bzliz's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Reverie has a great blend of mystery and fantasy elements and the characters are wonderfully diverse. We get gay teens with hints toward teen lesbians, we get an elder lesbian couple (though they don’t have much impact on any character development), and we get an incredibly powerful drag queen for a villain.
I enjoyed the concept of these superhero type teens hopping into dreams to safely dismantle them. My favorite was the reverie of Helena. The crew are thrown into roles from a popular romance novel but they get the ending wrong. Kane is put in the role of a non-verbal character and although he figures out the true ending (that Helena is trying to run away with the main female character, not the male love interest), he is literally being silenced by the reverie and his friends get it wrong. It felt like an allegory for how queer voices are so often silenced for going against what is “supposed to” happen, even when their supporters (Kane’s friends in this case) think they’re helping. I don’t know if that’s what the author intended but that’s what I took away from it.
Honestly, the worst part was Kane as a main character. He almost goes out of his way to make some of the worst choices and his feelings of devout protectiveness over his sister make no sense with his memory loss and how much he actively ignores her or is rude/mean to her. He has people willing to help him understand but he chooses to isolate instead. It’s also pretty convenient that the villain does a full monologue complete with cackling for the heroes to execute their plan.
Over all, there was a lot of great ideas here but sometimes the concept got a little muddied and hard to understand. I do think a lot of authors could take some notes about inclusion of queer characters taking on many different roles, not just having one to tick off a checkbox for diversity.
I enjoyed the concept of these superhero type teens hopping into dreams to safely dismantle them. My favorite was the reverie of Helena. The crew are thrown into roles from a popular romance novel but they get the ending wrong. Kane is put in the role of a non-verbal character and although he figures out the true ending (that Helena is trying to run away with the main female character, not the male love interest), he is literally being silenced by the reverie and his friends get it wrong. It felt like an allegory for how queer voices are so often silenced for going against what is “supposed to” happen, even when their supporters (Kane’s friends in this case) think they’re helping. I don’t know if that’s what the author intended but that’s what I took away from it.
Honestly, the worst part was Kane as a main character. He almost goes out of his way to make some of the worst choices and his feelings of devout protectiveness over his sister make no sense with his memory loss and how much he actively ignores her or is rude/mean to her. He has people willing to help him understand but he chooses to isolate instead. It’s also pretty convenient that the villain does a full monologue complete with cackling for the heroes to execute their plan.
Over all, there was a lot of great ideas here but sometimes the concept got a little muddied and hard to understand. I do think a lot of authors could take some notes about inclusion of queer characters taking on many different roles, not just having one to tick off a checkbox for diversity.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Dementia and Homophobia
Minor: Car accident
20sidedbi's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and Car accident
chethanc's review against another edition
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Honestly, I think I might just be a little too old for this book. It just felt too...YA? What I mean is, if I had read this book when I was 12, I would probably have thought this was the coolest, most unique book in the world, and that all of the plot elements were super creative. But, since I'm eighteen and have read a bunch of other books that draw on similar themes, this book just felt repetitive.
Content Warnings
Minor: Homophobia
amberinpieces's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Car accident, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Bullying
thevioletfoxbookshop's review against another edition
This one just was not for me. I couldn't connect with the main character and had some trouble suspending disbelief enough for the plot to work for me.
Content Warnings
Minor: Suicide, Murder, and Homophobia
kelldel's review
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Interesting worldbuilding/magic system. A bit confusing in the beginning but it clears up pretty quickly. The action sequences are a little hard to follow at times but not to a distracting degree.
Spoiler
because of the amnesiaSpoiler
I wish we'd gotten to see more of the relationship development between the characters. I felt it relies a little too heavily on the fact that Kane had relationships with these characters pre-amnesia and we didn't get to see enough of them re-becoming friends again
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gaslighting
Minor: Homophobia
bookwyrmknits's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is a neat story that considers our dreams (the hopes and goals version of dreams, not the REM sleep version) and daydreams and fantasies, and how they impact our lives and our selves. It is a book that somehow seemed grounded in reality and completely fantastical all at the same time.
The characters were a lot of fun, and (even though the ones I felt the most connection to were the older adult side characters, instead of the teenage protagonists) I enjoyed reading their story.
I think this is a case where the resolution will stick with me longer than the rest of the book. I can imagine the details of the story fading, but the general impression of the epilogue sticking around.
The characters were a lot of fun, and (even though the ones I felt the most connection to were the older adult side characters, instead of the teenage protagonists) I enjoyed reading their story.
I think this is a case where the resolution will stick with me longer than the rest of the book. I can imagine the details of the story fading, but the general impression of the epilogue sticking around.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Homophobia and Dementia
emberysing's review
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
While the story concept was very interesting, the execution fell flat for me. I felt the plot might have moved a bit fast, doing a good job of world building but leaving little space for characterization.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Reverie is a queer fantasy about the futility of escapism, using dreams larger than life to create a space for becoming comfortable in one's own skin after the Reverie is over.
This one took me a bit to get into because I felt out of step with the plot from the outset. The MC also doesn’t know what happened right before the book started, so the reader is discovering the past along with him. The pacing is kind of wonky and disjointed, for the first half of the book I never really felt like I had a handle on what the next event was going to be. That sense of unease, of never quite getting comfortable, is thematically appropriate and helps reinforce the sense that things are confusing and wrong, even outside the Reveries. Towards the end of the book the pacing started feeling better as the MC was starting to understand more of what had happened before and was happening now. We stay very centered on the MC's perspective, including his uncertainty and his frequent mistrust of the people around him because he can't trust his memory and doesn't know why his supposed friends are behaving the way they do.
The constant feeling that things are subtly wrong is explicitly and implicitly driven by the ways that queer people are made to feel uncomfortable for existing, by worries of not being accepted for being gay, by a past of repeatedly being bullied for being read as gay, etc. It deals with the way that homophobia takes a toll over the course of years, rather than in quick and easily recognizable instances like slurs. It’s really well done, perhaps a bit obvious in places but I suspect that’s because I’m also queer and so as soon as there was a hint of it I picked up on the parallels immediately. This would probably work really well for a teenage reader (this is YA, after all), as it lays the groundwork for the comparison and then slowly makes it more and more explicit as the MC becomes more confident and gets a better handle on what’s going on and what he can do to fix things.
It's kind of about queer escapism, but it's more about how escapism doesn't fix things, running (especially metaphorically) doesn't make things better and eventually you have to face them, process them, and find a way forwards. I really love the last quarter of the book, it pulled everything together and the ending is fantastic. The romance is sweet without taking up too much of the story, but queer love and acceptance are bound up in the structure of this book in a way that is not separable from it. This is perfect for when you're ready to feel off-kilter, a little bit uncomfortable but not in a really traumatic way (at least for the reader).
This one took me a bit to get into because I felt out of step with the plot from the outset. The MC also doesn’t know what happened right before the book started, so the reader is discovering the past along with him. The pacing is kind of wonky and disjointed, for the first half of the book I never really felt like I had a handle on what the next event was going to be. That sense of unease, of never quite getting comfortable, is thematically appropriate and helps reinforce the sense that things are confusing and wrong, even outside the Reveries. Towards the end of the book the pacing started feeling better as the MC was starting to understand more of what had happened before and was happening now. We stay very centered on the MC's perspective, including his uncertainty and his frequent mistrust of the people around him because he can't trust his memory and doesn't know why his supposed friends are behaving the way they do.
The constant feeling that things are subtly wrong is explicitly and implicitly driven by the ways that queer people are made to feel uncomfortable for existing, by worries of not being accepted for being gay, by a past of repeatedly being bullied for being read as gay, etc. It deals with the way that homophobia takes a toll over the course of years, rather than in quick and easily recognizable instances like slurs. It’s really well done, perhaps a bit obvious in places but I suspect that’s because I’m also queer and so as soon as there was a hint of it I picked up on the parallels immediately. This would probably work really well for a teenage reader (this is YA, after all), as it lays the groundwork for the comparison and then slowly makes it more and more explicit as the MC becomes more confident and gets a better handle on what’s going on and what he can do to fix things.
It's kind of about queer escapism, but it's more about how escapism doesn't fix things, running (especially metaphorically) doesn't make things better and eventually you have to face them, process them, and find a way forwards. I really love the last quarter of the book, it pulled everything together and the ending is fantastic. The romance is sweet without taking up too much of the story, but queer love and acceptance are bound up in the structure of this book in a way that is not separable from it. This is perfect for when you're ready to feel off-kilter, a little bit uncomfortable but not in a really traumatic way (at least for the reader).
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Blood, Violence, and Death
Minor: Ableism
CW for homophobia, ableism, blood, violence, death.ehmannky's review
adventurous
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
This was an incredibly fun, fast-paced, queer-as-hell, mysterious thrill ride. I loved the drag-queen sorceress, the slow uncovering of the main character's lost memories, and the fantastic dream-magic that is never completely explained but that's alright because it's all dreams anyways. Kane's slow discovery of his past and his sense of self was a delight to read, and it allowed for a feeling of loss as you learned about his lost friendships and loves right along with him. The plot is fun and I liked the broader look at what escapism means for the world you're trying to escape from. I liked that La Sala challenged the concept of escapism, in that he questions whether you're using your dreams to withdraw from the world and your responsibilities to yourself and your community or are you using your dreams to push for a better reality for all.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Moderate: Homophobia and Bullying
Minor: Vomit and Dementia
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