Reviewed by Priya Mathew for Readers' Favorite

What happens after we die? In Dreamweavers, LLC, Sean M. Tirman tries to answer this question with satire and imagination in an absurd corporate setting. The story revolves around Alora, a newly deceased soul, who, along with a handful of other newly deceased souls, wakes up in an orientation classroom, with each clad in a bedsheet and devoid of their memories. They are informed that they are employees of Dreamweavers, LLC, an organization responsible for creating dreams for the living. What starts as an onboarding event turns into a journey through a dreamlike place called Somnia. As Alora and her fellow ghosts stumble upon departmental rivalries and uncover mysteries, they challenge the rules of their afterlife. Dreamweavers, LLC becomes a battleground of identity, and the struggle between order and chaos ensues.

Sean M. Tirman’s Dreamweavers, LLC is one of the strangest books I’ve read this year. The world in which the story is set echoes with allegory, comedy, and questions about memory, purpose, and what it means to be you without your memories. The narrative itself is like a dream, blending the bizarre and ordinary until I was lulled into accepting the strangest things as routine. The plot ebbs and flows like the shifting Dreamscape, from onboarding scenes to thrilling escapades in the afterlife’s forbidden records room. I, along with Alora, was kept in a perpetual state of curiosity and suspense and wondering who was really in charge. The momentum builds like a snowball. Whereas in the first act, you can see a focus on world-building and orientation, by the second act, you are clear on the central conflict, and by the final act, there’s a mix of surprises, betrayals, and revelations. The characters feel real – even if they are technically dead! Alora anchors the story – she’s a rule follower, has her insecurities, and is disoriented most times. Her companions – Rasui the comic, Endri the scholar, Kanasu the skeptic, and Yume the observer – each bring a piece of humanity to the emotional core of the story. They are people who are rediscovering themselves in a world that refuses to offer clarity. Dreamweavers, LLC is a mix of speculative fiction and metaphysical satire that evokes the same mix of unease and warmth associated with any coming-of-age story, except here, it’s an afterlife-of-age.