Stacey Brown’s having nightmares about her roommate again, the sort of nightmares that cause her to wake screaming and sweating. Worse still, she can’t ignore them because her dreams tend to come true, and the last time she ignored them, someone died. So now she’s juggling boarding school, an unrequited crush, and her nightmares, worried that if she can’t figure out where the danger might come from, someone else will die because of her. All she has to help her is the folk magic passed down through her family, and the support of a few friends who don’t know the full story. When another girl is horribly killed, Stacey realizes that time is growing short, and she has to act quickly.
Blue is for Nightmares is an interesting book. Part teen thriller a la Christopher Pike and part dark fantasy, it mixes in a generous supply of folk magic and superstition, unsurprising since Llewellyn is best known for its line of occult and New Age publications. The plot suffers a little from familiarity, and a lot from the frequent digressions into descriptions of New Age or Wiccan practices. I enjoyed Blue is for Nightmares, but found some of its aspects distracting. It’ll likely appeal to the same audience that buys other Llewellyn books, but it lacks a wider appeal.