The Dallergut Dream-Making District

 

The Dallergut Dream-Making District / Miye Lee
trans. from the Korean by Sandy Joosun Lee
Toronto, ON : Hanover Square Press, 2025, c2021.
298 p.

Part two of the Dallergut Dream Department Store duology, this Korean book is whimsical almost to a fault. I read the first one last year, and decided to continue the story with this new volume. 

It continues main character Penny's story. She's now been a reliable employee at the Dallergut Dream Department Store (a place where sleepers go to purchase new dreams) for a year, so she is being given new privileges, namely the opportunity to travel to the lower town, the shopping district for dream makers. This includes a look at the Noctiluna's Laundry, which was an intriguing addition. 

There are employee interactions, both smooth and prickly, there are new experiences for Penny as she tries to bring back shoppers who have dropped off the radar, and there is also a huge dream festival created by Dallergut to close out the book. 

I found this one a little twee; the beginning was especially hard to connect to as it was a lot of 'telling', creating new locations and so on. The last half of the book was a bit more fun and natural feeling, especially once all the staff got in on the Festival planning. That element was energetic and fun. 

I don't know if this is the conclusion of the story, or if there will be more to come. But I'm not sure I'm invested enough to read another in this series anyhow; it's a bit soporific, ironically enough.