The Dream Palace is a young adult novel by British children's author Jacqueline Wilson. It was originally published in 1991 by Oxford University Press. The nine OUP books by Wilson are relatively little-known, all except one having been out of print for many years.
16-year-old Lolly has an unhappy home life with her mother and stepfather. She feels overshadowed by her best friend Lynn, and works a tiring, thankless job as a carer in a retirement home. Lolly takes refuge in her memories of happy times having tea with her now-absent father at the Palace Hotel, which has since become a run-down building occupied by squatters. She meets and falls in love with Greg, a drifter who's staying at the Palace; but as she tries to keep the relationship secret, events begin to spiral out of her control.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents:
- Shirley is neglectful and emotionally abusive towards Lolly, uses her as free labour in the family guest house, and often slaps her.
- Greg's mother and stepfather beat him and psychologically tormented him.
- Adults Are Useless:
- Shirley neglects and abuses Lolly, and expects her to work for free even though Lolly already has a full time job. Lolly lies to her a lot, but mostly because it's apparent that Lolly can't expect any sympathy or support from Shirley whatsoever.
- Dennis does unsuccessfully try to reach out to Lolly, but takes little interest in her. While he acknowledges that Shirley treats Lolly very poorly, his response is just to weakly tell Lolly to try to get along with Shirley.
- Lolly's boss Mrs Thompson is harsh and unsympathetic, overworks her, and illegally allows Lolly to work night shifts (which she shouldn't do until she's 18).
- Rosamond vaguely hints that Greg is not who Lolly thinks he is, but doesn't actually tell her what's wrong.
- Age-Gap Romance: Greg is 26 and Lolly is 16.
- Always Second Best: Lolly feels this way about Lynn, who is pretty and from a wealthier, more stable background.
- Ambiguously Bi: Lolly likes boys and is in love with Greg but often thinks about how beautiful Lynn is; notices when Lynn isn't wearing a bra; and is jealous after Lynn gets a boyfriend. There's also a scene where they sleep in the same bed together and cuddle.
- Bittersweet Ending: Shirley throws Lolly out and they may never repair their relationship; Lolly is alone in the world and has to support herself. She also accepts that Greg didn't really love her and she is not going to see him again. However, she's happy to be staying with Lynn's family, and has become more confident and independent. She gets her job at Seaview back, rekindles her friendship with Annie, and reflects that she'll always have her memories of Greg.
- Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: Seaview is this, with most of the staff apathetic towards the elderly people in their care, and the residents alternately patronised and ignored.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Lolly always calls her mother Shirley.
- Daddy's Girl: Lolly was very close to her father and, a decade or so later, is still devastated that he left.
- Darker and Edgier: The Dream Palace quite possibly has the honour of being the darkest and edgiest Jacqueline Wilson book, with references to drug use, addiction, petty crime, sex, and prostitution - to say nothing of the graphic scene where Greg stabs Den with scissors.
- Disappeared Dad: Lolly's father walked out on the family when she was a young child.
- Drugs Are Bad: All the squatters at the Palace use drugs, and are seen as scum by the local residents and police. Greg makes his money through drug dealing, and his previous girlfriend died after contracting hepatitis from an infected needle.
- Dude Magnet: Lynn is popular with boys due to her good looks.
- Easily Forgiven: Even though Greg could easily have killed Dennis, Dennis doesn't hold any resentment towards Lolly, and wants her to come home.
- Enemy Mine: Shirley's never liked Lynn and thinks she is a bad influence on Lolly, but they're willing to work together to try to convince Lolly that Greg is trouble.
- Ephebophile: Greg is in his mid-20s but is attracted to the teenage Lolly, who's said to look even younger than her 16 years. His previous girlfriend Liza was 17, while he was seemingly still an adult.
- Everyone Looks Sexier if French: Lynn likes to date French boys from a nearby language school.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Lynn is blonde and is popular, outgoing, and loved by almost everyone.
- Fairytale Motifs: Lolly as a fairytale princess and the abandoned Palace Hotel as a real palace.
- Fat Bastard: Subverted with Dennis. Although Lolly sees him as this trope, he's a nice (if a bit embarrassing) guy who does want to have a good relationship with her.
- Foreshadowing: Lolly is eager to sleep with Greg, but he refuses to go all the way, saying he wants to keep her "safe." Lolly assumes he's concerned about pregnancy, but we later discover his previous girlfriend died from hepatitis, which he may have contracted from her.
- The Ghost: Lynn's boyfriend Nick is described in detail but never appears, since Lolly didn't get a chance to meet him.
- Hell Hotel: Due to being abandoned and then taken over by squatters, the Palace Hotel has become this. It is rapidly falling apart, and going up the stairs or even walking across the floor is potentially deadly.
- History Repeats Itself: Ostensibly, Lolly's experiences with Greg mirror Annie's romance with a Traveller boy when she was young (although the reader never learns whether this really happened or is just a fantasy of Annie's).
- Honorary Aunt: Lolly calls Lynn's mother Auntie Carol.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager:
- Lolly becomes one almost instantly after meeting Greg.
- Lynn dates a lot of different boys and then gets together with Nick, describing her sex life with him to Lolly in detail.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Lolly hasn't felt loved since her father left. She contemplates having a baby just so there's someone around to love her, and very quickly falls for Greg because he reminds her of her father.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Lolly thinks Rosamond is interested in Greg, and becomes jealous and hostile around her, at one point openly confronting her. Rosamond turns out to be in a long-term relationship with Toby's father, but Lolly still isn't quite convinced.
- Incest Subtext: Lolly is attracted to Greg in large part because she associates him with her father. He sometimes acts more like her parent than boyfriend (tucking her into bed with a stuffed toy) and tries to do things for her that her father would have done, like taking her out for tea. When she gets drunk she thinks he is her father, and starts calling him Daddy; Greg doesn't understand and thinks she's being sarcastic.
- Informed Attribute: We're told that Lolly loves children, is naturally very good with them, and wants to work with them in the future. However, none of this is ever shown on the page - the only children she interacts with are Louey and Toby, who she largely ignores because she's too preoccupied with Greg.
- Innocent Inaccurate: Lolly doesn't realise Little Glad has gone into agonal breathing and is dying, instead thinking she's just asleep and snoring loudly.
- In-Series Nickname: Lolly for Loretta; Big and Little Glad for the Gladyses; The Scholl Set for the middle-aged/elderly tourists on the beach note .
- Intergenerational Friendship: Lolly develops one with Annie, one of the elderly residents at Seaview.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Mrs Thompson is totally unsympathetic at Lolly's reaction to Little Glad's death, but she's right to say that Lolly will have to get used to it quickly if she's going to work with elderly people.
- Lady in Red: After Annie describes her youthful romances and how she used to be a confident, sensual woman, Lolly buys her a sexy red nightgown to wear (although she chose the red to match Annie's ruby ring.)
- The Lost Lenore: Greg's previous girlfriend Liza, who died tragically young because of her drug addiction, fills this role.
- Loving a Shadow:
- Lolly uses Greg to fill the void from the loss of her father and almost instantly convinces herself she is in love with him. She ignores a myriad of warning signs including the fact that Greg is an adult wanting to date a teenager, has a lot of money despite being unemployed, and Rosamond repeatedly trying to warn her Greg is violent.
- Greg, in turn, is attracted to Lolly because she reminds him of Liza - another girl he dated, who was a drug addict and died from hepatitis after sharing needles. He sees Lolly as a younger version of Liza and believes that this time he can get it "right" and protect her.
- Lolly's relationship with her father counts as this. She remembers him as a loving dad who had wonderful days out with her, only to later discover he abandoned his family because he didn't want the responsibility of parenthood.
- Morality Chain: Lolly for Greg, who seems to restrain most of his violent/criminal behaviour (except for drug dealing) just because Lolly is around.
- Older Than They Look: Lolly looks much younger than 16 and people often think she isn't in her teens yet. Greg also looks younger than his age, and Lolly initially assumes he is only a few years older than her.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted; Seaview has two residents named Gladys, who are referred to as "Big Glad" and "Little Glad."
- Parental Neglect: Louey and Toby, both primary school aged children, have parents who keep them out of school and living in a dilapidated squat with drug addicts. Louey's mother spends all her time with her boyfriend and just leaves her son at the mercy of complete strangers, although Rosamond and Greg look out for him.
- Pet the Dog:
- At the end of the novel Lynn hints that Shirley has been in touch and is concerned about Lolly's welfare.
- Lolly's boss admits to Lolly that she was right to sense that Annie isn't senile.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: Lolly has a major argument with Lynn halfway through the book, just before running away with Greg. By the end, they repair their friendship when Lolly returns.
- Police Are Useless: Lolly tries to protect Greg by not telling the police that he took her to London, instead lying that they travelled along the coast and she doesn't know where they were. They seemingly don't even think to ask how she got back or what station she came from, which should have shown she wasn't telling the truth.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Greg is very pale with long black hair, and Lolly jokes about him looking like a vampire.
- Recycled Plot: The ending of the novel is similar to that of Love Lessons. Both Lolly and Prue have had to leave an older, unsuitable love interest behind, but still have feelings for him and associate him with the seashore (although in Lolly's case this association makes much more sense in context.)
- Replacement Goldfish: Greg uses Lolly as a replacement for Liza, a previous girlfriend who tragically died.
- The Reveal:
- Lolly eventually discovers that Greg's previous girlfriend Liza died as a result of her drug addiction. He blames himself, and is trying to "fix" his mistakes by using Lolly as a replacement for Liza.
- Lolly's father left his family for another woman because he didn't want a child and wasn't prepared to take care of her. Although he did periodically come back to see Lolly and take her to the Palace Hotel, he wasn't interested in staying around to be a dad.
- Roguish Romani: Annie's first love was a Traveller and, because of this trope, her family disapproved of the relationship and pushed her to marry someone else.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Several of the residents at Seaview have dementia. Subverted with Annie, whom the staff think is senile but Lolly quickly realises she's not.
- Sense Loss Sadness: After running away with Greg, Lolly is in shock, and is so numb that she loses her sense of taste.
- Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: Some of the squatters at the Palace have children who don't go to school and instead spend the day wandering around the beach.
- Spiteful Spit: Greg spits at the maître d' of a hotel who refused to admit him and Lolly for afternoon tea.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Greg expects Lolly to quit her job at Seaview and instead stay at the Palace and look after the kids.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- When Shirley yells at Lolly over her relationship with Greg, Lolly announces she's going to live with Greg instead. Shirley simply calls the police, who raid the Palace and bring Lolly home.
- Lolly ultimately accepts that she can't stay with Greg any longer, and goes back to her home town to resume her old life.
- Survivor Guilt: Greg blames himself for the death of his old girlfriend Liza, who died from hepatitis as a result of her drug use. By the sounds of it, she was already an addict when she met Greg; but he still feels responsible.
- Sympathetic P.O.V.: Greg is an adult man who dates a young teenage girl, sells drugs, has criminal convictions for violence, almost kills Lolly's stepfather, and takes her on the run with him. If anyone other than Lolly were narrating this story, Greg wouldn't be portrayed in a remotely sympathetic light.
- Teenage Pregnancy:
- Rosamond was still at school when she had Toby - she mentions that she sat her mock A-levels while seven months pregnant, so she would have been 17 or 18.
- Lolly mentions that she has considered getting pregnant just to have someone around to love her.
- Theme Naming: Lolly was named after the singer Loretta Lynn. Her best friend is coincidentally named Lynn, and they take this as a sign that they were always meant to be friends.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Annie loves Cadbury's chocolate and secretly keeps big bars of it in a suitcase.
- Uptown Girl:
- Lolly is working class, but she's this trope compared to Greg, who is a drifter with a criminal record and sells drugs.
- Annie was (or so she says) from a well-to-do family and fell in love with a Traveller, but her mother forced her to marry someone else. It's unclear how much of this is true, but Annie does seem to be from a wealthy background, because her family pays for the most expensive room at Seaview.
- Rosamond appears to have been well educated and come from a respectable family, whereas her partner and the father of Toby is a drifter like Greg.
