The Dream Where the Losers Go (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Year the Gypsies Came Elizabeth Bush Glass, Linzi The Year the Gypsies Came. Holt, 2006260p ISBN 0-8050-7999-8$16.95 R Gr. 7-10 Living in a treatment center following a suicide attempt, Skey is haunted by dreams of dark tunnels with strange carvings on the walls and the presence of a boy she [End Page 452] hears but can't see. She nonetheless feels safer in the center than when she goes back to school, where she is under the thumb of her possessive boyfriend and his gang of drug-dealing thugs. Though her body thrills to his touch, it is clear to the reader, much sooner than it is to Skey, that he is abusive and dangerous. Against her boyfriend's wishes, she befriends Lick, an antsy, disaffected boy in her English class, and soon discovers that he is the one who shares her dream tunnels. Several violent incidents, including the brutal beating of Lick by Skey's boyfriend and his goons, spur Skey to recover her memories of why she slit her wrists; her courage helps Lick in turn come to terms with the abuse he has suffered. The tunnels and the shared dream sequences seem a bit hokey at first, but as Goobie develops her images of these light and dark labyrinths, readers will readily accept them as apt metaphors of the dangers of both repressing and recovering traumatic memories. In this compelling and empathetic story of characters with complex vulnerabilities and nascent strength, Goobie takes Skey's trauma in a brave direction—she's not only suffering the horror of being gang-raped but also the shame of her body's orgasmic response to it, which is subtly echoed in her relationship to her abusive boyfriend; her anguished confession, wisely handled by her counselor, will help readers gain a wider view of victims' conflicting responses to abuse and trauma. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois