There is a lot to love about REVERIES, by Ryan LaSala.

LaSala himself described this book perfectly, as "eccentric indulgence and conspicuous queerness" - which was truly the greatest part about this debut. There was absolutely no lack of imagination, and I appreciated a contemporary fantasy that has such outstanding flourish. Poesy, the drag-queen sorceress, stole my heart. I cannot possibly express my love for drag queens, and to see one so powerful and so representative of an escape from oppression delighted me. Kane's amnesia was an interesting twist, and the narrative form of almost trying to reclaim what happened was much different than what I expected. But I enjoyed the characters and the surprising but heartfelt love stories that were intertwined within the plot.

That being said, I was a little disappointed by the overall novel. This is a book that relies entirely upon imagery creating the worlds of the Reveries, and this is where LaSala fell a little short. I needed more descriptions, more time to dwell in the worlds he was creating. I needed the words to create that magic environment that transports the reader into the scene and detail. While I enjoyed the book overall, I just wanted to feel more invested and more in love with the reveries within. I will absolutely be keeping my eye on LaSala in the future, and hope his writing can grow to support the magic of his imagination.

This book excelled in dialogue and in representation. A drag queen main villain? A mlm relationship? Two wlw relationships? Yes PLEASE! In the end, the novel itself was very confusing and I have not processed everything that has happened to be completely honest. This was a really wonderful debut and I will definitely be picking up more by this author in the future.

Reviewed for Out in Print

A team of super-powered gay/straight high schoolers must save the world by traveling through perilous dreamscapes in Ryan La Sala’s enjoyably splashy debut novel Reverie.

The back cover hook: “Inception meets The Magicians” is a good way to approach describing the high concept fantasy storyline. Though it begins more like the film Memento, or, for a gay YA reference point Greg Herren’s Sleeping Angel.

Kane Montgomery is home from the hospital after being in a car accident he doesn’t remember. He’s lost memory of any events leading up to the crash, and the circumstances were pretty disturbing. The police found him on the bank of a river after he apparently stole his parents’ car and drove it into an historic mill where the car ignited. The specter of criminality or attempted suicide follows him around though he doesn’t feel like the kind of person who would do something so reckless. He’s also confounded by the fact the only damage he suffered was short-term amnesia and an odd pattern of burns around his head.

When he visits the scene of his accident, hoping to regain memories, the supernatural enters the story in the form of a giant, shadowy Lovecraftian creature that chases Kane from the burnt mill. At an appointment for a court-ordered psychological evaluation, he’s introduced to Mr. Poesy, an effete bald gentleman who wears make-up and nail polish and seems a lot more interested in finding out what Kane forgot rather than evaluating his mental status. Upon Kane’s return to school, things get even weirder as a group of students he only vaguely recalls are watching him like a hawk and possibly conspiring against him.

It’s off to a damn fun start.

Gradually, Kane comes to understand he’s part of the “Others,” a band of four teens who realized their magical abilities when people in their sleepy town of East Amity, Connecticut started having dangerous dreams from which they might not wake up without the Others’ intervention. After school, Kane gets sucked into one that involves a classmate’s daydream of a barbaric fantasy world where teenage virgins are being sacrificed to a giant spider. There, he discovers he can fire rainbow energy bolts from his hands. His lesbian teammate Ursula has super strength. Elliot creates illusions, and Adeline can penetrate people’s minds.

Kane also meets a mysterious fifth magical character Dean. Dean may or may not have been Kane’s secret boyfriend prior to the accident, which was actually a far bigger parapsychological catastrophe.

The turf for Kane’s adventure is inventive, and La Sala creates intriguing dream worlds that draw upon the curious workings of the subconscious mind. Everyday folks take on unexpected roles from futuristic storm troopers to Victorian ladies of high society, and the settings are grand and vivid with inspiration points from the sleeper’s waking day. La Sala’s writing is crisp and vibrant, and particularly in the book’s second half when the action ramps up, it makes you want to speed-read to the end.

The only problem is the workings of Reverie’s dream world get so knotty and elusive, the reader struggles to wrap their brain around how dreams spun out of control in the first place and what’s really at stake. Similarly, Kane’s magical ability: figuring out the plotline of dreams, never really shows up as an element of much consequence. Magic pops and flashes from the pages, but through the end one wonders what rules enable the characters to get from A to Z.

Still, there’s much to recommend La Sala’s début novel. It’s an unapologetic queer fantasy extravaganza, complete with a drag queen sorceress pulling the strings. For sure, the story has its campy moments, but another nice achievement is it never runs aground as parody. It’s YA urban fantasy from a gay male gaze meant to stand up to the work of Cassandra Clare and Rick Riordan. Notwithstanding some worldbuilding holes, La Sala largely succeeds in that endeavor.

Another nice facet is that Kane’s gayness isn’t a source of angst or external conflict. Though through visiting the inner worlds of older LGBT characters, La Sala pays tribute to the courageous shoulders on which young LGBTs like Kane stand.

An excellent pick for YA fantasy readers and especially fans of C.B. Lee, Rainbow Rowell, and ‘Nathan Burgoine.

reverie was pitched as inception meets the magicians, and that's probably the exact right way to describe this book.

kane montgomery needs to figure out what happened that left him half-dead in a river with no recollection of how he got there. his sister is the only person who seems to be helping him. But he might have more help than he thinks, but he's not sure who he can trust.

his friends? ex-friends? people he has no memory of? dr. poesy? the boy with the seafoam green eyes? who has his best interests at heart? the journey here helps us answer these questions. it's not a straightforward journey, with leaps into the fantastical.

but it's such a delightful journey to embark upon and so worth the read. it's whimsical and lyrical and utterly delightful and thought-provoking in so many ways.

**reverie will publish on december 3, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/sourcebooks fire in exchange for my honest review.

I received a complimentary copy of Reverie by Ryan La Sala from Sourcebooks Fire through Netgalley. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. Reverie will be released tomorrow on December 3rd.
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Kane remembers some things: his family, his lonely childhood and teenage years as an outcast. But he doesn't remember the night the police found him at the Cobalt Complex, nearly dead with severe burns around his head. His bedroom feels foreign and there is evidence everywhere of the months he's forgotten. When Kane returns to school he finds that three of his classmates, Ursula, Elliot, and Adeline, seem to know things about him that he doesn't know and all three have unexplainable powers. They claim to be his friends, but without his memories Kane has no idea who to trust. Then there's Dean, a mysterious boy in their class who seems to be prodding him toward his other supposed friends but isn't part of the group. When Kane finds himself trapped inside a Reverie, a dream world brought to life, he has to decide whether to trust the others. Reverie is full of magic, creativity, and a fantastic, villainous drag queen sorceress trying to build her own reality.
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"What's scarier to the world of men than a woman limited only by her imagination?"
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I really enjoyed Reverie by Ryan La Sala! It's an extremely creative piece of LGBTQ+ fiction and was a fun adventure to follow. I would have liked to get to know some of the characters better. It was sometimes hard to get invested since some of the characters didn't feel fully realized, but the world building was fantastic and the story was creative! Poesy was easily one of my favorite villains in a long time. I would recommend to anyone who likes LGBTQ+ fiction and is in for a weird and wild ride!

~ ARC provided by NetGalley ~

DNF 30%

Unfortunately as much as I liked the premise of this book it is failing to keep my attention. No matter how hard I try I am between semi focused on the book and just wanting to put it down. :(

DNFed at 40%. I think this book was decent, but overall written with a younger voice than anticipated. It felt more like a middle-grade than a YA, which isn't a bad thing, I just prefer YA. If you like Percy Jackson then you'd probably like this because they seem similar at least to me. Not a terrible book, just not for me.

2.5 stars - I am really sad about this rating, but I want to emphasize that I think La Sala has so much potential. I'll start by saying I loved how La Sala was able to create such lush reveries and demonstrated how unique they were to the personalities of the different "dreamers". I also appreciated the representation in this novel; it is so gay and made my heart swell. But, a lot that happened in terms of plot really lacked disposition. There was SO MUCH going on that I felt lost a majority of the time. La Sala writes beautifully, but I feel like this book could have been edited more to create a more cohesive plot. I felt as though elements were just thrown together, and while they felt unique, they were often confusing. The ending felt rushed, and read as though it needed to come together, and not as though it was the right time for it to come together. Despite the hard time I had understanding the novel, the writing had a fast pace to it that still made it fun to read. I am still excited to see whatever La Sala puts out next.

Finished it just in time. Publication is soon. This read was hard to get into at first, but after a while, I loved it. I will be buying a hard copy for my shelf. Debut novel wise, it is very good. A must read for the end of 2019 and going into 2020. The characters are fun and complex, the story draws you in and that cover is gorgeous.

I think I was in a bit of a reading slump when I started reading this, so it took me a while longer to get invested in the story. I had to push through the first 30%, but after that the pace picked up and I loved it. This book has the most unique, imaginative world I’ve come across so far this year. Reveries are the dreams and imaginations of ordinary people made real, and Kane finds himself lost among them right when a malevolent force is threatening to change the world altogether. The strength of this novel is found in the relationships Kane has with The Others. There is a romance that picks up about 70% of the way through the novel, but Kane’s relationships with his friends and sister really drive the story. I loved watching Kane unravel the mysteries surrounding his friends and the reveries, and look forward to whatever La Sala writes next!

Plot: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Writing: 4.5/5

Reverie was one of the most imaginative, chaotic and unique novels I’ve ever read. It was a wild, wild roller coaster ride of a book but also one that I feel will resonate with many readers and I enjoyed it very much.

“We are all people between worlds.”

The protagonist was Kane Montgomery, a boy who woke up half-dead in a river nearby a burnt down mill with no memory of how it happened or most of his life before. However, slowly by surely he began to put the puzzle pieces together by finding his friends from before the accident and uncovering the sinister truth of what really happened.

Kane and his friends (who called themselves ‘the Others‘) all had various superpowers and they used these to control and unravel ‘reveries’ wherever they arose. Reveries were manifestations of a person’s deepest hopes, fears and dreams that leaked into reality and ensnared anyone in the vicinity of their source. They normally came with an elaborate plot that the people caught inside would unconsciously act out but the Others all possessed the ability to remain lucid in a reverie and could make sure it stayed safe and didn’t go out of control.

“Sealed off things that steep too long in the human mind are doomed to grow bitter”

The reveries were all well fleshed out and intriguing and the author integrated these magical micro worlds into the real world very skillfully. I thought it was an extremely creative magic system but I would have liked it to be more explained as there are still aspects of reveries that I don’t understand like the triggers, limits and rules of them. Also, I don’t think Kane and his friends’ purpose was well explained because most of the time, they seemed to make the reveries more dangerous than they were supposed to be.

Kane was caring, thoughtful and funny but his accident and the consequent amnesia made him feel like an outsider from himself. Also, his uncertainty in who to trust made him push away those trying to help him and he ended up feeling alone. He was the only openly gay person in his school and he keenly felt the pressure of people’s judgement upon him, always feeling out of place.

However, as Kane discovered details about his life the reader did too, making his confusion really relatable. He rediscovered his previous friends and it was lovely to see how, after a bit of miscommunication, he started to rebuild his relationships with them once more. His whole character arc was about self-discovery, about giving himself a second chance and using it to save the world.

“Dreams can be the artifacts we excavate to discover who we really are”

The other characters were all nicely layered as well. I loved Ursula‘s calm yet strong nature and Adeline’s steely no-nonsense attitude. Dean had a mysterious, aloof exterior but was actually really adorable and I’m glad that him and Kane had each other. I wish we got to see their relationship develop more. I also liked how Kane’s relationship with his younger sister was portrayed. It was turbulent at times but during hardships their unconditional love and support shone through. The villain of the story was a drag queen sorceress called Poesy who, as the book states many times, was ‘power personified’. While her motivations and decisions were very questionable she was a sassy, trinket gathering villain who was hard to always hate.

At its core, beneath the chaos and rainbows, Reverie was a story about how people, especially those ostracized by society, create refuges in their own minds and what happens when these go out of control. With its heartfelt LGBTQ+ representation, beautiful prose and loveable characters, Reverie is most certainly a worthwhile read. I had a few issues with the magic system but it was overall an enjoyable story.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinion expressed are my own.

The queer YA fantasy we've been waiting for!

Overall this book was not for me but I think it will really REALLY be for a lot people. I struggle with YA fantasy in general and had an especially hard time connecting with the characters.

I did love how magical and unique it was (and GAY!!) plus Ryan's writing was excellent. I mainly struggled with the plot and like I said- connecting with the characters.

If you're looking for queer fantasy or something really original I would definitely recommend picking this one up! (And following Ryan on twitter because he's a gem!) This was weird and unusual in the best way and I loved the effortless representation.

Just because it wasn't for me doesn't mean it won't be for you! I could see this being a 5 star read for many!

Thank you to net galley for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!!

This book is so wonderful! I really loved this book. The plot is something that I find really imaginative and interesting. The characters are engaging and have interesting dynamics with each other. There is also rainbow magic, a cute dog, an evil drag queen, and so many diverse characters! I love it and I can't wait to read another book by this author!

Cleary, I didn't remember what I read in the synopsis when requesting it because it turned from a strange mystery with a supernatural twist to a full on fantasy in six chapters. I personally didn't actually prefer the change in context.

It had several interesting elements - you don't often find mysterious sorceresses in drag in Young Adult literature, no even in fantasies - and I didn't mind Kane as a main character. The complexity of his backstory and how his recollection (or lack thereof) of it was engaging and I loved the Kane and Sophia relationship. The cast of support characters, however, was a bit disappointing. And while the worlds of the reveries were an interesting study in world building, the overall pacing was muddled and the overall plot was forgettable at times.

This book definitely has an audience. That audience simply wasn't me.

"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."

Things I liked about this:
-Poetic narration
-Drag queen sorceress
-Nuanced friendship and romance.
-None of the characters were straightforward; everyone was complex and mostly engaging.
-It's very gay.

Problems I had with this:
-If I was supposed to understand what was going on with the reveries, I didn't.
-I felt like I was being bounced between the main plot and backstory. Because Kane's memory was wiped, a lot of the book was devoted to backstory and exposition.

Overall, this was good, but I was disappointed.

Reverie started out with a pretty interesting mystery and with a lot of The Dream Thieves vibes, but things sort of took a bad turn after the first few chapters due to the lack of character and world-building development. This was a really unique and creative world that La Sala created with the reveries and twists and magic, but the actual story gave very little in the way of explaining why everything was the way it was and how it all worked. La Sala introduced a lot of new vocabulary without a clear explanation, so a great part of the novel was downright confusing.

There was quite a bit of action, which was well written and engaging and tension filled, but it was a bit hard to connect with and believe the characters were in any real danger since all of them are pretty flat. I think this was mostly due to the fact that Kane had amnesia — he was a blank slate when it came to most of the characters in the story — so La Sala didn’t take the time to make the side characters feel like real people since Kane didn’t remember them anyway. The one exception was Poesy.

The comment above was especially true in regard to Dean, the love interest. I would say his background was more developed than the others, and also intriguing, but he had no personality to speak of. This made the romance have no impact whatsoever since there was no substance to Dean as a person. He felt a bit like a prop, just there to kiss Kane and make him remember certain things.

In the end, Reverie was a quick and fast read, but confusing and undeveloped. The action was good and the premise was very creative yet the execution could have been more fleshed out. La Sala did show promise with this debut, so I hope to see more things from him!

Ryan La Sala has created an impossibly cool, dangerous fantasy world that blends reality and the stuff of our dreams into one wild ride of a book. I was immediately drawn into the mystery of Kane’s accident, and the following discoveries and events kept me turning page after page long after I should have already been asleep. Every single character felt real and true with their own struggles and personalities, which only added to the stakes of the story as tensions soared and danger loomed in the not-so-far distance. Most importantly for a book like this, the world-building of Reverie is breathtaking; every reverie Kane and his friends enter is intricate, unique, and downright terrifying. La Sala has successfully created a thrilling LGBTQ+ fantasy that the YA world is sorely lacking.

I just couldn't get into this book at all. I read a couple of chapters and it wasn't really appealing to me but I pushed on, as I had read some of the other reviews and most seemed to really enjoy it. I got half way through but it would have been a struggle for me to finish.

It just wasn't for me, sorry.

This book is so much fun! I loved the characters, the world, and the story. Highly recommend it. Four out of 5 stars for this awesome book!

I don’t know why I pushed myself to finish this book to be honest. I liked the time spent in some of the reveries, but overall the story was far too confusing to comprehend.