Thank you for this ARC! I LOVED this story! It brought together two of my favorite sub-genres- sweeping family dramas and climate fiction. I was so invested in the story of Cece and Garrett and thought the author did a wonderful job of writing a realistic story for them. It showed the ups and downs of marriage and made me appreciate the aging process. The hints of what is to come with climate change were appropriate...and scary! I highly recommend this book.

This Oprah’s Book Club Selection takes on a messy journey with 3 friends whose lives get tangled up in what was supposed to be the wedding day of 2 of them. Cece and Charlie were set to be married and create the perfect life together. Charlie’s friend, Garrett was supposed to officiate. But as the wedding day nears, things shift and Cece ends up forging a new path with Garrett instead, which changes all their lives forever.

The novel follows the 3 friends through their new marriages, parenthood and their children’s’ lives as they interconnect as well. This novel tackles love, loyalty, ambition and failures but is also threaded with themes related to climate change.

I’m a sucker for multigenerational sagas, but this one was just ok. I personally found Cece’s character to be unlikeable and I think that was why this didn’t work out for me. But Oprah loved it so maybe you will too.

Thank you to @doubledaybooks for an advanced digital copy of this novel.

The author skillfully explores three poignant themes: the isolation of the human experience, the absurdity of seeking meaning amid a climate crisis, and the suddenness with which death arrives. However, the characters, deeply selfish and unappealing, left me feeling weighed down by their inner turmoil.

Rather than truly connecting, the trio treats each other as lifelines to escape their own discontented lives, only to sink deeper into misery. Their refusal to take responsibility for their actions was frustrating, and overall, the novel left me with a sense of despair rather than hope.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC which I read in exchange for my honest review.

Wow, Dream State is a book that gives us a lot of topics to ponder - friendship, betrayal, love, and regret. It's a book about dreams, death, child rearing, climate change, endangered species, drug addiction, the beginning of living and the end of life. We see friendships and relationships that span 40+ years, and we see the role of child and parent sometimes being reversed.

Charlie and Garrett meet in the '90s at college. They become bonded as college buddies. but they also become a part of a tragic accident that will forever haunt them. Flashforward to 2004 and Charlie, a successful anesthesiologist living in LA, is returning to his parents' lake house in small town Montana, to marry Cece - small town Montana where old college buddy, Garrett, lives (or exists somewhat floundering like a fish out of water).

A third of the wedding party is struck with norovirus, and Cece is not even physically able to return to LA with Charlie after the nuptials are performed by Garrett. That, however, is not even the most shocking aspect of wedding tales.

The story then follows the lives of Charlie, Cece, and Garrett for several subsequent decades. I felt that the story line drug a little in the middle, but definitely did pick up about two thirds of the way through.

The reader is treated to a plethora of topics and dilemmas as the layers of the characters' lives are exposed. We witness striving for happiness and striving for forgiveness. One of my favorite characters was that of daughter, Lana. One of the most tragic was definitely the character of the son, Jasper.

One thing that I absolutely loved about the book was the setting of small town Montana. The mountainous and lakeside town played such an important role in the book that it was almost like an additional character, lovely description of setting that was so important to the story line.

Dream State is definitely a read that is a deep exploration of character driven motives and relationships. Thank you, NetGalley and Doubleday Books, for this illuminating ARC. 3.5 stars, rounding up.

Thank you @netgalley for the Advanced Reader Copy of Dream State by Eric Puchner. Charlie and Garrett have been friends since college, but have gone in different directions after the death of one of their other friends. Charlie is a doctor in California, and is engaged to Cece. Garrett lives in Montana, and is struggling. The wedding is going to be in Montana and Cece goes there early to get things ready. Cece and Garrett meet, and at first don’t like each other, but then things change. The wedding goes ahead, but Cece never makes it back to California, she stays with Garrett in Montana. The three stay connected throughout their lives, and we see how relationships develop and change over time. There is a backdrop of climate change throughout the book, which is almost another character. This is an Oprah pick which means it will get a lot of buzz! #dreamstate #ericpuchner #netgalley #advancedreadercopy #bookstagram #booklover #reader #bookblog #lovetoread #fictionreader #bookreview #bookrecommendation #readersofinstagram #bookloversofinstagram #takeapagefrommybook #readallthebooks #booksbooksbooks #booksofinstagram #bookwormproblems #bookaholic #booknerd #whattoread #readingtime #bookaddict #ilovetoread #ilovebooks #needtoread #readallday #oprahsbookclub

An Oprah pick, I had to read it. #dreamstate had been sitting on my Kindle for a month or two. I dove in. It grabbed me. I loved the location - Montana - we start at a vacation house. A beloved vacation house. We meet Cece and Garrett.

"She searched the living room, then stuck her head into the kitchen. How wonderful this was: to be looked for."

Dream State is a great story. I enjoyed following these three characters over the course of their lives. I do think Puchner has a much better way with men characters, the friendship between Charlie, Elias and Garret was a total bro-mance. Not that there is anything wrong that, but it did make the female characters seem stock and small. And for the life of me, I COULD NOT see the attraction to Cece. I found her to be annoying, small-minded, selfish and immature. How these two men could fall in love with her, and stay in love with her, almost obsessively (and for Garrett, so quickly), did not ring true for me. Garrett suggests that she saved his life, but how realistic is that, really?

Still, compelling and compulsively readable, I would definitely recommend.

P.S. Thanks to #netgalley for the ARC.

While the back-and-forth nature of the central love triangle becomes a tad predictable in the last third, until then Puchner manages to keep you absolutely hooked by how the main characters' self-destructive, anxiety-ridden habits both eat them away on the inside while looking like absolute self-possession to the others. There is both beauty and bleakness to the writing that become almost unbearable by the conclusion.

It’s only February but I feel confident this will be my favorite book of 2025. The writing is stunning, the characters alive, the story perfectly crafted. I can’t wait to put this one into the hands of readers.

This was an #OprahBookClub pick, and it would be an excellent book for a discussion. It is about flawed people, bad decisions, broken relationships, and those same people trying to do life.

Set mainly in the expansive beauty of Montana, Cece and Charlie are getting married. Charlie has asked his best friend Garrett from college to officiate the wedding.

Upon first meeting Garrett, Cece finds him rude and unlikable. But as they hike in the pristine woods, she realizes he brings out something in her—something that won’t be denied.

While this story does an excellent job of exploring different types of relationships—generational, friendship, and romantic—it was a little too matter-of-fact at times. I wanted more profound emotions and convictions.

I don’t say this lightly, though. The story covers almost fifty years and addresses traumas, grief, losses, and daily life struggles. For an author to keep me immersed in characters and their lives throughout generations is a signature of great storytelling.


It is a big-hearted story of navigating relationships in this ever-changing world.

Thank you @doubledaybooks for the gifted ebook via NetGalley. #DreamState #bookreview #doubledaybooks #literaryfiction

This family saga is filled with memorable characters in an amazing setting. An exploration of love, grief, identity, and family that pulls you in and takes an emotional choke hold until its strong finish. A masterpiece tale of searching for meaning and relationships built and broken, Dream State is a fresh novel not to miss.

Dream State by Eric Puchner is a stunning and sweeping character driven story that takes us along through the lives of its three central figures -Cece, Charlie, and Garrett.

This story begins in Salish, Montana where Cece is preparing to wed cardiac anaesthesiologist Charlie at his childhood home. Charlie asks long time friend Garrett to officiate the ceremony. Cece is not thrilled with Charlie's wish for Garrett to be a part of their nuptials. Garrett is a scruffy mountain man who doesn't really believe in love and the constitution of marriage. However, in the weeks leading up to the ceremony, Cece and Garrett are drawn to each other in unexpected ways. Cece is left with a choice - one that will take her life down different paths, affecting generations to come.

All of this sets the stage for a novel that will take you into the complexities of relationships, loyalty, and love. I absolutely loved how Puchner take you into the mundane moments of these character's lives..and effortlessly makes their experiences love life, marriage, parenthood absolutely the opposite of mundane.

I have to say that I was very much drawn to Cece's character and that of owning her own independent bookstore. I felt the narrative shared there was exquisite and expertly written. So down to earth and realistic, yet troublesome and flawed.

This would be a great pick for any Book Club due to the varying degrees of culpability these characters present to the reader. If you enjoy multigenerational novels, stunning landscape writing, and stories about love, regret, an the secrets that lie in relationships - this will be a perfect book for you. This was the first Eric Puchner work I've read and (not in comparison) heard Jonathan Franzen throughout mty reading. This was such a comfort to me as some of the narrative here can be take your breath away. Because I could follow the writing style so easily, I felt the end of this book would satisfy and leave me in a state of wonderment.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the opportunity to read and review this unforgettable book.

This novel explores relationships, the intertwining of lives, and how our choices affect everything. Told from the alternating viewpoints of several characters, the story follows people across lifespans, from the early 2000s into the near future. I loved Puchner's description of the environmental changes we are experiencing now and what those will look like in the coming decades, and how he aligns these with the characters' experiences.

Oftentimes I’m eager to dive into a book where the plot whisks me away, with unique circumstances or “WHAT” moments keep me flipping page after page.

Less often, I sink into a book because I just want to sit in it. Sit in the characters. Sit in the emotions. Sit in the way an author can put words to feelings or experiences that I didn’t know anyone but myself had ever felt. It takes a special wordsmith to accomplish this, but when it happens, it’s more powerful than any other kind of book I read. “Dream State” by Eric Puchner is that kind of book.

The book centers around a group of characters whose paths weave in and out of each other’s lives in both natural and drastic ways as they stumble through the decades. The author strips down marriage, friendship, parenthood, and coming of age to their most raw forms that demonstrate just how universal the human experience is.

If you are searching for your next novel full of complex characters, this is it! You know the saying, “I’d read anything they write, even their grocery list?” Eric Puchner is my new grocery list author.

Dream state by Eric puchner may very well remain my top book of 2025 when the year ends! This is a fantastic read that feels epic in scope, yet intimately told. The novel opens up with Cece and Charlie preparing for their upcoming wedding in the early 2000’s. Charlie has asked his college roommate, Garrett, to officiate their wedding . After the tragic death of their friend, for which Garrett blames himself, he has become a recluse, caring for his dying father. Against his better judgment, Garrett agrees to serve in his old friends wedding, thus setting off an unforeseen chain of events that alter the course of cece, Charlie, and Garrett’s entire life to follow.

The novel spans generations as it follows this three throughout the rest of their intertwined lives, covering different moments small and large-births, deaths, sickness, addiction, parenthood, jobs, love, friendship-it’s all covered here within these beautifully told pages. The large moments read as they do in life-events that happens as part of day-day living for us all. The writing is beautiful and the pacing of the book allows you to savor it. The characterization is excellently and keenly drawn and you feel for the characters and it feels like you are watching old friends from the sidelines as their lives develop.

I can’t recommend this enough! I am excited to see where puchner does next and will follow him whoever he goes!

Thanks to the publisher for providing this arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the eARC.

This book reads like an epic. The sentences are lenghty and grandiose, there are many characters, and there is a plot that spans years and years. All that to say I enjoyed it at times and felt tied to it at others. It was good and it was also not my favorite. Regardless, I am glad I read it.

Oddly enough, I’ve never read an Oprah book club selection. DREAM STATE by Eric Puchner has the Oprah Book Club in its title; it suggests a fundamental choice to let the book ride on Oprah’s considerable popularity. The book is an expansive and far-reaching tale about a romantic triangle and the myriad ways it plays out over the life of the protagonists. The tale itself is a good one, although it’s a real slog sticking with it. Author Puchner uses every opportunity to describe, report, ruminate and consider the varied setting and time changes in the book. Some of these lengthy descriptions are lovely while others increasingly slow the plot and obscure the action. I was interested enough in the characters and their actions to continue but I began dreading the constant verbal renderings of the lake house. The book is a mixed experience and best suited to readers who love description more than action. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

It is the summer of 2004, and Cece is spending a month at her fiancé’s parents’ vacation home in Salish, Montana to plan her wedding to Charlie Margolis, a cardiac anesthesiologist. Charlie’s best friend from college, Garrett Meek, had grown up in Missoula, and had recently moved nearby to help care for his gay father who was dying of pulmonary fibrosis and to soothe his wounds after the untimely death of a friend for which he feels responsible. Garrett had been recruited by Charlie to chaperone Cece and to be the officiant at their wedding. Cece’s reaction upon meeting Garrett was that he was “a strange and awful man” who “might be mentally ill,” and Garrett’s impression of Cece was just as negative. Not surprisingly, their mutual distaste morphs into a mutual attraction. Despite an apparent change of heart, and the fact that norovirus felled the groom’s family prior to the event, the wedding proceeds.

The novel then loops back to how Charlie and Garrett met in college. Garrett was a know-it-all but seemed to catch the attention of the beautiful girl in their philosophy class, Sabina Gonzales. Charlie, the overachiever athlete and student, was shocked that Garrett didn’t seem interested in Sabina who was “everyone’s type.” The duo then became best friends with the handsome Elias. They assumed that they “would be famous, and financially okay, and would end up with beautiful, horny, brilliantly intelligent wives.”

The novel then moves forward, and we focus on Charlie and Cece’s children (saying more would give away major plot points). What initially seems to be an old-fashioned literary romance has some surprising twists. It spans 50 years, is set against a backdrop of climate change resulting in wildfires and vanishing species, and wrestles with the question of life’s choices. Thank you Jess D. of Knopf Doubleday and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this sprawling and captivating family saga that was just selected as an Oprah Book Club selection.

This was a beautifully written novel. The story started off strong for me but the novel was on the longer side and I felt like the middle was too long. It ended strong but I wasn't sure it was totally worth the length.

3.5 stars but rounding up.

Thank you for the advanced reader copy Doubleday Books | Doubleday and Netgalley.

Dream State by Eric Puchner is one of those books that really makes you think about life, choices, and whether success or failure is ever as simple as it seems. Set against the stunning backdrop of Montana, it explores friendships, relationships, regrets, and the climate crisis in a way that feels deeply real.

Cece and Charlie are about to get married at Charlie’s vacation home in Salish, Montana. Cece arrives early to plan the wedding, but meeting Garrett, Charlie’s best friend sets off a chain of events that changes everything. Spanning years, their lives take unexpected turns, and through them, the novel explores the meaning of love in all its messy, complicated forms.

At first, this felt like a solid but ordinary story about three people. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t particularly gripping. Then came the last few chapters and they hit like a storm. The emotions, the depth, the way everything came together it completely changed how I felt about the book. The love, forgiveness, and friendship between these characters (and their wider circle) were incredibly moving. This isn’t a cozy read by any means, but it’s powerful. The climate change aspect is woven in naturally, adding another layer of realism that I really appreciated.

And that ending? I’m still thinking about it.

Thank you, Doubleday Publishing, for this book!

This is a novel that explores three central characters and the people caught in their orbits over the span of fifty years, through love, betrayal, regret, loss, and enduring friendship.

We first meet Cece as she prepares for her wedding in Salish, Montana to Charlie at his childhood home.

While there, she meets Charlie’s troubled best friend, Garrett, who he has asked to be the officiant. Cece can think of no one less suited than this scruffy mountain man who doesn’t believe in love or marriage, a man who infuriates her ion sight.

Despite everything, in the weeks before Charlie arrives, Cece finds herself drawn to Garrett in ways she’d never expected, and she faces a difficult choice - wed Charlie and have the life she’s mapped out or follow her heart into the unknown.

The reverberations of her choice - of all of their choices - are felt among their when Lana, Garrett and Cece’s daughter, and Jasper, Charlie’s son, become intertwined.

All of this sets the stage for delving into the complexities of relationships, loyalty, and love. It’s told mostly in chronological order but without time stamps, by multiple characters, forcing the reader into the action without a moment to catch your breath. Big reveals and tiny nuances, all, revealed with similar flourish. And while the issues examined - young love, promises made, enduring marriage, lifelong friends - Puchner has crafted rich and deeply flawed characters with imperfections that enliven the story.

The book propels you forward, as you seek an ending that is satisfying, if not difficult to bear.

There’s also a climate change thread woven through the novel that I’ve seen some complain about; however, I saw it as a natural extension of half a century spent in the wilds of Montana.

If you enjoy Franzen or Napolitano, this book is for you. It would also make for a fantastic book club choice with so many moral questions to debate.