What a fantastical, imaginative debut from author Ryan La Sala.

It offers characters that range from witty to snarky to dark and deliciously devious (a drag queen sorceress!), a very fast-paced plot, and evocative imagery in both the reveries themselves and in Posey's "world". At times, I got lost within the world-building, particularly during the reveries, but the concept started to make more sense as the story unfolded. Kane's initial amnesia lent to some distancing or disconnect between characters, and as a result, I wasn't sure who to trust.

This is a roller-coaster ride of a plot. I enjoyed it, but my teen absolutely ADORED it, and couldn't stop gushing over it (and in fact, bought copies for her teachers to add to the school and classroom libraries when it came out.) There is a great amount of queer rep in the book, and I think it will appeal to teens.

As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, the concept of this book was everything I dreamed of as a kid. Books about people "like me" were few and far between when I was growing up; I'm always happy to see queer books hit the shelves. After reading the synopsis, I was super excited to dive into Kane's story. What could possibly be more exciting than magical, gay day-dreams coming to life? Not to mention, I love a well-executed "lost memories" trope in YA.

I wish more time was spent explaining how exactly how the magic/dream system worked. I found myself re-reading a few of the sentences because I got lost part-way through paragraphs. I also wanted more details about certain characters (like Posey). I couldn't fully make sense of their intentions.

Unfortunately, the execution of this story just wasn't for me- and that's okay! I think many of us who grew up with a lack of LGBTQIA+ content feel guilty about not enjoying books by authors from our community. However, just because a book has queer representation doesn't mean everyone should feel pressured to enjoy it. There is definitely an audience out there who will fall in love with this book, I'm just not one of them.

I wanted so badly to love Reverie as the author’s social medias are a delight to follow on the daily, however this sadly just didn’t work for me. I found the world building confusing and found it difficult to connect with any of the main characters. Ryan La Sala’s ability to create stunning visual imagery and descriptions can’t be denied, however I felt the descriptive flair was lost in the jumbled and confusing plot.

I wanted so desperately to love this book; I’d heard incredible reviews from other book lovers, but found that I couldn’t get in to it. I felt as though the beginning dragged on without giving enough to drag me into the world.
Perhaps I will try it again, but for now it’s a pass from me

An enjoyable adventure through dreams and different worlds, this book has the potential to be exceptional but I felt it falters in the execution. I was rooting for the main character, Kane, to figure out the circumstances surrounding his accident and memory loss. His confusion and distrust are understandable. He finds himself approached by people he thought are strangers, but the truth is more strange and complicated. I found the supporting characters appealing and provide interesting dynamics to Kane.

My issue lies with the 'reverie' itself. The rules aren't clearly established and I found the first scene into the 'reverie' to be confusing and it affected my enjoyment. While subsequent scenes highlight the universe more clearly and I was able to suspend my disbelief at the twists and turns, I was stll left with many questions. Overall, I found this to be a unique and fun debut that just needs a little more polish to make a more coherent story.

I honestly am not sure where to start with this review. I absolutely love the concept of Reverie, and the characters in it, and the story's meaning hit me hard. Reading about a gay teen who felt lonely and estranged from the rest of the world, only to find out that he has that power and his life isn't as bleak as he had original thought it was just really hit home with me. As a teen I had always wanted to change my reality and believe I could be a much more dramatic, confident version of myself, and this was a book that I really could have used then.

Reverie was a glittering whirlwind of magic, friendship and lies, tied together with mind-boggling dreams and mystery. It's simple and complex at the same time, and really captures an experience that a lot of LGBTQIAP+ teens (unfortunately) go through. I absolutely adored the friendships in Reverie, and how not all of them were necessarily shown in an always positive light, without villifying either side. 

Unfortunately, I felt like the story's execution wasn't what I had hoped it would be. The writing was hard to follow at times, particularly in the reveries, and when the rules for how they worked were being explained. I understand that the reader wasn't giving too much information straight forward to avoid info dumping, but it made it difficult to follow the first few reveries and I'm still not entirely sure how they worked. I also felt like Kane's actions were forced from time to time in order to keep the plot moving, which I found frustrating. I understand that La Sala had a limited word count to accomplish everything, but I wish it had felt more natural, so it wasn't distracting.

Ultimately Reverie is an important queer YA novel, tackling the loneliness and alienation LGBTQIAP+ teens face on a daily basis. It used friendship and humor to balance out it's more serious tones, along with a fun romance that had a few surprises to it. While I may not have been the biggest fan of Reverie's writing, I know that there are a lot of teens out there who will, and am so happy for them that they have a book like this.

An original, engaging, sometimes meta, and always refreshingly queer YA fantasy! Also, one of the best uses I've ever seen of the concept of visiting dreams/dreams becoming real -- something that can quickly become tedious in the wrong hands. The MC seems a bit of an author stand-in, and not all the characters are equally developed, but overall I really liked this book. I mean, who doesn't love a fabulous drag villain?

What an unusual and very imagintive story! It took me a few times to be able to pick up the story and stick with it but once I let myself enjoy the fantasy aspects I was sucked right into the Reverie. Set in today's times with a group of today's teens, we learn that there is power in a day dream, the power to effect reality unless the Others work within the frame work to keep it under control and then shut it down. Like all good hero stories, hero's are not always born, some are made, and some while born with abilities do not automatically know what to do with them. What would you do if you could effect reality or at least that is what is couple of people who have nothing in common are telling you. Being in high school is tough enough, especially if you are different. Kane is different in a number of ways and struggles to make sense of a horrible accident that has left him with bits of amnesia, a strange eye liner wearing therapist by the name of Dr. Posey, an annoying sister, a secretive super jock friend who's a girl, and a mysterious guy named Dean with mezmorizing seafoam green eyes. A definite YA must read regardless of how you view yourself or how others view you. An excellant commentary on today's times, youth, and the power of dreams be they day dreams or nightmares they all have power.

First, let me just say that I love this cover, especially in person. Also, let me say that I had the pleasure of meeting the author last year and he seemed like such a cool person.

Second, let me say that I didn't really like this book, despite really wanting to.

I wanted to love this. I looked for any way that I might rate this higher because I really wanted to be more enthusiastic about this novel, but sadly, my heart cannot in good conscience give this novel more than two stars. Two stars on Goodreads is "it was ok" and that's all this book was.

While the creativity and imagination of this novel were refreshing and I love the ideas of reveries, I just couldn't find myself caring about what was happening. This is mostly due to the fact that I wasn't necessarily in love with the characters.

The setting was super interesting, as was seeing the reveries and the characters interact within them. Seriously, I can't get over the creative and awesome concept of the reveries!

The writing was good. The descriptions of the worlds were well done.

There are magical drag queens, for crying out loud!

This should be awesome! It could have been awesome because it had all the building blocks for an awesome novel. But the execution felt off and for me, it starts with the fact that I didn't particularly like the main character, Kane and all his choices, and ends with the fact that while the world is extremely creative, I didn't understand half of what the heck was going on.

In the end, I thought this book was just 'ok' and nothing more. Do I recommend it? I don't think so. And yet, I would one day like to read another book by this author because he certainly had potential.

Reverie is... wondrous. The imagery is stunning, the writing is superb, and the characters are witty, dark, and easy to fall in love with.

I had to set this book down numerous times just to let myself breathe because I was so immersed in the world.

Highly recommended for all readers.

Kane is a gay teenager with amnesia who, with his snarky sister, discover a 'thing' in a mill near the crime scene where Kane crashed his father's stolen car into a building and then a creek (hence the amnesia).

That's really how I would describe this book to another person. It's trippy and kind of hard to follow. The representation is fantastic, the imagery is dense, but ultimately I was left vaguely bewildered.

Reverie starts off quickly - Kane is at the scene of a crash that took place a few days ago where it appeared that he tried not only to harm himself, but destroy public property. His parents have arranged for him to talk to the police to limit any charges against him. Then suddenly, an indescribable creature begins chasing Kane and his sister. That is where the weirdness begins.
After that point, I honestly felt like I was reading something from Twin Peaks - androgynous people who highlight their gayness and importance over straight individuals and weird other-worldly events taking place in what seemed like a totally normal story. I wanted to read this and love it for my students, but I could not get into it. It was too outlandish and subtly political to be a great addition to my school library. Thank you for allowing me to review it.

Reverie is an interesting, important book for a lot of people. At its heart, it's a book about queer kids escaping to a kinder, better world which is sorely needed for so many.

I acknowledge how important this book is for its target audience, but for me personally, I couldn't get into it. The book touches on so many great topics but only on a surface level. It never goes deeper than that. I was interested in the discussion around dreams and reveries, but just couldn't invest my self in the characters or the plot.

While I didn't really like the side characters -- they all felt shallow and/or stereotypical -- I did like how casually queer everyone was.

Basically, this book wasn't for me but I think teens -- especially queer teens -- will enjoy it.

Unfortunately this one wasn't for me. I found the main character difficult to read from in a way I was expecting- due to the comparisons to The Magicians- but was unfortunately not charmed by. The magic system was intriguing and I loved the use of queer culture in fantasy, however, it took me such a long time to finish this book due to disinterest that I'm left with less than positive feelings towards it.

The concept for Reverie immediately intrigued me. Inception meets The Magicians? I was sold. And the world of Reverie was magical, fantastic, and larger than life. Unfortunately, this book falls into the pitfall of introducing too many storylines and concepts. It bounces from one to next, never quite spending the time needed to fully develop each one. I’m a huge fan of fast-paced action books but this one just gave me whiplash.

While I liked the characters, the amnesia aspect meant that there were no outstanding relationships. We had to watch friendships and romantic relationships form all over again and, since the main character never knew who to trust, it made it hard for me to like these characters. There were some absolutely wonderful aspects to Reverie and I’m disappointed that this story just didn’t work for me.

*Disclaimer: I received an advance digital copy of this book for free from the publisher. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I struggled to connect to this book - I prefer my fantasy secondary world, rather than contemporary with magic-ish bits shoved in. I think this would suit fans of Riverdale or the new Sabrina series, as it has that pop culture-y, almost horror-y vibe. For me, the unreliable narrator's lack of awareness grated, and the plot took way too long to get going, but then when things actually started happening at about 25%, they moved too fast and got confusing. So neither the writing, the plot, or the pace worked for me, but I think this is definitely personal preference, and some people will love this! DNF at 30%.

I made it to 54% in this book and I just had to DNF. There were too many characters and things happening for me. Majority of it didn’t make sense for me and I was not connecting with the characters at all.

Reverie is an ambitious book, and I am simultaneously impressed with what it tries to do and a little bit disappointed because it doesn't quite hit the mark. La Sala's world in Reverie is imaginative and evokes dream-like imagery beautifully. He deftly connects most of the points of the plot (though there were a couple of things I wish were explained more) and I loved how he played with story tropes and readers assumptions of how a story will go, tying it to assumptions the characters make about the people whose dream they are stuck in. Really, it's a beautiful chefs kiss of an idea.

Where it falls short is the characters. There are many who don't get enough of a chance to shine. The result is I didn't fully believe Kane, the protagonist of this story's, affection for them. When he described them as brave or smart, trustworthy I didn't get the sense that Kane had seen enough of them to make those assessments and, in fact, he spent a good portion of the book distrusting them.

I also don't think the villain was perfectly executed. It felt to me like Posey was meant to be somewhat of a distorted reflection of Kane, an image of what Kane could become. They relate to each other and have or have had similar struggles, but Kane ultimately rejects Posey's philosophy. I think if we had more time with Posey, or more time building the connection between Kane and Poesy, the climax would have hit differently.

That said, I will be keeping an eye on Ryan La Sala's future work because I think he's got talent and I expect him to get better with experience.

DNF
I tried to like this one, but I wasn't a fan of the writing style (very...ordinary. Nothing special about it, very bare-bones) and I found the beginning to be REALLY slow. The description sounded really interesting but I feel like the execution was lacking.

I'm giving it 3 stars because I feel like it's unfair to rate it lower given that I didn't finish it (maybe it gets good later?).

This book got a lot of hype and love but I just think this is a case of me not liking something that the masses did unfortunately. I can understand why it was loved though: an amazing amount of queer rep, the first half of this book was intriguing and gripping, and at the times I really enjoyed the characters although I wish there had been a little more development on them. I think overall though I was disappointed because around the halfway mark I started getting really confused and lost and just wanted to power through it to be done. I attribute this to not enough character development and potentially not enough world building.