The Nightmare Factory

The Nightmare Factory by Lucy Jones

Andrew and Poppy Lake thought they were safe in their own bed. They were wrong. Stolen from their dreams by an unknown force they wake up trapped in a strange world parallel to our own. There, the evil Vesuvius rules over the Nightmare Factory with his army of shadowmares, extracting fear from children to create nightmares all over the earth.

But Vesuvius want more. He wants power. He wants Andrew…

After finishing MetaWars 3.0 Battle of the Immortal, I saw in the back the mention of The Nightmare Factory and that it was a recommendation if you enjoyed Metawars, it’s one of my favourite series this year and lasts. Orchard Book kindly provided me with a review copy of The Nightmare Factory. The Nightmare Factory is written by 25-year-old author Lucy Jones, she has been writing since she was 12 and The Nightmare Factory is her debut children’s book.

The Nightmare Factory starts of with a scene where you meet up with the main protagonist of the story Andrew Lake. Andrew being chased down in a nightmare, but he more or less shrugs it off and continues his normal daily routine. However soon, Andrew is approached in his real life by a person that closely resembles the figure in his dream, this person does has advice for Andrew, but he and his sister Poppy don’t trust it that much... In the end he whished he had as Andrew and his sister Poppy now find themselves in a completely other world, full of oddities and scary things, that of the Nightmare Factory.

As might guess from the titles of the book, The Nightmare Factory is indeed a place where Nightmare are made. Opposite to this is the place where dreams are made, the Dream Factory. I was really impressed by the level of writing that was shown in displaying the world and the tiny details that make the world of Nusquam turn around. Even though The Nightmare Factory is a children’s book, there is no skipping of events that children might not find worth them time to read about, but all the question that arose in my mind regarding the how’s and the if’s about the nightmare-napping (the children who are being kidnapped to the Nightmare Factory) parts were all included in the end. Just for an example, The Nightmare Factory is located on a plain parallel to that of hours, Nusquam, however all the children are nightmare-napped by Vesuvius (I will get to him in a bit) and them brought down to the factory, my immediate questions were how? And what would happen with their real life bodies while they are off? Well all these questions are being explained, it gave a very solid grip on the storyline itself.

The Nightmare Factory is a story that I finished in one sitting; the story really pulls itself forward by the adventures that Andrew and Poppy undertake. The first part of the story takes place in the real world but soon the perspectives change towards Nusquam where the Nightmare Factory stands. The adventures and horrors they encounter here were again quite detailed and the dynamics of it really paid off for in producing depth to the storyline. In the Nightmare Factory Andrew and Poppy find a new friend in Dan and make a plan for escape, all this is followed by a, I wanted to say “mad” dash but its actually quite more a “planned” dash to save the world from Vesuvius. In the world of Nusquam, Lucy Jones, doesn’t limit the focus on the Nightmare Factory and it’s workers alone, instead she shifts the promise of the story further by including it’s counterpart as well, the Dream Factory and how that place is much more pleasant. Even going as far as telling about the consequences if one should gain the upper-hand, a bit like ying and yang, without the one, the other can’t exist. I was really pleased with the level of world-building.

Now for the bad guy of the story, Vesuvius, his job was to create nightmares. But overtime Vesuvius has learned that nightmares can mean and be much more. Legends say that there are children known as Releasers, their fear is so strong that Vesuvius can use it to embody real life nightmares and allow him to cross plains into the real world! His diabolical plan revolves around this aspect, and there is only one person who can stop him..

I have just one small remark about Andrew’s character and that is how he came into his power a bit to quick, Andrew soon learns that he is quite special and with this comes a set of power. Now in his training, Tiffany just tells him to focus and all of a sudden after a few tries he is able to use and has mastered his gifts. I can fully understand that writing a children’s book, it isn’t in the line to hammer on about the failures for too long, in order to keep the kids glued to the pages. But this last bit did feel rushed in though. Maybe a more gradual growing into his powers would have done it better for me, the search for Poppy could have produced a way for breaking into his powers.

The Nightmare Factory doesn’t feature a dull moment at all, I sat down in the morning and finished it by lunchtime, it is such a fun and pacey read that I know kids will enjoy. As for Lucy’s debut, she has thought of all the large things that make the world go around but also focuses on the often neglected small parts that add that little finishing touches here and there. She really shows a high degree of talent and I hope to read more of her stories. The Nightmare Factory is shows an adventurous story in the nightmare/dream world as well as in the real world, it has relatable characters in Andrew, Poppy and Dan, and also a great bad guy in Vesuvius and you know some nightmares never really disappear.. The second book in the series Rise of the Shadowmares was released last year October.