A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dreamspawn

Let me begin by welcoming all who come here to what I hope will become a regular column here on the site. Allow me to explain who I am and what I intend to do here. My name is Chris, I am a fan who, like you, wishes to delve deeper into the stories of the Bastard Son of a Hundred Maniacs. I will begin by reviewing the books that were released by Black Flame Publications which sadly closed its doors in late 2008. None of the books share continuity or continue with exisiting characters (with the exception of one that will be reviewed another time).

Dreamspawn, a novel by Christa Faust, opens on the sad story of an abused little girl. Her father is a drunk and a molester; her mother a drug addict. One night while the child is sleeping, she experiences a nightmare that will become her obsession. Freddy Krueger actually uses the girl's dream to kill her parents, telling her he is here to "set her free". Before she wakes, Krueger uses his glove to put a series of cuts down her face.

We are then transported to present day California. Oddly enough, this story does not take place in Springwood, although location is not the only thing to deviate from our beloved films. Jane DeHaan is not a "normal" teenager by society's standards. She reads Jane Austen and has "traditional" values. She is new to the unnamed California town, her widowed mother taking a new job at a computer company. Jane has become so used to moving that she no longer tries to be friendly with anyone. Because of her "goth" style of dress and lack of social graces, she is mocked almost immediately by the popular crowd. Then she meets Lola, an aspiring horror movie make-up artist. Needless to say, this opens the floodgates for many references to horror legends such as Fulchi, Bava, and Romero. They quickly become friends, forming a "Petticoat Mafia" with Amber, a former clique leader with a change of heart and Rose, a quiet girl with a series of scars on her face. When something terrible happens to one of the characters, Rose tells the other three about Fred Krueger, the Springwood Slasher. She believes that if they travel to his former stomping grounds and locate his infamous glove, they will be able to control Krueger as a hitman of sorts to destroy the people who have wronged them. Similar to Jason Voorhees in Freddy vs. Jason, once Freddy gets a taste, it is hard to shut him down.

This book fascinates me because it takes so long to get to Freddy. You spend almost half of the book getting to know these girls for who they are as people, as opposed to most horror fare where you're given a brief glimpse of people before the carnage starts. We are actually given an opportunity to care about these people, the author even taking time to give minor characters their own backstory.

Another thing I love about this book is the fact that the characters use the glove as a means to control Freddy; and since they possess it in the waking world, Krueger does not kill with his weapon of choice throughout the books entirety. It honestly makes him much more frightening considering we the fans have become so used to the glove that it is now viewed more as an accesory than a weapon. In the book, we see him use knives, tire irons and even other people.

All these things, combined with its chilling Columbine-esque ending make this book a very welcome addition to the family of NoES stories.

This is normally the part of the article where most people would rate a book (movie, video game, etc.) with a 5-star system or scale of 1 to 10 kind of thing. I myself have always found that one mans trash is another man's treasure. Therefore, you will not see ratings of these books from me. I will just give my opinions. Granted, some may read this book and hate it, some may like it much more than me. Then again, this is why we have a COMMENTS section below every article! So, sound off and until we meet again, pleasant dreams!