … am… sobbing…
I read the infinite noise and a neon darkness and ABSOLUTELY fell in love with the characters and wanted to know more! So I immediately went to the podcast to get to know them better, guess what???? I FELL IN LOVE EVEN MORE!!
If it was up to me, i would want to read more about these two<333


“Dear Damien and Rose,
I hope you are happy wherever you are<3”

Side note:
PLEASE LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOKS/PODCAST CHARLIE IAN IS AMAZING😭

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to call it a day on Some Faraway Place: A Bright Sessions Novel. I'm sure I'll come back to finish it at some point, but having it linger here is just kind of stressing me out. And I'm not invested enough in the story or characters to continue. Plus, there was one plot point that I'm just not in the headspace this year to deal with. It might come to nothing, and I guess I could have skimmed through the book to see what happens, but I think at this point I'd rather not know.

Full disclosure, I haven't listened to a single Bright Sessions podcast. I read the first book The Infinite Noise and enjoyed it for the most part and didn't feel like I was missing anything by not having listened to the podcasts. I realized after I started this book that I had skipped over book 2 in this series, A Neon Darkness, thinking Some Faraway Place was the second book. Looking over reviews on A Neon Darkness, I don't think it really matters that I didn't read it first, but I honestly don't know. I do think those who have listened to the podcasts will appreciate these books much more than those of us who didn't.

[alana ☽ · Rating 3 out of 5]

* This ARC was provided to me by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion!*

I found myself very caught up in the story of Rosie and her experience as an Atypical, a human born with some sort of supernatural ability. The world building could have been a tad bit better but from what I understand this book, and the series it belongs to, are based on a podcast which probably fills in quite a few of the gaps. I enjoyed the format of the story as diary entries and letters. I found the social media tie-ins to be a simple segue into the next part of the story. It did not quite hit home for me personally, but I could see many fantasy fans loving this novel!

[JK · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Teen for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

1.5
DNF at 40ish%
I thought I'd get around to finishing this, but I think I'm just going to call it quits at this point since it's been like 4 months since I started the book and haven't even thought about picking it up in a long time. This wasn't a bad book, but it wasn't as interesting as the other books in this series and didn't hold my attention. The one word to describe how I was feeling while reading was bored. Even though I got pretty far into this, I just didn't care about what was happening or about what happened to any of the characters. It was a bit too flat and slow for me. I'm so disappointed because I was so close to completing this series. Maybe in the future I'll have the desire to get back into this world since they are all pretty much companion novels so I wouldn't have to start over at book 1, but I don't think that desire will spark for a very, very long time.

[Jen Appell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how Lauren Shippen describes Atypical abilities, and I love the queer rep. While I think this might be considered a standalone, I suggest at least reading the other Bright Sessions books first (and the podcasts if you want the full experience!) The book references major events in the previous books that wouldn't make much sense without context. I did take a break from reading this about halfway through and picked it back up later. I'm definitely a mood reader though, so that's on me.

[Zimmy W · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think there were definitely parts of this book I really enjoyed (especially Damien's entries), but overall it kind of fell flat for me, especially in comparison to books 1 and 2.

[Briony · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I made it to about 10% of the way through the book and decided to call it quits. It wasn't so bad, I just wasn't invested or interested. The worldbuilding was nonexistent, and the main characters had identical narration styles. The primary girl, Rose, was the main reason I quit reading (alongside a niche reason I explain in a moment). Rose was ungrateful, annoying, whiny, and self-centered. She complained on EVERY page. Additionally, the "lingo" of this book feels like it's trying waaaay too hard to be young and relatable. For the most part, teens talk like adults in real life. Especially when they're almost twenty. That's true realism.

This book ought to be labeled as Middle Grade, because it's definitely too juvenile for YA based on what I read. Perhaps it would be more successful there. Obviously, if there's mature content later then I'm wrong.

My niche reason for disliking this book is the same reason I picked it up in the first place. I Lucid Dream, and this entire book is based on the concept of Rose having power through her dreams. I love the idea of it! Such a fun concept! The thing is, though, her "unusual" dreams are really short (a couple pages each) and completely normal. I dream journal daily, and I've seen far more weirdness than Rose has. She also passingly mentions Lucid Dreaming and then refuses to research it despite it being the thing most likely occurring in-context. I feel like I'm the target audience for this story as someone passionate about dreams, and it just really missed the mark for me.

[No' · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have now consumed every canon content for The Bright Session's universe and my life will never be the same.
Thoughts incoming.

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first Bright Sessions novel, and it's left me feeling like I just woke up groggy from a long nap. Mostly because I'm not totally sure whether I enjoyed what I read — or what even happened besides a ton of dreaming and repetitive arguing.

I fell in love quick with Shippen's conversational writing style and the superhuman premise: a young woman named Rose is the last in her family to manifest special abilities, making her an Atypical. She's a dreamdiver, which is at first like having narcolepsy, then lucid dreaming, then a powerful addiction where she sleeps away most of the day (or days), violates people's privacy and screws up relationships, and ultimately relishes in the no-consequences, unfettered freedom of the dreamworld over cold hard reality.

Throughout the book, Rose struggles with obsession: both the temptation of invading other people's dreams without consent and a conspiracy surrounding a government organization well-known to Atypicals. The fantasy of it all keeps her from dealing with the struggles of building real, honest relationships with her girlfriend Emily and brother Aaron, who she relates to more in dreams than her waking life. Her power to dreamdive goes from being a burden to an escape to a cheat code for connection as Rose explores her new ability and what its purpose beyond a random genetic mutation.

SOME FARAWAY PLACE is, essentially, a novel of disconnection — how living in a fantasy world isn't a substitute for reality and genuine human connection, whether that fantasy world is dreams or an internet forum or fanfiction. And unfortunately, I ended up feeling disconnected by reading it. I'm not sure Rose as a character is entirely likable the more you get to know her, and maybe that's because I never quite felt the impact of her flight into the unreal or her daily challenges. Her family heaps a lot of blame onto her — and rightly so, she's sleeping her days away — but I reached a point where I felt like it was excessive for the situation. Like they were arguing for arguing's sake, and about the same things, with no real progress happening in between. Like a dream, the story both seemed to last forever and was over in a blink, leaving me with only a vague memory of what transpired.

Maybe I would have been more invested if, for example, Shippen made tangible the things that Rose was missing by sleeping so much — what she lost out on by not being there. While her family laments her absence and shames her over family togetherness and memories they could be making, there are gaps in their lives for the times when Rose is asleep, and I wanted to know what filled them. What was her mom up to? Her dad? Her brother? Because isn't that the tragedy of an addiction — not what it costs you alone, but everyone else?

Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge for the review copy.

[Kel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some Faraway Place (A Bright Sessions Novel) by Lauren Shippen
304 pages | Releases September 28

Some Faraway Place is an emotional and deeply character-driven novel. Written as a series of diary entries, blog posts, and letters, the novel's structure makes for short chapters that are incredibly binge-able. Not being terribly familiar with The Bright Sessions novels or podcast--I've listened to a couple of episodes here and there, but not read the other novels--I was delighted by how easy it was to get wrapped up in this world despite my sparse background knowledge. I will definitely be coming back to the other novels and the podcast in the future; I need more of these characters!

Our main character, Rose, is young and new to having an Atypical power. She is insecure about a lot of things, overly defensive with people she should trust, and overly trusting of people she probably shouldn't. She is a compelling character to follow, young enough to make her mistakes frustrating but understandable, and sometimes uncomfortable in the relatability.

The story follows Rose as she comes to terms with her new ability of dreamdiving: entering other people's dreams. In the waking world, she meets and gets involved with a few other Atypicals with their own agendas, tries to deal with a family crisis, and juggles a demanding job that she's passionate about and a relationship with a cute girl who she really likes. As her real life gets more hectic and unpredictable, the pull of spending more and more time in the dreamworld--where she can control the landscape, revel in childlike wonder at impossibilities, and relive simpler days in brilliant technicolor--becomes harder to resist. Overall I found this novel immediately engaging, easy to read, and emotionally impactful. I won't soon get Rose and her family out of my head.

Recommended for folks who like coming-of-age stories, flawed characters who are trying their best, and maybe a little bit of crying with their reading. I'm guessing there would be a few additional places where the narrative would hit hard if I had the context of the additional works in this universe, but even without, it is a story that leaves a mark.

[Bookish Selkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a family of Atyipcals, people with powers, Rose has always been the odd one out. The Atkinsons don’t quite understand Rose’s culinary interests or her isolation. When Rose begins dangerously falling asleep, she learns that her power has manifested at a late age. Rose is a dream diver and can alter dreams. But no power comes without a cost and the dreamworld is not as safe as it appears.

This was my first story in the world of the Atypicals! I really look forward to reading more books in the series (particularly Damien’s book) and listening to The Bright Sessions podcast. I love the idea of people with powers going to therapy. Rose was a very lovable and real protagonist. Some Faraway Place has excellent LGBTQ+ rep, discussion of complicated family dynamics, the importance of therapy, and a family member being diagnosed with Alzheimers. I thought all of these topics were handled extremely well. I especially loved Rose’s meet-cute and relationship with her girlfriend Emily!

The storytelling format is told through Rose’s journal, mysterious letters, and her brother Aaron’s queries to a forum; this was a nice way to get perspectives other than Rose. You don’t need to have read the other books in the series to enjoy this book. I will definitely be going back and catching up on them, because I am very intrigued to learn more about this world! I would recommend Some Faraway Place for anyone looking for a coming-of-age story, a love story, and ultimately a story about people grappling with unimaginable powers. Thank you so much to Lauren Shippen, Tor Teen, and Netgalley for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Katelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received an eARC copy of Some Faraway Place from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Lauren Shippen is a storytelling genius. The Bright Sessions has been a favorite podcast of mine for years and I’m so glad she brought this vibrant world to the pages of a book.

I knew this book was going to be great, but dang, I think this is my new favorite of the three (sorry, Damien). I definitely didn’t expect it to make me cry (no spoilers). Some Faraway Place is the perfect conclusion to this podcast. The book was written mostly as journal entries from Rose (the book is mainly in her POV) with a combination of letters from a mysterious someone (it's revealed later in the book) and reddit-like entries from Aaron, Rose’s brother, that help add depth to the overall plot. We met Rose originally towards the end of the podcast and getting to have more insight into her character was a blast. The way Shippen weaves details from the podcast into the book without verbatim giving us episodes is *chef's kiss*.. We learn way more about Rose's totally Atypical family, her interactions with Emily (her girlfriend), her relationship with Damien (I fully support that, by the way), and how she really navigates her dreamdiving (changed from dream walking for the book). Rose is so sure of her place within  her Atypical family but all that gets knocked on its head when she finds out that she also has an ability: dreamdiving. Throughout the book we see several characters grappling with who they are and where they fit into their world. It’s a book of discovery and learning that having an ability isn't always what it's cracked up to be.

As someone who has listened, and relistened, to the podcast I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to fans and non-fans alike. It's a coming-of-age story, a love story, and will leave you on the edge of your seat. You get answers to questions you have along the way like just what happened to Damien and what is the nature of his’ and Rose’s relationship, do things work out for Rose and Emily, and what is the Atkinson family dynamic really like (especially now that a huge wrench was thrown into the mix)?

I was beyond thrilled to find out that we got a lot more Damien in this book. As much as I loved reading about Rose’s story, her family, and her dreamdiving, Damien has been my favorite character from the beginning (despite thinking he was a little creepy at first). Overall, I am so glad this was the story to wrap up the Bright Sessions and give us some closure. Shippen has such a way with words and storytelling and it’s what drew me in all those years ago. I will be a lifelong fan of this series and I’m so glad I was able to read an early copy of this book.

Rep: sapphic (lesbian and pansexual), mlm (unspecified), Jewish, Latinx, mid-size

[alyssa-corin · Rating 4 out of 5]

(First i will say thank you for the digital arc I received)
Ok, so. Let’s get into this. I really enjoyed the book. It started great and pulled me in, towards the middle I started to feel like it started to drag, but it picked up again really quickly.
I’m terms of characters I was so happy, as a character fanatic this book was like heaven. I feel like Rose was such a great protagonist in the way that she was so relatable. Something about someone struggling to connect to people able to go into peoples subconscious was such an interesting concept. On top of that the addiction of avoiding the real world to get wrapped up in a fake/fictional world was a really relatable topic, especially to a lot of readers.
Not being able to connect to the people around you was such a great topic that I think the author did really well. Knowing what you want to say but never really being able to hit the mark, and the frustration that comes with it.
In terms of representation we got queer Jewish main character, Latina love interest, and a bunch of poc and lgbt side characters.
While the book is the third in a series and a spin off of the podcast, I feel that it can be a stand alone. While you won’t get some of the character insight, I do think it may add a lot more to the mystery.

[Ami · Rating 4 out of 5]

**Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review**
"Some Faraway Place" by Lauren Shippen is the third installment in a series of interconnected stories about a world where some humans have supernatural abilities. In this book, we're following Rose, a girl who comes from a family of Atypicals and always assumed the gene had somehow skipped her, until she starts randomly falling asleep and getting strange dreams.
This immediately piqued my interest, from the first page I knew this was going to be a great and wild experience, even though I had no idea what was going on and wouldn't for a while. The relationships in the story are so distinct and real, and the romantic one is adorable even with its ups and downs. The online posts and letters are a great way to mix up the format and give us an insight into other characters' minds. The clues the author left about theneonthorn's identity, though obvious to me, were really fun to spot and really solidified the author's ability to write characters.
One thing that put me off was the dialogue. I know what I read wasn't a finished product, but in some parts a character would talk and in the next paragraph, it would still be them. This was confusing and made me lose track of who was talking in a conversation.
Overall, I give this 4/5 stars and look forward to reading the rest of the books in the series, and listening to the podcast, of course!

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

ARC provided by NetGallery.

Some Faraway Place follows Rose Atkinson, a character that I haven't wanted to know everything about since she appeared in the Bright Sessions podcast, as she learns to balance her life and come into new parts of her identity, namely a newly discovered power to explore other people's dreams. I will admit that how deeply I enjoyed the podcast influenced how much I enjoyed this book. I am also not certain how much more context I had for the story line because of the podcast. In that I am not certain if the story is harder to follow if you are going in without that information. Less so for Rose's arc and more so with other characters.

As with her previous projects, Shippen does a phenomenal job navigating the emotional journey of her characters with kindness. It is not just the way that she presents the characters' trauma but the path she carries those characters through their healing and all the messiness that comes with that. There are passages of Rose, and others, that are difficult to get through at times because of that process and how Rose approaches her own life. But each those felt real to me. This particular book in the series handles the concept of owning your actions and the pain they cause others in a way that hit every way I wanted it to. For every part of me that recommends this series, and specifically this book for the story telling, it is the way that Shippen approaches emotion and personal growth that makes me recommend her writing again and again.

[Serena Blackter · Rating 4 out of 5]

*Thank you Netgalley for Arc*

Some Faraway Place follows a story of an usual Rose with an unusual family. Except for her, everybody in her family has some powers. They are Atypicals. Her father is teleketinci, her mom has visions of future and her brother, Aaron, he can read minds. And for Rose, well she is a good cook.

Rose has been having problem, she falls asleep anywhere, anytime. She doubts it's narcolepsy. It isn't that wierd until she falls asleep in front of a very cute girl (Emily) she met in hospital. What a bad first impression!

It takes her while to share about her narcolepsy to her parents. And when she does, they believe it's her showing signs of being Atypical. Rose doesn't believe them but eventually has to go to AM, an hospital for the unusuals. It turns out she's a dreamdiver. She learns to control her powers in AM. But once wasn't enough, and she soon again has to visit AM after her initial visit. On her last day there, she meets the guy whose dreams she went in. Damien.

But what secrets does he know about the AM? Secrets that shouldn't be told, will Rose be able to get what the AM hides from their patients?

It's the type of story I haven't read before. Specially the writing. The story is written in four formats. Rose writes in her dream journal, Emily on blog posts, Aaron on forums, and Damien through letters. The story seems interesting, but Rose seems not too much human to me. It could have been better if more emotions were put. I wouldn't generally read this novel, but it did pulled me within the words. And I got to say, Rose became really stupid at the end.

[Nadia (Coleccionista de Historias) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me this advanced copy in exchange for an honest opinion.

I really liked the story, I feel like it was a pretty snappy read and it moved along very fast, there were a few moments where I felt the story was a bit tedious, but it picks up its pace very quickly.

I loved the characters, I really liked Rose as the main character and I found the concept of her being a person who struggles a lot to connect with people, and that she is able to enter people's subconscious quite interesting, I thought it was a pretty cool element and I also found it quite interesting that her family members had powers and that there was lgbt representation in one of the characters I liked.

It's an entertaining story, I like the concept she handles, being the first time I read the author, I really like her storytelling and I feel like I can keep reading more stories from her.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some Faraway Place Review
3/5 rating
Disclaimer: I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor!

I really enjoyed the first half of this book but unfortunately towards the middle I felt it was missing something. The story is told through journal entries, blog posts, letters, and forums which I found really interesting and it made for a very character driven book which I always love. But I do think this writing format contributed to the plot feeling a bit inconsistent at times. That being said I think this book did a great job when it came to diversity. It has a queer jewish main character, poc, and lgbt representation. I also found it incredibly refreshing to read about a lgbt main character and not have the plot center around her sexuality and coming out.