The Dallergut Dream-Making District A novel

A year has passed since Penny began working at the famed Dallergut Dream Department Store. She leaves her first salary negotiation with gentle Dallergut with a clear goal ("bringing back the regulars") and a "more generous than expected" raise. Penny's inaugural visit to the Company District takes her to the Civil Complaint Center, where Dallergut assigns her a case of her own: Regular Customer No. 792, who queries, "Why are you taking even my dreams away from me?" Penny's unflagging tenacity deciphers the enigmatic complaint, inspiring her to re-engage with other absent regulars who, she'll learn, are facing disabilities, depression, and detachment. Once again seamlessly translated by Sandy Joosun Lee, Lee's bestselling duology (with The Dallergut Dream Department Store, 2024) concludes, ironically, with expansion; additional, whimsical world building includes extended scenes at the Test Center and Noctiluca Laundry. Penny's determination has her constantly on the move, occasionally causing disconnected narrative skips and misfired jumps, but Lee never loses sight of her good intentions, championing thoughtful kindness throughout and providing another dreamy antidote to reality's challenges.

In the light and somewhat underwhelming follow-up to The Dallergut Dream Department Store, Lee moves away from episodic accounts of customers and their dreams to instead focus on the ins and outs of the dream-making industry itself. It's Penny's first anniversary at her job at Dallergut's dream store, and she renegotiates her salary with her boss. One of her additional benefits is the privilege of entering the Company District Central Square, where dreams are manufactured. There, she and her colleagues drop by the Civil Complaint Center, where Penny gets a feel for handling complaints from some of the store's longtime customers. As she becomes even more deeply involved in the business of dream selling, she must help her colleagues discover what made these customers so unsatisfied and how to bring them back. The stakes are characteristically low, lending the plot a slice-of-life feel. While Penny proves an appealing protagonist and there's some joy to seeing Lee expand her whimsical worldbuilding, the plot feels disjointed and the setting is strangely sterile. Though it lacks much of the first book's charm, series fans looking for a cozy reunion with Penny will still find something to enjoy. (June)