Reverie by Ryan La Sala

Available now from Sourcebooks Fire

I loved this book!  It’s a twisty, magical adventure through the innermost hopes and desires found within a person’s imagination. It is also unabashedly, unapologetically, wonderfully, perfectly queer.  

It all comes back to the old mill.  It’s where Kane was found half-dead in a creek away from the crashed car and burning building.  With his memories of the night gone, Kane isn’t any help to the police, his parents, or even himself in reconstructing the night of his accident that causes the disappearance of a local painter.  In his quest to find out what really happened to him, Kane discovers he was once an integral part of the Others, a group of high schoolers with magical abilities. With reveries, the magical worlds created by a person’s vivid imagination, popping up all over his town, Kane and his friends need him to regain his memories before any more people go missing. But things don’t go smoothly. When the mysterious figure posing as the psychologist Dr. Poesy enters Kane’s life, his loyalties become divided as he learns who he can, and cannot trust. Dr. Poesy’s real identity is something much wilder and far more interesting than a docotor.

This book is absolutely fantastic and everyone must go read it right now so we can gush about it together!  The Others are a great group of characters who are as different as they are similar. They are a very relatable bunch of kids-no one is perfect and everyone has issues to deal with.   There’s Ursula, the strong jock with a blended family who is capable of super strength in a reverie. Elliott, the gorgeous popular kid can create illusions to prevent others from discovering the reveries and seeing the Others use their powers.  Adeline, the driven and popular ballet dancer has the ability to erase memories. Together, the four teenageres help to close reveries before they can cause irreparable harm. But then there’s Dean. Dreamy Dean with the seafoam eyes who is able to stay lucid during the reveries and secretly help Kane.    

Reverie gives us a magical fantasy, teenage romance, friendship, and a coming-of-age story all at once.  It is only through their mutual trust that the Others can work effectively together. With Kane’s missing memories caused by Adeline, his strained trust in the Others will put all of them in danger more than once.  

With the bulk of the story based around the reveries, we get to see each character bring their unique perspective on how to interpret and resolve them.  Kane, forced to come out long before he was ready, is able to identify with the characters who feel unable to live their true selves openly and without fear.  Usula and Adeline use their bookish knowledge to predict the storylines in reveries and help guide their conclusions. 

I love how La Sala wrote Kane’s character.  His power is taken away from him at a young age but then goes on to be a very powerful leader of the Others.  He, and only he, has the ability to fully close a reverie. Kane also has a close relationship with his sister and she doesn’t put up with any of his crap.Their interactions are filled with both heartwarming interactions and biting sarcasm. 

Reverie is an imaginative and unique fantasy that will draw you in and keep you guessing until the very last page.  It’s a wonderful debut novel and that is sure to be added to many “best of” lists in the upcoming months.  

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