ORESTES:   Where have I seen you before?

MOIRA:   In a dream.

ORESTES:   A thousand years ago.

The world is a dream to Siobhan Gaëlle Shelby...

Not so much the strange and fanciful wonderland found at the depths of a mysterious rabbit hole or the secret enchanted kingdom hidden at the back of an antique wardrobe, but a world where magic is real, nonetheless, and where dreams dreamt by Dreamers come true. Her girlhood home in the rolling green hills of the Catskills of Upstate New York was no less magical than any children's fairytale—a Dreamer's paradise, sat atop the beating heart of New York's ancient slumbering ley line. With her Dreamer mother and her schemer father, reality seemed a more made up notion to Shiv than any of the so-called impossible things she'd seen dreamt into being—like the moving painted ceiling of her childhood bedroom or the ticking pocket-watch that belonged to her father yet contained no clockwork parts or the strange anachronistic locket with a pulsing heartbeat hanging around her mother's neck. How does a girl born into such a fantasy ever find her place in reality?

But dreams, by nature, are fickle, fleeting things—quick to conjure and even quicker to lose. So too was the paradise that the Shelbys had found at the heart of their old home in the Catskills. A dream turned nightmare reduced a family of seven to a family of five and transformed their beloved home into a haunted house festering with malevolent rot. Windows were boarded up and doors were nailed shut and matches were swiftly struck before the Shelbys that remained packed into a car and drove away from their house in the dead of night. Headlights blazed down a dark country road as ashes fell in the rearview window; all the magic and wonder of their former life left behind, extinguished with a mother's snuffed out light.

So, where does a girl raised in a dream world go upon waking?

Like a sleepwalker stumbling through the night, Siobhan navigates her new reality—a small, sleepy town in rural Virginia; the corner seat of a pew in an old Catholic church; a locker in the halls of an all-girls private school; a perfectly nice boyfriend from a perfectly normal family—all of it, a nightmare of dull mundanity. A terrible dream from which she cannot wake. Her grieving father insists upon the new forced normality, banishing all talk of dreams and Dreamers and magic to a past life. Dreams are now something to be feared and Dreamers something to be destroyed, stamped out like sparks inside a powder keg before they can ignite the whole world. But Shiv has always been her mother's daughter in more ways than one and keeping her dreams inside her head is something much easier said than done... especially once small, sleepy Henrietta, Virginia begins to stir.

The world is a dream to Siobhan Gaëlle Shelby.

It's time for her to wake up.

🐇

Olivia Cooke.          Siobhan Gaëlle Shelby.

I was dreaming. I am dreaming.

†

Matthew Goode.          Dominic Shelby.

Carla Gugino. Maryse Shelby.

Barry Keoghan. Alistair Shelby.

Danielle Rose Russell. Fallon Shelby.

Noah Jupe. Emmet Shelby.

Violet McGraw. Islene Shelby.

Aneurin Barnard. Declan Lynch.

†

Josha Stradowski. / Ronan Lynch.

Dean Charles Chapman. / Matthew Lynch.

Tiffany Boone. / Jordan Hennessy.

Hunter Doohan. / Adam Parrish.

Timothée Chalamet. / Richard Gansey III.

Taylor Russell. / Blue Sargent.

Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen. / Noah Czerny.

Ju Hak Nyeon. / Henry Cheng.

Michiel Huisman. / Bryde.

Claudia Doumit. / Carmen Farooq Lane.

†

The Others as Described.

AUTHOR'S NOTES.

i. hello to the three (3) people who are probably going to read this fic since i know the raven cycle / the dreamer trilogy are not very well-known on this website. regardless, i am absolutely thrilled to have you here! these books have consumed my brain for the better part of a year now after i read them last summer. i wasn't sure if i would ever write a fic for them, but a lightbulb 💡 went on in my head after i finished watching the (now cancelled boo tomato tomato boo 🍅) netflix series 1899 that made me go "hm 🤔🤔 i could maybe do a little something w that!" and thus this story was born.

ii. for those who have not read these books but are here anyways, here's what you need to know: these books focus heavily on the idea of ley lines, or energy lines, that exist all throughout the world connecting important historical sites or landmarks. in the books, these lines are magical which can cause strange occurrences to happen on them. the ley lines also allow individuals called dreamers to manifest things from their dreams into the physical world. there's a whole lot more that goes into all of this that i wish i could explain, but honestly trying to type it all out and explain everything makes my brain want to melt, so just know that 1) magic is real and 2) dreams can sometimes come true and everything else should sort of fall into place. above all, i advise you to go read these books for yourself because they are a great read and i can't begin to do the complexity of the story and its lore and wonderful character dynamics any justice in a couple of sentences.

iii. while i mentioned 1899 as the biggest influence for this story, there are a few other works that also inspired me to write this. think 1899 meets inception meets the haunting of hill house meets westworld meets the sandman meets alice in wonderland and you're on the right track. the shelby family is majorly inspired by the crain family. like majorly inspired so be forewarned. and shiv my beloved is inspired by ariadne (inception), fleabag (fleabag), daisy jones (djats), addie la rue (tiloalr), maura franklin (1899), and others!

iv. thank you to my dearingest darlingest noa for listening to me ramble about this plot. noa also made the beautiful cover for this story and allowed me to take inspiration from their layouts for this summary. everyone say thank you noa!!!

TRIGGER WARNINGS.

this story will contain subject matters that may be triggering to some readers, including but not limited to:

adult language, mature content, character deaths, depictions of violence/gore, complex mental health issues, complicated family relationships, substance abuse, references to suicide, and other potentially triggering topics.

please research the raven cycle/the dreamer trilogy trigger warnings for a full list of potential triggers. always make sure to prioritize your mental health while reading. if you need further explanation of any of the listed triggers, please feel free to message me directly and i'd be glad to discuss them.

DISCLAIMERS.

this is a work of fanfiction made purely for entertainment purposes. all rights belong to the original author. i own nothing aside from my original characters/ideas. plagiarism of any of these elements will not be tolerated.

PUBLISHED: 03.20.23

COMPLETED: ??.??.??