*Disclaimer: I was sent a review copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Reverie is gleefully magic, funny and queer. I have nothing but praise for this book. 5 stars.

Reverie is about Kane Montgomery, a gay teenager from Connecticut who mysteriously loses some of his memories after one day having woke up in a river next to a burned-down house. Kane tries to reintegrate himself into a life he doesn’t remember, a life filled with so many gaps, playing a role people expect him to play.

Things become more complicated when old friends from his past re-enter his life. Kane is caught in a position of not knowing who to trust: should he trust these familiar, but estranged people from his past, or his potential new ally, Poesy, a drag queen who is keen to help Kane restore his memories.

Kane must also process the presence of reveries – dream worlds born from a person’s private fantasies, inhabiting certain areas, and threatening to unravel reality itself, if not first unravelled. Reveries have their own rules and plots, follow their own magic, and are always teetering on the edge of nightmare. And what is even stranger is that Kane and his old friends are entirely lucid during these reveries.

Reverie has been the queer YA fantasy I’ve always been searching for. This book is also #OwnVoices. La Sala’s prose is beautiful in a slightly startling way, articulating the normal with a sense of magic and depicting magic with such ease. From the first page, I was captivated.

La Sala builds a strange and fascinating world, subverting tropes in imaginative and original ways. I have always had a fascination about the nature of reality, and dream worlds have always been dangerously seductive for me. Reverie is about the way we get caught up in different realities and fictions. Some realities are comforting releases, spaces where we are free to find out who we are and play different roles. However, not all realities we wish to escape to are sanctuaries, and the certain ways we use fiction to hide behind and hide what’s within us is detrimental to ourselves.

Kane, our protagonist, is curious, grouchy, and an unreliable narrator, haunted by this elusive version of himself he can’t remember. And I absolutely loved him. His paradoxical nature makes him interesting – he wants to know what is going on and what happened in the past, but he keeps running away: from his friends, himself, his memories, his reality.

All of La Sala’s characters were rich and compelling. As Kane was slowly letting his friends back into his heart, all his friends were slowly rooting a place in my heart. The characters felt real, and I saw myself and people I know in them. I am certainly not ready to let these characters go (and imagine my distress when I found Reverie is only planned to be a standalone book). I also appreciated Kane’s relationship with his sister, and it is never side-lined in the plot. We see their relationship tested, strained but eventually, see their sibling bond grow stronger than ever. Poesy, however, of course, has to be one’s favourite character. From the moment she said, “What’s scarier to the world of men than a woman limited only by her imagination?”, I was 100% on board with this book.

Entering the reveries was exhilarating. Usually in other books, I’ve often found entering dream realms less captivating than the main plot, but this was certainly not the case for this book. I was always excited to see where the narrative in each reverie was going to take the characters, what roles they were going to be forced to play, and what were the rules of that reality, and finally, how it was going to subvert my expectations.
I am cautious about giving away too much about the plot because I want other readers, like myself, to go into the book knowing little, ready to discover La Sala’s world and be surprised by his creativity.

One of my notes while reading Reverie was, “THIS BOOK IS WILD”, and I’m not sure if there’s any better articulation than this. Just when you think you know where the book is going, La Sala does something that catches you off guard, and you are united with the protagonist’s sense of bewilderment and awe. Though the world of Reverie is complex and often chaotic, the reader is never overwhelmed due to the way La Sala cleverly carefully crafts, reveals, and expands his world.

One character in the novel asks, “Why do you fight for a reality which does not fight for you?... Why do you fight to save a reality that fails so many, so often?”: for me, this was the book’s most pertinent question it poses. Surrounded around me in my life are people disillusioned by the problems of the modern world: with politics, with the world’s apathy to climate change, with unending bigotry – in other words, problems which seem too big and out of our control to fix. I have also felt overwhelmed by this. So many people believe we have hit a point of no return, that the world is doomed. Maybe so. But it is stories like this, like Reverie, about people who instead choose to fight to change reality which are the most enduring and most helpful, because it reminds us that this is the reality in which we must and will always reside in.

Reverie comes out on the 3rd December 2019.

I won't write a long review because I DNF this book at about 40%. I liked the creativity and the mystery elements, but it was too plot heavy and I found something about the writing style to be irksome. Reverie gave me "The Maze Runner" vibes, so I'll definitely be recommending it to younger teens, particularly boys. There's nothing wrong with this one, but it wasn't my thing.

I was over halfway through the book before I really grasped what was going on. That's an intense world (multiverse?) to build. The Reveries reminded me a little of The Good Place since the reverie would go haywire when something didn't go as it should. I could kinda see the resemblance to The Magicians even though it's a stretch. When Poesy and Kane had tea I thought of Dean Fog and for the rest of the book I imagined Dean Fog in drag (which would be amazing!) I believe the length of time it took me to understand the reveries took away some of my enjoyment and that is why I'm giving this 3 stars.

This was a very interesting premise with dreams coming alive but I feel it was not executed well. The characters where just, okay, they were lacking depth so ultimately I didn’t really enjoy them or connect. When I like a book I have a very, very hard time putting it down but I paused this book multiple times and read other stories in-between, I think many people will enjoy this book but it just wasn’t for me in the end.

I was provided with an electronic ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

In the silence of the night, a gay teenager decides to attempt against his life by crashing his father’s car against an ancient mill that happens to be the most cherished architectural piece of the city’s history. At least this is what the police reports had stated, and what almost everybody in town is saying about Kane Montgomery. But Kane cannot explain what really happened because he does not remember anything about that night.

After a fail attempt at getting his memories back, which involved both Kane and his sister Sophia to be chased by a shadowy creature; Kane ends up in the police station. Ready to face the detective in charge of the case, he gets really surprised when he ends up meeting Dr. Poesy (an extravagant, eyeliner lover man who happens to be a psychiatrist), instead. As eloquent and convincing as he is, Dr. Poesy finds his way into Kane’s life by promising to help him remember what happened.

But when Kane starts to remember who he was, how is he related to reveries and the kind of magical abilities he and his friends possess, he will learn in the most dreadful way that nobody is what they seem to be and that he is not as alone as he thinks he is.

How does Kane start getting back his memories? What kind of abilities are the ones he has? And most importantly, how are all these facts connected to reveries? This last question is the one I want to answer the most, however, this book is so nicely done that I honestly cannot tell you more about this without mentioning some major spoilers. You have to discover it by yourselves to really enjoy the fantastic experience of reading this amazing work.

This book is honest and assertive.  I have to congratulate the author, Ryan La Sala because he has managed to expose in the best of the sassiest ways how rotten our society is, and how we can inflict damage to the people around us without even notice it. Through the reveries that we will encounter within the chapters of the book, we will face the fear of being rejected by a society which rules are overrated and obsolete, but that is still so powerful that some people prefer to live inside their day-dreaming fantasies.

Besides exploring this concept of reveries to conceive this whole new fantasy universe, La Sala has also created a sassy antagonist who happens to be a drag queen sorcerer that has amazing comebacks, and who could smash you to pieces without breaking any of her perfectly manicured nails. But behind the mask of a powerful and deceitful queen, there is someone who just wants to change the world as we know it, to make it more tolerant and accepting at any possible mean.

What do I think of this book? Well, it is a colorful, enlightening and powerful story that will definitely kick up a big fuss with the help of a shady humor and astonishing style.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for giving me the opportunity to read this amazing book, it has been an extraordinary experience to be part of the Reverie universe. Kane and his friends will be in my heart forever.

A unique fantasy based in a magical world complete with a drag queen sorceress...how can you go wrong? I really loved this book. The characters were brilliant and the whole thing was just completely captivating.
Kane was such an intriguing MC and I felt connected to him from the very beginning. I really enjoyed watching him and his crew traverse and unfold the reveries. The reveries were amazing and felt like stories within the story. Such a unique idea. I couldn't get enough. And was sorely disappointed to discover it was a stand-alone.
I really liked that most of the characters were LGBQT it was a very refreshing change to have the main character as part of that community instead of just a supporting character. The fantasy and magic that is this story...I just...ahh. I'm all over the place with this review but it was just so good I don't know how to put it into words. I definitely recommend reading it. So good!

I'm still relatively new to this genre (YA fantasy) but I think this is a beautiful example. I read it in two sittings over the course of less than 24 hours. The characters were fully realized and I cared about each of them and how they worked together (or against each other) as the story unfolded. The imagination behind the "reveries" - what they are, how people interact with them and are affected by them - is wholly original. I'm really impressed and can't wait to read more from Ryan La Sala!

4 stars----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Let's just get one thing straight
this is about a gay wizard

.......


*INTENSE APPLAUSE AND WHOOPING*

i know
i mean
I KNOW

i love me a good gay time
but get this
it gets better

guess what comes out of his hands

...

f*cking rainbow blasts
RAINBOW BLASTS
are you f*cking with me Ryan la Sala??
are you???

So what's this book about?
Kane Montgomery has lost his memory due to an incident. As he struggles to piece together the memories he lost and the person he was he learns things about himself and the world that he can't understand. He and his group, The Others have the ability to enter Reveries. Reveries are worlds born out of peoples personal fantasies. He and the others have the ability to stay lucid during them. Their job is to unravel them before they manifest into nightmares.

An even greater threat stands in their way as a drag queen sorceress hungers for the power to create and control worlds. wtf should Kane do?

this book was everything
I loved it with everything inside of me. The only reason this is a four-star read and not a five star read for me is because I do not think this will become an all-time favorite for me It was enjoyable but not the type of book to stick with me and impact me in the long run.

It was fun and cute and pure and made me feel warm
queer books year-round baby

This book answers two big questions:
'What would happen if peoples personal daydreams/fantasies came to life and forced everyone to live out their fantasy?'
'Who are you if you lost a big part of your memories and so yourself?'

Kane starts the book with having lost a BIG chunk of his memories and trying to figure out what the hell got him here. The books starts of because of this with mystery vibes. He sees himself as someone sad and isolated, mostly because he's gay and because of that different. As a lesbian, the feeling of isolation and fear of others describes was very well done. However, apparently not everything about him is as normal as he thinks. First by the appearance of a mysterious 'psychologist' and second when he meets this classmates who turns out to know him when he doesn't remembers. Suddenly all sort of people who he doesn't remember show up and after hearing a group people who call themselves 'the outsiders' talk about him. The Outsiders are really funny to me because they do care about Kane, but they are also teenagers who handled a problem the worst way possible and are just like 'welp I guess we lost Kane forever that's so sad but what can we do reintroduce him nah we just move on'.

Anyways the book really starts getting interesting when the title drops and Reveries aka peoples fantasies get introduced. These parts really feel like watching a movie and are because of this really really fun. They work as concept and in the story and like I say are genuinely enjoyable weirdness. The world building is also surprisingly thought out. There is also something a lot of books are missing lately and that's a good villain. The villain is pure chaotic energy and power-madness and is enchanting to read. Another thing that's interesting is the theme of madness as concept in general (no I won't elaborate this because spoilers). I also liked that this book not only has a gay main character (who has a tiny romance), but there are two tiny f/f romances waved in this book which is always a bonus.

The reasons this isn't a full five stars is mostly some of the introduction chapters and the writing, the memory-loss part and the romance. A big thing this book does is that because of Kanes memories loss, a lot of things about Kane are implied and not shown. I get this is to easy the reader in and is a theme in the book, but it makes it feel a bit difficult to connect to Kane as character and the story. You also get thrown into this book with a weak first chapter, I think a prologue would add miracles to this. Romance is nothing wrong with but I just wasn't crazy about it (and had actually other ships I would like more that did not happen).

Other than that it was weird and random and magical just as I like in my book and I would definitely recommend.

I got and arc from this from Ryan and from Netgalley but this won't affect my honest opinion in this review

I first heard about this book by a reviewer friend of mine who was crowing about it from the tops of the mountains about how much we all needed to read this book. She absolutely loved Reverie and so when she told me the story had to do with dreams I was instantly curious to know more (I’m a sucker for the unconscious mind).

From the moment I picked up this book I knew it was something special. The writing from the very first chapter is crafted expertly by La Sala and his passion and enthusiasm for this story is evident in every chapter. I have so many favourite lines from this first chapter that I’m pretty sure my kindle was going to ask me if I just wanted to get on with it and just highlight the entire chapter!

The main character Zane, while 100% relatable with his snarky one-liners, is also wonderfully flawed. What I found most interesting was how La Sala straps you in for a rare journey of re-self discovery as our protagonists slowly uncoils and pieces his memory back together with an odd cast of other entertaining and heartwarming characters.

If I could describe the nature of this book it would be to call it a circus – but in the best way possible. There is so much wonder and awe, and brilliant shiny things I hadn’t seen before in a fantasy novel. I was clinging to my seat as La Sala, like the true ringmaster he is, welcomes you to an experience unlike any other.

If you enjoy mind-bending theatrics like The Matrix or Dr Strange and you enjoy a fast-paced read with hilarious one-liners then this is the perfect book for you. Delving into a person subconscious mind has never seemed so appealing or as entertaining as it was in this book and I completely recommend you give this book a go in order to change up the Fae/Vampire/Assassin books that are crowding the shelves nowadays.

When I read the synopsis of this book, I knew I had to have it. Reverie grabbed me from the get-go with a great first chapter that hooks you in. It was clear from the beginning that it would be one of the most imaginative books I've ever read and it didn't disappoint.

Kane Montgomery has lost his memories after an accident, and begins to stumble upon a magical world he may have been a part of - if he could just remember. Reveries are realistic dream worlds concocted out of other people's subconscious and magic (or etherea) and they're popping up all over the place, causing a real nuisance, and when he stumbles into one, he finds he may have been involved with this world in ways he can't even imagine.

The descriptions and creations of these worlds are fantastically done and the reader has the benefit of discovering them through Kane's eyes, as he attempts to figure it all out as well. The book is rich with a plethora of complex queer characters, another added bonus (Poesy the drag queen was fantastic), and entering the reveries were like entering another world - I lost track of all around me while I read. There's nothing better than a richly described new world that is balanced with great characters, and that is what La Sala has created. The only thing I would have liked more of was additional backstory about Kane and his sister's relationship. Sophia was so interesting and I loved learning about her, and I'm always fascinated by sibling relationships.

I am so eager to enter back into Kane's resplendent, richly-detailed world of dreams and hope a sequel is in the works! It was such a pleasure and so nice to read something TRULY unique.

One of my favorite occurrences in reading is when I begin a book, thinking I'll enjoy it, and end up ADORING IT. As in, ready to recommend across the world, purchase even though I have a free ARC, and happily promote it across all personal and professional channels, level LOVE IT.

I am happy to Say that Ryan La Sala's book crossed into this vaulted category about a third of the way through. It was interesting and at least a four-star read up until then, but as the world became more and more complete, and the stakes quickly raised, I became deeply invested in Kane and the Others, as well as understanding exactly what was happening in this world.

The premise of the book, that Kane awakes after a car accident without memory of what happened, is quickly abandoned (thank goodness). Kane discovers that dreams are coming to life around him and he is one of the rare ones that has the ability to stay lucid, i.e. he knows he is not in reality. Things quickly spiral from there as Kane learns more about his past, the struggles that left him in the position to have his memories missing, and the people who surrounded him through this time.

A few things that I thought were truly outstanding: representation was clearly important to the author, and not only does he include individuals who are homosexual, but a gender fluid individual is very prominent in the book. Kane's experience and perception is very understandable as he interacts with Poesy for the first few times, and helps readers with a model that is useful as they might interact with gender fluid folks in real life.

Romance is handled deftly but is easily of secondary importance. This is really great, as it often can overwhelm the plot.

Most exciting to me were the reveries, or living dreams, themselves. We experience worlds as diverse as a dystopian future (complete with Katniss Everdeen-style heroine) and a romance novel setting (featuring a surprise ending with jewel-encrusted arachnids attacking our protagonists). These worlds were fully fleshed out, always subverted expectations, and were deeply enjoyable. They showed the author's ability to write in many worlds and his familiarity with tropes in each genre, which was so fun for a voracious reader like me.

This book could be a standalone, or not. I'm not at all sure of the plans for returning to Kane and the Others, but you better believe I'm in for the ride. Thank you for this imminently readable, very representative, and exceptionally exciting offering.

**I received a free ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.**

I really enjoyed this book. I think it was a really original story. I do think there could be characters that could be fleshed out more, but overall a great book. I will definitely buy it for my classroom library.

If you had told me this was a book about a gay teen whose powers include shooting literal rainbows of energy from his hands, I would have… well, let’s be honest, I would have picked it up just as quickly. Reverie is an anime-flavored, watercolor whirlwind of a young adult book, its flamboyant and glittering surface as interesting and valid as its more somber exploration of trauma and belonging.

We meet Kane in media res: there’s been an accident, an explosion, and he’s trying to recover a bunch of memories he lost in the incident. It doesn’t take long for the things he’s forgotten to come looking for him again, and he’s quickly overwhelmed by revelations that he was sure were impossible earlier in the week. There’s an abundance of magic bubbling up in his small town, turning residents’ reveries—lucid fantasies—into reality. Kane might be the only person capable of unraveling these reveries and saving reality, but that requires him to confront a past he can’t remember, and to reconcile his deep-rooted belief that he’ll never fit in with his own reality of family and friends who love and support him.

I’m not gonna lie: I cried. Like, more than once. It reminded me of all my favorite stories for all the right reasons, but with everyone gay, so a million times better. Harry Potter, The Matrix, Inception, 3 or 4 different animes, Marvel stuff: put ‘em all in a blender with a rainbow, strain out the terrible bits, and get Ryan La Sala to weave it into a story with lots of really good words. Without divulging any spoilers: I loved the dystopian reverie and am exactly the type of person who would read that 3-book YA series. I pictured Harold Perrineau as Poesy because I watched both Dumplin’ and Romeo + Juliet the week before I started reading this and I mean, why not. I don’t know if the current cover will be the final cover, but it’s beautiful and I love that it’s tilted, a forced perspective, totally on brand.

Reverie is the answer to every "Make it gay, you cowards!" shouted into the indifferent heavens when the franchises we love fail us queers again and again.

5 out of 5 stars.

Reverie is a MUST for my classroom now. I can't wait to purchase a few copies for my room. My kids need to see gay kids being themselves on paper and I am so excited for this book to mean so much to so many.

I think I need to preface this review by saying that I was absolutely fascinated by the premise of this story. Its comparison to the movie “Inception” and “The Magicians” was apt, and that certainly speaks volumes to just how much potential this story has. Unfortunately, I got lost somewhere in the delivery. One of the cool things about “Inception” are its intricacies and the director did a fantastic job of plotting the story to keep it interesting while simultaneously keeping the audience engaged and guessing. With “Reverie,” while I could see where the author was going, the balance of the storytelling was off creating sections of the story that were over explained and didn’t need to be while other passages felt rushed, confusing and underdeveloped. Writing a novel and writing a screenplay are two very different things, I think that’s why “Inception” worked, because we had the visuals and the more challenging parts of the story could be more fluidly explained through the dialogue. With “Reverie” the author had to provide their reader with both, and I think that’s where the author lost me. Don’t get me wrong – the dream sequences in Sala’s story are extraordinary and I could clearly picture them – it’s everything else that felt muddled and rushed.

Ultimately, as a screenplay, I think this could be brilliant and the representation is everything you need and more. I celebrate Sala’s innovation and can see the potential. While this debut was just a bit of a miss for me, I will be curious to see what the author has in store for us in the future. Also – the representation and story innovation will surely keep teen readers engaged making this a must add for library collections.

DNF at 20%. From the pitch, I was SO excited for this book, but alas, the writing style just didn't do it for me. I normally at least skim through to the end to see what I can recommend to students, but in this case, I couldn't do it. I feel like the style/tone is more MG than YA, and a lot of my students would have the same issues with it that I did.

Reverie had me hooked from the first page. No spoilers, but this book was a delight and one of my favorites of all time. Love the characters, love the writing style. I couldn't put it down. What a fun journey.

Reverie is a delightfully original fantasy tale that, while it has its moments of rainbow fun and glittery whimsy, ultimately struggled to fill the size-12 drag queen heels it presents the reader.

I really cannot emphasize how unique this was - I read *a lot* of YA fantasy and I cannot think of another book even remotely like this. It’s bizarre, at times super flamboyant, and full of whimsy. It captures the struggle of feeling “other” and acts out the fantasy of erasing a world that has failed so many people in favor of something a little more... fabulous. Ryan La Sala captured the weird, non-sensical nature of dreams and fantasies, and added his own twist to it.

However, I felt like this book just scratched the surface of this world and these characters. The world building was vague and confusing. While this worked at the beginning - the story opens with Kane, our MC, struggling with memory loss from a head injury - as the story went on I didn’t feel any more enlightened. I didn’t quite understand how the powers worked or what the rules of the magic system were. Some of this can be written off as dream logic, but I felt unmoored for large chunks of the book. I didn’t understand the villain’s motivation, where she came from, or what her goal was. The characters were mostly flat and reminded me of the Scooby Gang. Despite being upperclassmen, they read young on page, perhaps because the writing style felt more like middle grade than YA. This book will probably appeal most to tweens and younger teens.

However, the writing was good, the author has a strong voice, and I saw SO MUCH potential here. Most of the issues here are issues I have with many debut novels, and are issues that resolve themselves as the author grows. Ryan La Sala clearly has original stories to tell and he’s not afraid to wrap them in glittery rainbow unicorn paper. I am genuinely excited to see what La Sala comes up with next - he's an author to watch.

I love all the representation in this book. I especially enjoyed that none of it felt like the author was adding diversity for the sake of it.