King of Lost Dreams

Eli's search to retrace his past continues... in the second book in the King of Dead Things Duology.

For fans of dark fantasy like Cemetery Boys, Noughts & Crosses and Threads that Bind from major new YA talent Jamaican British author Nevin Holness

It was getting increasingly difficult to differentiate dreams from reality. Dreams, of course, didn’t have teeth, and memories didn’t have claws. But something had torn into him; whatever it was, it was hungry.

It had been three months since Sunny left.

To anyone who asks, Eli is fine. Sure, the last time he’d seen his sister, they’d both narrowly avoided their deaths, and yes, he hadn’t known she was his sister at the time.

It was also fine that she wouldn’t tell him who he was or where he came from or, more importantly, why she had been lying to his face since the first day they’d supposedly met.

He doesn’t remember his family anyway, so it’s easy to force himself to forget she ever existed. But then something begins hunting him down in his sleep. It starts small: a scratch on the wrist, a burn on the chest, but then his dreams become more vivid and begin to draw blood.

Each night, when things get dire, he senses Sunny and wakes up just before whatever is chasing him can finish the job…. Eli vows to avoid sleep altogether. But can he stay awake and alive, long enough to reunite with his sister and finally get the answers he’s been agonising over?

© Nevin Holness 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026