Toby is a whale who sings in his sleep. His pod complains that he keeps them up all night, and they worry that his singing will attract human whaling ships. Toby has a vision of a spiritual realm, and sets out on a quest to find his true voice. He is threatened by the evil Dream Eater, a spirit who is sucking the life out of sea creatures. Only Toby’s true voice will be powerful enough to save them from the Dream Eater and the human hunters.

I was intrigued by the idea of using music as a way of communicating spiritual and natural truths. There are some really beautiful and emotional scenes as Toby searches for meaning in his singing and discovers his true voice. There’s a lovely message about being courageous and genuine, and I loved seeing Toby going on this internal journey.
This book has a strange mixture of good and mediocre story-telling. The writing is quite moving in some places, and oddly detached in others. Some of the scenes don’t seem to fit with the mood of the book. Some of the plot points are wonderfully imaginative, and others are uninspired and trite. It’s poignant and wistful sometimes, and clumsy and ordinary at other times.

I enjoyed reading this, but I feel like the writing didn’t quite live up to its potential. There are all the ingredients for a stunningly beautiful story, but the execution is just slightly off-base. Maybe it just didn’t quite speak to me, but it might really strike a chord with other readers.

The only parts I really liked were the musings about music.