Reverie
Ryan LaSala
Sourcebooks Fire
Published December 3, 2019
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Goodreads
About Reverie
Inception meets The Magicians in the most imaginative YA debut of the year!
All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember how he got there, what happened after, and why his life seems so different now. And it’s not just Kane who’s different, the world feels off, reality itself seems different.
As Kane pieces together clues, three almost-strangers claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what’s going on. 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 when a sinister force threatens to alter reality for good, they will have to do everything they can to stop it before it unravels everything they know.
This wildly imaginative debut explores what happens when the secret worlds that people hide within themselves come to light.
My Review
The first couple chapters of REVERIE kind of had me scratching my head– I couldn’t quite get my head around what was happening– but then things clicked and I got into the story and especially Kane as a character.
He’s funny, but angsty– which has to be my favorite combo– and while he’s desperately serious, he kept me laughing with his insights and side observations.
REVERIE is a weird book, for sure. But it’s a super endearing weird. I love the way the book stretches and twists reality and has Kane and his friends jumping in and out of different dream-like sequences.
If you mashed together the dream-jumping element from the movie INCEPTION and added the upbeat, liveliness of a Caleb Roehrig novel, you’d have something like REVERIE. I had so much fun reading it, and I can’t wait to see what Ryan LaSala writes next.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 14 up.
Representation
Kane is gay. Another couple– minor characters– are also gay.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
Extreme profanity used infrequently.
Romance/Sexual Content
Kissing between two boys. Some reference to more than kissing that happens off-scene.
Spiritual Content
Kane and his friends have magic powers.
Violent Content
Battle scenes, monsters, situations of peril.
Drug Content
None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use, but which help support the costs of running this blog. I received a free copy of REVERIE in exchange for my honest review.