Snake Dreamer

Sheree Haughian, a former teacher-librarian with the Dufferin County
Board of Education, is an editor with Gage Educational Publishing and
the author of The Private Journal of Day Applepenny, Prisoner.

It is not necessary to be a confirmed Jungian to recognize how
literature is still shaped by the “old stories,” with their
archetypes of heroes and monsters. Priscilla Galloway’s fascinating
Truly Grim Tales retold eight traditional folktales from a fresh and
often stunning perspective. Snake Dreamer is a novel with Greek myth at
its heart, particularly the story of Medusa and the Gorgons.

Snakes that hiss and writhe disturb Dusa Thrasman’s dreams,
threatening her very existence. Although her nightmares are acknowledged
as a real medical condition, her Toronto doctor is unable to offer a
cure. When Dusa and her mother see a TV show featuring the Gordon
sisters, doctors who have successfully treated “snake dreamers,”
they decide to investigate this alternative. Chosen by the two sisters
as an ideal research subject, Dusa flies with them to their clinic on an
isolated Greek island.

However, when the three arrive they learn that the other patients and
staff have deserted. Perse, an island boy, claims that the sisters are
quite ageless. As she undergoes hypnosis to put her in touch with
ancestral memories and to help her cast out her deepest terrors, Dusa
discovers that she is part of a macabre plan to make the third Gordon
sister, Medusa, whole again. Her relationship with the snakes has
improved, but her time of fear is not yet finished.

If Snake Dreamer were simply a straightforward playing out of ancient
myth, it would be far less captivating. As it is, the old stories
undulate in and out of the contemporary situation like an unpredictable
serpent, twisting and coiling around the plot in a way that keeps the
reader constantly engaged and on guard. Galloway has created a stirring
psychological suspense story that intertwines goodness and evil, ancient
times and contemporary life, reality and fantasy, with subtlety and
cunning. Highly recommended.