Review – Reverie by Ryan LaSala (2/5 stars)
Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Magical Realism
Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Release Date: December 3, 2019
ISBN-13: 978-1492682660
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed from Library
Rating: 2/5 stars
“All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember anything since an accident robbed him of his memories a few weeks ago. And the world feels different―reality itself seems different.
So when three of his classmates claim to be his friends and the only people who can tell him what’s truly going on, he doesn’t know what to believe or who he can trust. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere―the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery―Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident, and only he can stop their world from unraveling.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I borrowed from the library.
Story (2/5): This book was kind of a mess. I liked the idea behind it but the writing was pretty bad; the story jumps all over the place. Everything felt very disjointed and we never got a good explanation of how the reveries work…which is weird because there is a lot of discussion about the reveries but it felt inconsistent and inconclusive.
Characters (3/5): I never engaged with the characters and just couldn’t relate to any of them. I loved the kind of magical drag queen that shows up initially but was pretty disappointed at how flat that character felt for me. This book is very proudly queer which I really applaud, those portions were well done and even had some fun humor to them. It was fun to read a YA fantasy that is so solidly proud of its own queerness, but disappointing that the characters felt so blah.
Setting (2/5): Much of the story takes place in a contemporary setting. Some of the settings within the reveries were intriguing but poor description and confusion around how the reveries works left me more confused than enamoured with these magical settings.
Writing Style (2/5): The writing style was very inconsistent, we would jump from dreamy imagery in the real world to battles in a reverie and it just felt so jerky. I keep reading it because I kept hoping for it to be something wonderful, it just never got there for me. I wanted to love this but it just felt so sloppy and confusing to me.
Summary (2/5): Overall I wanted to love this but it just missed the mark for me. The idea behind the story is unique and I thought some of the blatantly queer magical powers were fun. However, the confusing concept of reveries and the jerky, sloppy writing style made this hard to follow and enjoy. I won’t be reading future books by this author.