Everyone said this book was wild and I am pleased to report that it is, in fact, wild. Dreamscape books are so thrillingly odd, and I kind of just love it?! Also the blend of contemporary and fantasy is my favourite. The writing was lush too, some of the turns of phrase truly standing out as a gorgeous way to put things. And it all felt so metaphorical. Kane is there fighting actual dreams turning into poisoned monsters -- but we also talk about how a person needs a dream, how your own dreams can poison you, but without them you can turn into a husk.


Not to mention the group dynamics. Kane has lost his memories, so he isn't sure if the others are even friends or foe. And I LOVED how their powers were also their greatest fears. Ursula is absolutely the softest and sweetest, but she's badass with super strength. Elliot craves facts and truth, but he's an illusionist and manipulator. Adaline could change memories though it ruins her life too. And Kane? He is too powerful and it could unravel him.

The only things I waver on are: how literally every character had to be paired up, how the villain was the singular character under the trans umbrella (knowing drag queens are villanised in real life, I did expect a meaningful twist to be there for her origin story? but it just...wasn't), and Kane starts off with a lot of OCD traits that just...vanished.

Whimsical and bizarre, an explosion of unapologetic queer delight. It really is for readers who crave unfettered imagination, with twists at every corner.

I desperately wanted to love this, but I simply had no interest in this book. It had a great start, and then I hit the 20% mark where the 'fantasy' starts and I lost all interest in the confusion of it all. I felt like I'd been thrown headfirst into a high school fever dream, and nobody wants to be stuck in those. The characters didn't blow me away, the plot itself was confusing. Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me.

The cover art is visually stunning and immediately attracted me to this book. As the fantasy elements are revealed and the reveries are explained, the reader learns along with the main character; Kane's memory is incomplete after an accident that occurred under inexplicable circumstances. Reality is malleable, and each person's perception of reality can manifest itself in dangerous ways. The most important takeaway from this novel is the representation of members of the LGBT community and the validation of their life experiences in a heteronormative society. Overall, the book was well-written and original, but for me personally, it lacked a certain element that might have allowed me to connect with the characters.

"Sometimes the things we believe in are the most dangerous things about us."

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"Dreams can be parasites we sacrifice ourselves to. Dreams can be monstrous, beautiful things incubated in misery and hatched by spite. Or dreams can be the artifacts we excavate to discover who we really are."

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Inexplicably, I struggled with this one. It had the most vivid scenes that were beautifully written but I didn't enjoy the story as much as I'd hoped. I think part of it is because you are dropped right into a story where the main character, Kane, remembers nothing about who he is. So you're on a journey with him through his pursuit of his truth. Turns out that truth is that he is a part of a small group of teens who are seemingly heroes saving the world from these vivid daydreams that seem to be ripping apart reality. The revelations of what's really going on and why and how Kane fits in didn't come as fast as I'd hoped and were revealed in the most confusing ways.

The story has great representation and lessons about tolerance and acceptance. I'd say it skews towards the younger side of YA. There is a lot going on but not as much tension building as I'd hoped. The emotions felt shallow and I think in the end I just didn't care about the characters enough.

Check this one out if you want to adventure through the depths of your imagination and get lost for a few hours. I'd say this one is the Wizard of Oz meets The Maze Runner.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

4 stars

Inception + The Magicians = one great YA book.

Reverie has been on my TBR for far too long and I am so glad I finally read it. Ryan La Sala did not disappoint, this was the second book of his I have read and I think he's a new favorite. 

The book immediately starts off with a mystery, Kane is found half dead with no memory. Kane feels like something is wrong but he cannot pinpoint what it is. He meets a few people who claim to be his friends. It definitely kept me up late as we unraveled the beautiful mystery that is Reverie. 

I really enjoyed Kane and I loved the self-exploration. Would definitely recommend this book!

Kane is a gay teenager who is trying to pick up the pieces of his life back together after an attack leaves him with no memories of the past. He is in the search of who he is and who he was, and he discovers an alternate reality that he was involved in.
Reveries are worlds born from a person’s private fantasies, and once they manifest they can only be unraveled by bringing their conflicts to a resolution. Reveries have rules and plots, magic and monsters – anything you could wish for. And one wrong step can twist the entire thing into a lethal nightmare maze.
I was very excited for this book and there are many aspects that I thoroughly enjoyed, but overall it didn't wow me as much as I was hoping it would. I really love the representation in this novel for the LGBTQ+ community. And the concept about dreams alone is fascinating, it made me wonder what my reverie would be. But unfortunately I was very confused for most of this book. I didn't see where the plot was going and it felt like it changed throughout the book. I learned to just go with it and enjoy it on the surface, but I couldn't connect with it only any deep level. I was never immersed in this world, though I desperately wanted to be.

Im so sorry but the format is messed up. Rating 5 stars cause I know the book is good. Aiyaa and now we have to write 100 words so now you will listen to my lovely voice.

I adored this book!  The only reason I won't be purchasing it for my library is that it's a little too old for my students.  I will however recommend it to ANYONE who is willing to listen.

It was a good book, and I loved the cover. Character development was strong, and I felt attached to the characters which is exactly what I'm looking for in a book!

Reverie by Ryan La Sala
Publication Date: December 3, 2019

I haven’t written a review in a while, and that’s probably because very few of my recent reads have wholly won me over. Thankfully, Reverie has ended that streak. It does starts off a little bumpy due to the main character, Kane, having amnesia from an experience that left him half-dead in a river. Not knowing friend from foe, Kane searches for links to his lost memories. Then he literally stumbles into another world. Well, not quite. More a dream come to tangible life. As Kane’s memories start to creep back into place, the plot picks up and the bizarrely wonderous dreamscape-jumping begins. 

What I Liked: 
- I thoroughly enjoyed the concept & execution of the dreamscapes, AKA the “reveries.” Each one was vibrantly strange and uniquely their own. I loved the shifting array of characters, backdrops, and dream “plot twists.” I wouldn’t have minded if they had squeezed a few more into the plot.
- Due to Kane’s amnesia, I had quite the difficult time discerning future plot events. It was a rare occurrence for me to have zero ideas about what would happen next in the book, and it was refreshing.
- I enjoyed seeing all the LGBTQ reps throughout the story. I don’t think everyone needed to be paired up by the end though. 

What I Didn’t Like:
- I really liked Posey! Unfortunately, she was a bit 2-dimentional. I kept hoping the next chapter would bring her some sort of backstory or driving motivation. Alas, she remained a perfectly coiffed mystery.

Recap:
If you want a wild ride of a read (including but not limited to: barbarians, a Victorian garden party, a dystopian regime, and shapeshifting nightmares) Reverie is the book for you!  It was a thoroughly enjoyable & imaginative read. I’m excited to see what Ryan La Sala will write next.

4.5/5 stars

*Thank you Net Galley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

I received an e-arc of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. 

3/5 stars

This is a book that I felt I really needed to pay attention to especially when starting out as it jumps right into it and since the main character is confused about what is going on with him the reader is as well. I found that not knowing what was going on increased my interest to start with but also found it very confusing if my attention wavered even a little bit. Once I got over the confusion and just allowed myself to just go along for the ride I found myself really enjoying the story and the mystery elements of the story and trying to figure out what actually happened to the main character and to figure out who is really telling the truth. 

I thought that the idea behind the story was really interesting though I'm not exactly sure how everything worked so I would say that you need to suspend some normal beliefs in the world to fully allow the magic of this story shine. The characters themselves were fine but at times I found myself annoyed with them and what they were doing. Overall the story was interesting I just couldn't get over how long it took for me to feel like I was figuring things out and even when I did the world didn't make sense.

I unfortunately did not enjoy this story as much as I'd hoped! I was so drawn in by the gorgeous cover and the refreshingly unique storyline, but my hopes fell flat as I continued. The beginning was interesting, with suspense, mystery, and intrigue, but as the story continued, I found that the story grew very extreme and strange, which I wasn't the biggest fan of. I also felt that some of the characters were very flat and I couldn't connect to them. 
I'll still continue to support the author, as I really like Ryan La Sala as a person, but I wasn't the biggest fan of his debut novel.

I received a copy from the publisher via Netgalley for an honest review.

DID NOT FINISH! I got 32% in/12 chapters and I just cannot continue. I do not care that the character is gay, I do care that it is brought up SO DAMN FREQUENTLY in every single chapter and as almost as a character FLAW. Some of the chapters are even mean about him being gay so I am confused about what the author was trying to do and say...

This books idea was fantastic, however, the author was not at all focused and it was just awful and I could not even try to continue. I had such high hopes and was sorely disappointed.

I have a LOT of feeling about this book. But I want to start with the fact that, as in almost all reviews, this is an account of my enjoyment of this book, and with this book especially, I think there are many things that I didn't like that you might love! It is very relevant to consider that I am 26, and this is YA; I very much think adults can read and enjoy YA (I often do!), but I think at times, some critique of YA comes from being outside the target audience. I don't think the book was juvenile; I just think I might have liked it more when I was newer to this kind of fantasy.

Reverie follows Kane, a gay teen whose memories of the last two weeks (and possibly more) have just completely disappeared from his head after he crashes a car into an old building. He was found covered in burns in a nearby river and shortly after fell into a coma. We enter the story with Kane trying desperately to figure out what happened to him while he was gone with the threat of potential jail time looming. Kane must figure out his past to grapple with the uncertainty all aspects of his life are currently caught in. 

What I really truly loved about this book was the beginning 20-25%. It was enthralling, mysterious, and raw in a way I really loved. The mystery immediately captured me; I loved Kane's exploration as a character and how his family relationships were being explored. I was completely invested in how the world was clearly fantastic (in the literal sense), and Kane knew he should know more than he does. I was 100% sure this was going to be a new favorite book. 

You can see my rating, you know it wasn't a new favorite, but I don't think the book was bad! (I also very much think that one person's opinion of a book cannot be used to declare a book bad, but I mean that I didn't dislike the book, I just didn't love it either.) There were just many elements of this book that very much did not work for me, as the story continued to unfold. This very much might not be your experience! Don't let me stop you from reading it if you want to do so!

I think my biggest issue with Reverie is tied to what made me love the book's beginning so much. Having Kane not remember any of his previous life gave the beginning of the book wonderful tension, the mystery of putting what happened and his life back together was wonderful. Unfortunately, once we realized that old friends were to be trusted, I just kind of wasn’t as into the plot any longer. The relationships these characters had with Kane just wasn’t developed enough for me to care. And the tension between who Kane is now and who he was before didn’t work for me, mostly because the descriptions of the two seemed eons apart at times. The character development of this book just overall did not work for me. I think this could have been mitigated by either a smaller cast or having this book be a series, but that is obvious just conjecture on my part. And that is just what I think I would have liked it, not necessarily something that would make it objectively better. 

I didn’t feel connected to the emotional core of the story, the saving of a sister plot (especially when the first reverie we are introduced to called out how reductive and sexist that hero fantasy was, they were different scenarios, but it just seems a different flavor of the same virgin archetype. And when this is paired with the sister's fantasy involving her overthrowing a sexist world that she feels trapped by, I was just not into it. The book encouraging you to be aware of tropes and archetypes, and critiquing them in the narrative encourages you to look very critically at what you are reading, which is excellent, except that the conclusions I came to with this character were not what the book seemed to want me to conclude. Also, somehow I was less invested in this character as the book progressed. She went from central to peripheral, then was an obstacle, then was a damsel. It just didn’t work for me.

Other aspects of the middle and end of the book that didn't work for me included that I found the book very confusing at times. This could be down to falling interest in the plot while I was listening to an audiobook. Still, I did relisten to about ten chapters just to ensure that I was completely paying attention because I had become confused. I think the set up of reveries (other peoples dream worlds coming lethally to life) was fascinating, but the world outside of the reveries needed more to keep me invested; it was a very cool premise that just needed something else for me. 

I thought the twist in the romance was interesting, but I wanted to see that relationship more on the page. Kane's love interest is so rarely interacted with I forgot his name multiple times throughout the book. The main point in most of my critiques is that I wanted more time given to something, and that holds true here.

I genuinely think I would have enjoyed this story way more if it had been a douology. I needed more setup, more time spent in the world, and more character development. I think the container for this story was too small for how much it was trying to accomplish. 

There were also some tropes i don’t like. Specifically, I wanted La Sala to do more with the evil gay trope. He subverts the trope a little with the protagonist also being gay and having Kane see himself in out big bad. I liked Kane's exploration of being envious and interested in this character for their ability to be so openly queer, but it was not enough for me to get over my dislike of this trope. I am not saying it was poorly done, just that it is a thing I don't tend to like and that held true here. 

I do really think the world was deeply interesting; it was so open and full of potential. There are tons of people who really loved this book, and I completely see why they did. I just became less interested as the book progressed. I found Kane to be a great protagonist; I liked that the book had a strong focus on friendship and family ties. I thought the book was funny! 

I would recommend this book to people! I would recommend the book to people who really liked Caraval by Stephanie Garber, to people who love fantasy that deals a lot with memories, and to people who are seeking out YA with a largely queer cast.

Unfortunately this did not work for me. I wanted to like it but was often confused and just couldn't wrap my mind around the reveries, and couldn't connect with the characters.

I really liked this! It was magical, lyrical and oh so queer! Loved the queer representation and the overall idea around this. I honestly applaud Ryan La Sala’s imagination because he created such intricate and vivid scenes with different reveries. 
I think the only thing I hadn’t liked was our MC, Kane. I found him to be so pretentious. But I loved all of the other characters and Kane eventually grew on me, though I mostly just tolerated him. Overall the journey this book took me on was amazing.
I liked the mysterious beginning with Kane not having all his memories and the introduction of increasingly fantastical elements. It was such a well crafted story! I would definitely check out more in this universe and from  La Sala!

I found the beginning a little slow and on my third try to read the book I finally pushed past whatever block I had and read the rest of the story. I quite liked Posy as a character and found her a unique anti-hero. Ursula was the perfect best friend and Adeline was fierce, in all ways. I was very intrigued with the concept of the story and La Sala has a unique and glorious ability for world building. It is so ingenious that you could wonder if you are in fact currently living in someone’s reverie. Overall a great read.

It was an interesting concept, but fell a little flat for me. As a stand-alone novel, I think it will do well among readers.

Well, that was a disappointment.

When I heard about this book, I was excited. Ryan is such a bright presence and gay, sparkles, and magic? Yes, thank you! But as I read more about the book, I realized that probably wouldn't like it so much. I put off reading my ARC and I wished I had never picked it up. Reverie is one of the worst books that I read this year, and right now I have more rage than words, to be honest.

Yes, I disliked the jazz-hands world-building, the underdeveloped romance, and the anti-climatic ending but it was Kane, the main character, who I hated with a passion.

His characterization is terrible, he says things one chapter and then the next he's a completely new character. His actions are messy and confusing, and not on purpose, you see, it's just we don't know if Kane is a bully or the victim in here. He's mean for no reason to everyone, mistreats people constantly and he never really feels bad about it. One could argue that everything that's happening is getting to him but he has always been mean, it's not because of the accident or the memory loss. Kane wants to paint this picture of loneliness and misunderstanding, he's the only out gay kid, he's the weird one, he has no friends, but time and time again all these things are proved to be wrong. Because Kane never addresses all the things he has done, everything is left in the air and it's just so frustrating.

His parents loved and support him but they're conveniently absent for all his adventures, he finds out that he has friends but decides to ignore them when they're the only ones with answers. And let's not talk about how badly he treats his sister to "protect" her and never realizes that keeping her in the dark will be more dangerous. He throws fits, fights with everyone and everything, he even threatens people and yells I AM GOING TO KILL YOU when he's upset. If that doesn't scream white boy, I don't know.

What a picture I have of Kane is of a white gay boy who feels different and alienated, but in truth, he's exactly what society wants for him. Maybe it's the lacked people of color in this story, or how the love interest is a brown boy (Latino?) but the story never addresses his queer experience. That's my problem, all commentary about homophobia, queerness, and identity feel very simplistic and very white and I'm not here for it. Kane is saying one thing when the story is clearly showing something different and it's just SO frustrating.

Now I will proceed to forget that I ever read this mess. White gays have no rights.

Reverie by Ryan La Sala
This fun fantasy adventure has a variety of characters set in different worlds or “reveries”. The story opens as Kane struggles with memory loss and frustration because he’s been accused of reckless behavior, destruction of property and possibly murder but he doesn’t remember any of it. He digs deeper into solving the mystery of his life and discovers that he was part of a group called “Others”. The more he reveals, the crazier everything gets. Dreams from individual minds come to life and most people are swept into the reverie while the Others have special powers of illusion, strength and cleverness to guide people safely through the dream world. The story also has a drag queen reverie guide that adds flair as well as lesbian side characters and Kane, who is the gay main character. These characters add perspective, kindness, diversity and a broad array of personalities to Reverie. A fun adventure fantasy geared towards young adults. The relationship scenes aren’t detailed and are a small part of the Reverie world. 4 stars!