Saturday, December 21, 2024

The DallerGut Dream Department Store

Dallergut Dream Department Store / Mi-Ye Lee
trans. from the Korean by Sandy Joosun Lee
Toronto, ON : Hanover Square Press, 2024.
287 p.

Just finished this charming little read -- part one of a two part series. It's definitely in the vein of all the Japanese cat/coffeeshop/cozy reads lately, even though it's Korean. It's set in a small country that exists in our sleep, where sleepers can go and pick out the kind of dream they want at many dream shops. And they pay in the emotions they experience thanks to that dream. 

The story starts with the introduction of Penny, our main character who is getting ready for her interview at Dallergut Dream Department Store. Dallergut has a good reputation and she really wants to get a job there. Luckily for her, and for the reader, she does get hired, and as she learns her new job, we follow along with her. This gives us a sense of the story in a natural way; as it's all new to Penny, the author can be more descriptive and explicit about the strange and unusual things she encounters. 

Along with the quirky Dallergut himself there are many Dream Designers, superstars of this world. From the flamboyant to the reclusive, each is famous for a certain type of dream -- whether a flying dream, memories of lost loves, dreams of success or more, people can choose a designer dream to suit their needs. And, the employees of the dream department stores are thrilled when one of the designers appears. 

Penny becomes an assistant to Dallergut & gets to go with him as he visits many of these designers. Maxim specializes in nightmares, but  is also a young and handsome man, who finds Penny easy to talk to; it's a nice area for development in the story. But I found one entertaining moment in this book to be the big gathering of important dream designers, which is in a winter chalet, home of winter dream specialist Nicholas -- aka Santa. 

This brings a bit of seasonal charm to the story and I loved the frosty themes in that section. I liked the book as a whole, although it was on the edge of twee for me. Lots of creativity in building that world though, and some really fun characters developed. I think I will most likely read the second one!  



 

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