This is the first book I've read by Eric Puchner -- I found it a little slow at first but I quickly became attached to the characters and have not been able to stop thinking about them since I finished it.

One of the things I loved the most about this book was the scope of it -- it covers so many decades and multiple generations. I loved the characters -- for all their flaws, they were doing the best they could.

One off-putting thing was how really significant events or information would be revealed out of nowhere, and then not touched on for awhile. Time passed in a very unique way, which felt jarring at times to keep up with.

Overall I would recommend this to anyone who loves literary fiction, rich characters, and complicated relationship dynamics. There are many heavy topics touched on in this book, but I feel like Eric Puchner approached them in a real and honest way. It broke my heart but also left me feeling grateful that I was impacted so deeply.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

There are certain books that you remember for your entire life. I remember Ramona and Her Mother and the day I first read it. I remember finishing A Little Life and vowing never to read it again because how could it be that good ever again? Add Dream State to this list.

Dream State is a look at relationships, both romantic and friendly. It's a deep study of human behavior and its after-effects. Puchner has written an epic of a novel and it's going on my 'best of' list forever.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

Our area was wiped out by two hurricanes this past year, so with the heavy focus on climate and climate change, I don’t quite think this is the right fit for our libraries at this time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC.

This is a tricky book for me to review- I really loved parts of it and other parts of it I didn’t enjoy. It was sometimes a really slow book and other times I was very engaged in the plot.

Overall, I enjoyed this book even though I don’t think it will be for every reader. The pace is overall pretty slow and it is focused on the day to day bits of human existence. I personally loved watching decades of the character’s lives and all the things that happen to them over their lifetimes. The delivery was strange at parts with sometimes years passing between paragraphs or huge life events casually mentioned with no follow up. Yet somehow this book worked for me and I think it will actually stick with me for a while.

I think this one is worth a read if you like slow paced books about life, relationships, and families. It reminded me a bit of Wellness so if you enjoyed that one, you might like this one too.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for the free e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Dream State is the journey of three intertwined lives of Cece, Charlie and Garrett. Cece burns her world to the ground when she leaves Charlie on their wedding day for his best friend, Garrett.

If you like books that span the characters entire lifetime, you will love this one! The book starts at the wedding and progresses through the golden years. While the writing is wonderful and the characters complex, the story for me drug a bit due to the slow pacing and the heavy topics addressed. This is one you will need to settle into for a bit.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc

Unfortunately, this book was not my cup of tea at this point in time. That is not to say that I may try this book again at a later date.

Life was a voyage, and heartbreak filled the sails. from Dream State by Eric Puchner

Three characters who love each other cause each other heartbreak and joy throughout their lives while the land they love turns to fire and ash. I cried for their pain and for the beauty of Montana devastated by climate change.

So many insights the characters come to are hauntingly familiar. Youthful joy and hope, the vagaries of relationships, the fears of parenthood, the sorrow of seeing a changing world.

Life was a long, incompetent search to get back to a feeling you had when you were six. from Dream State by Eric Puchner

Charlie and Garrett met in college and became best friends, glorying in life. Then one of their friends died in a tragic skiing accident. Garrett felt responsible and crashed into soul deadening depression. Until the day he met Charlie’s fiance, Cece, a woman who made him want to live again.

Their tangled relationship impacts the rest of their lives, the love and sometimes hate they feel, the alternating doubts and frustrations and surety.

They have children with their own problems, who remain mysteries, all the love and care given them “like tossing a coin into a well.” They grow old, watch each other succumb to the indignities of age.

It was appalling, what love expected of you. from Dream State by Eric Puchner

Over their lifetimes, their love for the beauty of Montana is central, the pristine blue lake, the snow-capped mountains, the lofty trees. Fires further west turns the air toxic, then the glaciers melt and the mountaintops are bare. The animals disappear. And fire comes to their homes.

“Cece often felt guilty for feeling happy–or whatever you wanted to call it–given the state of things.” We live our lives, embrace our small joys and cry over our losses, doubt our choices and wonder if they made any difference. And look at what is happening to the world and are chagrined and wonder why we worry about such small things.

The reversals in the character’s lives are undeserved, arbitrary, their lives imperfect, flawed. They wonder what it was all for.

We only live once, Cece is told on her wedding day, calling for her to jump into the lake. And that is how we live life, jumping into it, uncertain, yet hopeful.

One of the most honest books I have read in a long while. I highlighted paragraphs of wisdom, insightful writing.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.

CeCe Buchanan and Charlie Margolis' wedding at the idyllic Montana lake setting of the Margolis vacation home is CeCe's dream come true, and CeCe has come a month before the wedding to make sure that everything is just so. Then she meets Garrett, Charlie's estranged best friend and officiant for the ceremony. The two do NOT hit it off, and as the event date gets closer and closer, CeCe's perfect wedding is no longer so perfect. The wheels are coming off, culminating with an outbreak of norovirus decimates the guests, and Charlie is barely able to go through with the ceremony.

Nine years later, CeCe and Garrett have finally patched things up with Charlie, and they're taking their daughter Lana to meet Charlie and his family. The reunion is a lukewarm reception on both sides-- the past is still obviously present. Lana hits it off with Charlie's son Jasper, but the undercurrent of resentment and hurt makes for an awkward time. Despite this, the group continues to meet, and their children forge their own messy path forward. CeCe, Garrett and Charlie navigate this uncharted wilderness of a new version of their relationship, encountering the shoals and looming lee shores of shoddily patched relationships along the way.

I could not put this book down. Puchner has the lovely and enviable ability to write and enter his characters' lives--lives that are filled with mistakes, trauma, grief, and love and learning.

Many thanks to Doubleday and NetGalley for access to the ARC. Opinions stated herein are my own, and I'm not compensated for my review.

Dream State by Eric Puchner is a great read! I really enjoyed Eric Puchner's writing and would definitely be on the lookout to read other books by him as well. Give it a try!

This American family drama is rooted in Salish, Montana, where the novel opens and a wedding is about to take place. It is 2004, but you have to get through the whole book to find out what happened on that fateful day when the bride was having doubts, the officiant was unprepared and enamored with the bride, and most of the wedding party was sick with norovirus. The story is bookended with the wedding, but the 50 or so years in between is a sweeping drama of adulthood, parenthood, loss, addiction, illness—aka life. But that is just the people. The earth continues to warm, becoming less habitable, while the humans try to adapt.
If you are looking for a novel of escapism, this is not your book. The reality and speculation are harsh and timely; reading this during the LA fires gave it a prophetic vibe.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book, which will be released on February 18, 2025.

Dream State is an exploration of the lives of three people who are forever linked together following a huge betrayal.

This book was beautifully written, but admittedly incredibly slow paced. I thought it was worth it, but I can see how the writing might come off as tedious to some. The story spans their entire lives, showing us these characters at all their phases. As the characters get older, they pass the present day and move into an imagined future that was very interesting to imagine.

Be warned that this book is filled with incredibly heavy topics, but if you're a fan of deep character explorations, this is a good one for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday for the ARC!

This is one of an increasing number of stories in which the changing environmental landscape is crucial: Montana and its changing landscape are characters in their own right in this story. This is a multigenerational family saga that examines the complexity of lifelong friendships and marriages as they change and evolve over time. (Note: the story does NOT go in the direction you might expect from the plotty opening chapters!)

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me early access to this fabulous book. This will be a book I will remember for many many years.
I will highly recommend to all!

How to evaluate a book which has glorious writing, exquisite detail in the setting and quirky insight into character, a book I loved but one which should have been cut by 10%? You have to wonder if the author resisted editorial suggestions or if the editors were so taken by the writing and the story that they wanted more, not less. A more pointed, editorially controlled book might have avoided some problems, but then again, something of value might have been lost.

Eric Puchner’s DREAM STATE follows a love triangle over the course of 50 years. Longitudinal and intergenerational. The writing and author insight offer many enjoyable surprises, along the way. The book extends into the future, a painful way for the curtain to fall, but handled gradually and well.

How to evaluate such a book? I gave it 5 stars because when and where it is good, it is very, very good!

With thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DREAM STATE is set to be the lengthy saga of winter. At its heart are the complex dynamics of three friends and a deep betrayal, unfolding over decades. A cherished familyMontana lake house serves as an anchor for the charactachers throughout their lives. Puchner masterfully captures pivotal moments in the characters’ lives through vivid vignettes, exploring the intricacies of friendship, parenthood, and marriage. DREAM STATE is a compelling, multigenerational story that beautifully examines how small decisions shape the course of a life.

READ THIS IF YOU:
-love to get lost in a lengthy character-driven novel
-appreciate a literary writing style and a well-crafted sentence
-enjoy unique shifts in points of view

Many thanks to NetGalley and Doubleday for an electronic ARC in exchange for an honest review.

RATING: 4/5
PUB DATE: February 18, 2025

I picked this book up because it’s set in Montana, a state I grew up in. I finished this book because of the pace, writing style, and unique change of POV.

The sense of place in this novel is strong and the author does an incredible job of detailing the nuances of the people and setting of Montana. More than once I laughed or rolled my eyes at an explanation of the type of people CeCe encountered.

This book is quiet and heartbreaking but also weaves a beautiful tale of what it’s really like to live a life and be human. To be happy and yet unfulfilled. To love deeply and hurt incredibly. I loved it.

Thank you to Doubleday for sending me an ARC of this book so I can bring you this early review! Opinions all my own.

Overview: Cece finds herself as the point of a love triangle on her wedding day. Having gone to Montana a month early, without her fiancé, to plan the wedding, she finds herself falling into an enemies to lover's romance with her fiancé's best friend. The book starts right before the wedding in 2004 and charts Garrett, Charlie, and CeCe's lives and unlikely friendship through to their deaths in old age from finding careers to raising kids to growing old and watching the planet deteriorate around them. Overall: 4

Characters: 4 The dynamics here are interesting, but there's a certain lack of depth to these characters where they struggle to move beyond being archetypes with little quirks. Their relationships, overall, are what drive the book, but they could have been mined further. Garrett is the most interesting character. He starts the book still on shaky footing from a rough mental health bout that left him hospitalized in San Fransisco. Over the course of the book, he manages to find his calling, pursuing his passion for the outdoors, and realizing that he loved parts of life he couldn't imagine actually enjoying. Cece is from LA and approaches life in Montana like a quintessential city person. She loves to romanticize the quaint town and abundant nature until she throws a big fit about the place's "lack of culture' among other things. Cece is a tough character to sympathize with because she's often her own agent of chaos and the driver of her own unhappiness where her in the moment impulses tend to conflict with her more shallow wants. Then Charlie is accomplished in his field as a doctor and tries incredibly hard to embody the optimism he knows he should feel. Part of the interest in Charlie's character development is watching the mask slip, revealing that this disposition was somewhat of an act all along.

The minor characters vary in their development. The group of college friends is interesting to track through the years, and they have a surprising amount of development. Charlie, Garrett, and Cece's kids become entwined in each other's lives and the oldest kids become a central focus of the book, but they struggle with the same developmental problems as the main characters. Also, all of the children at the point where they're children all sound very similar and, to me, even as someone who grew up in the vein of precocious kids that Puchner is clearly trying to convey here, didn't feel realistically like eight or eleven or sixteen year olds. The fact that their voices and personalities hardly changed through these major age jumps further drove this point home. Being just slightly older than these characters (based on the timeline of when the wedding was), they also used references and words that didn't feel at all fitting of my generation. It felt like all of the characters were very much being drawn from the same well regardless of age or gender or background.

I will say, even though Lana, Garrett and Cece's daughter, seems a bit contrived, I really did come to love her character. Maybe it's because I saw myself most in her, but I did find myself enjoying the book more when she was in the scene. I also felt like she had by far the best character development over the arc of the book as we saw her go from a somewhat bratty kid to an ambitious young adult to a middle aged person with the capacity to view the world beyond herself. Puchner managed to show a softening in her character that didn't compromise her essential personality, which I want to give fair props for.

Plot: 3 This book could've comfortably been half its length and perhaps made its point in a clearer fashion. I love the idea of taking the reader through not just the big dramatic runaway bride moment but watching the repercussions of that play out over years and years. Rarely do we follow characters through the full arcs of their lives. We get to see the moments of satisfaction and regret that come from it as well as an unlikely healing of a friendship. I think the biggest problem with the book is that Puchner wants to follow everyone, everywhere all at once. There are too many threads, we're intimately following too many people as the scope expands to include adult children. The chapters stray in too many directions without connection to a central thread. In going so wide, the substance feels diluted. Also, the chapters are long and often overwrought with detail, which majorly impacts the pacing. It felt like, especially towards the end of the book, Puchner developed a fear of boring the audience and threw everything but the kitchen sink at adding to the plot from a rescue at a cult to one of the characters becoming a movie star to long passages trying to illustrate Alzheimers on the page. I honestly wish that less time had been devoted to forward motion than backfilling the characters' relationship before the wedding. Those few chapters were the most compelling.

Writing: 4 You're probably wondering by now why I gave the book a 4 when I've done a fair amount of complaining. A lot of it is the setting. I grew up in Wyoming, in a resort town a bit further along than the one in Montana described here, but a gateway to a National Park nonetheless. I don't know if I've ever seen that kind of setting or the intimate knowledge of nature you gain from growing up in a place like that reflected in a novel. While there was too much detail overall in my opinion, the bits about hiking, skiing, backcountry work, and even wolverines hit close to home and felt like a warm hug. I also went to college in LA, the other setting of the novel, so this felt like a fun fusion of worlds. And Puchner generally does well with writing setting.

I didn't love the prose style overall. There were some sentence level crutches throughout that just personally bugged me, and while the book is sprawling, it largely felt surface level, which was frustrating. Books that I love burrow in deep, and I never found that here. I think this is largely a matter of preference, and there's a lot of good to find in this book. Also, the book projects into the near future to cover the entire scope of the lives of people who would, at present, be approximately in parents' age—somewhere in their late forties or early fifties. Puchner uses much of this future-casting to focus on climate change and the impending climate disasters that are getting more real by the day. This is natural considering his choice of settings, but it all just hit too close to home. He describes a perpetually burning LA, landmarks destroyed, which stoked my anxiety given that LA dealing with unprecedented and unconfined wild fires as I write this. Also, smaller details like summer in Montana becoming nearly unlivable from constant wildfire smoke both local and blown in. The truly erratic temperatures. Skiing being nearly gone. As someone who cares deeply about climate change, watches in horror as the effects start to visibly take hold every day, this book just stoked my anxiety and made me feel even more hopeless about my future, everyone else's, and that of a place I truly love. As someone who did not need a wake-up call, the end of the book just made me sick to my stomach because Puchner is right, all of this will happen given the current trajectory of our leadership. That makes me incredibly sad, and that's not his fault for being a realist, for writing a novel that casts out to that place. If this could make someone understand the future we're heading towards, effect even small change in someone, then that's imagine. But I say that as a warning if you're in a delicate place regarding the state of the world right now. Be gentle with yourself.

Review to be posted on the blog in February closer to release date.

If you like books that span the characters whole lifetime, this is the book for you! It features Cece, Charlie and Garrett from wedding through their golden years and focuses on the relationships between couples, families and with each other as friends.

For me, I almost didn’t finish this book. To me the writing was tedious. I’m not exactly sure why but it felt slow for me and took me awhile to get through.

I also felt like this book had a lot of things going on!

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book.

A beautifully written story that follows the lives of three people who have been friends since their early years, Charlie, Cece and Garrett. There is a wedding fairly early on, but Cece’s marriage to Charlie falls apart relatively soon after, and Cece marries Garrett.

As the years pass and their lives change, and as the culture changes, the focus in this story includes climate change, how aging is affecting them, after they have managed to put the past behind them, they once again resume contact. As the years pass, even their children become friends.

There were moments in this which were heartbreaking, but also felt timely as I thought about the increase in fires that we have been seeing over the years.


Pub Date: 18 Feb 2025

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Doubleday Books / Doubleday

Thank you @doubledaybooks and @netgalley for this advance e-galley of:

Dream State by Eric Puchner
Pub date: February 18, 2025

This beautiful story begins as young love, spans over fifty years and fills us with regret, hope, longing and life choices. It reminded me that people often come into our lives to save us - often from ourselves. Have you ever considered your road not taken? What would have happened if you chose a different path, a different circumstance? This story is not fantasy or romance, it is the reality of choices we have made and the outcome of those choices. It's sensitive and reflective. First read from this author and will not be my last.