"Just because something is imagined doesn't mean it isn't dangerous."

A fun and exciting debut. Ryan La Sala has built a world of wonder for queer teens to see themselves for lovers of anime, fantasy, and trippy adventures.

The idea that magic can shape dreams and make them real is fantastic. The fact that they can get unraveled and cleaned up is great but the book got weird...

I was expecting the suspense and the fun fantasy. I was not expecting the glorious gayness!!!! AMAZING!

Kane, Ursula, Adeline, Dean. All well-constructed characters who are uniquely their own. Often in YA you get friendship or adventure. Reverie has both. Plus, did I mention GAY?

The writing is tight. The adventure is GRIPPING. And the characters are believable. Loved this!

In all honesty, I gave this one a good try. I was not a fan of the author’s writing style, and it never ended up pulling me in or interesting me enough to continue. It pulled you in to the story too quickly without much explanation. I did love that it was set in CT though right around where I live !

It's definitely a unique book! I think La Sala does a great job with imagery, which is super important in a setting like this. It's unapologetically queer, which I also love! Kane is not an easy main character to root for, which will make it a little hard for readers to connect. There's a lot going on and a lot to keep track of, some of it not always the most successfully executed.

I feel like this one got a little muddled in execution. There's this big fantasy world yet we lose the opportunity to get immersed in it because of the amnesia plot. I still really enjoyed this one, but I still don't understand how it all wrapped up so nicely and am frankly still confused about the ending. the audio is great though and made the experience better!

rep: gay MC who literally shoots rainbows as his superpower which was awesome.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this eARC to me, all opinions are my own.

I loosely follow CAWPILE created by Book Roast (https://www.youtube.com/c/BookRoast/videos) to organize my reviews.

Reverie is a YA urban fantasy where the protagonists become drawn into dreams, or reveries where their actions can affect the outcome. We jump in from Kane’s POV and he’s unsure of where he is and how he got there. We continue to follow Kane and discover he’s been in some kind of inexplicable accident and is a victim to amnesia.
As the story progresses he starts remembering who his friends are and that he has magical powers as well as the ability to alter the conclusion of people’s reveries. Everything is not as it seems as he continues to remember his past.
My favorite character was Poesy the drag queen who becomes a sort of mentor to Kane. I didn’t feel any of the other characters had enough development for me to feel one way or the other.
The idea of being able to enter the dreams of others was a very fascinating concept to me, but after the 3rd time, I was beginning to lose interest in the story. I wasn’t too invested in the characters, plot, or the conclusion.
I think the concept and writing of the book are worth giving a shot. I personally, wasn’t too invested in it, but it seems that others could love it and might be a new favorite!

This book took me by surprise. It was not what I was expecting from the look of the cover. I must admit I am a sucker for a cover. This cover did not match this book at all. I wasn't expecting a dark and at times kind of creepy book but that was what I got. The first 1/4 of the book had me confused. I will give it to La Sala, the description and the imagery were pretty great. For the rest of the 3/4s of the book, I was totally annoyed by the fact that Kane was crying every other scene. I did like how the female characters were all strong-minded and strong-bodied females. The story was interesting, but I just couldn't get past the crying. 3 stars. Thank you, NetGalley for the eARC.

One of Reverie's selling points is its intense visual imagery and descriptions. I could feel every emotion, and vividly see each setting. Sentences were clearly constructed with care, and oftentimes distracted me from the plot of the novel as I read a sentence that was so unique ("Kane thought of the frustration that boiled through him—fine and corrosive, like soda bubbles") that I paused in my read to get a grip on its imagery. It was beautiful, but distracting. And indicative of a larger problem for my reading experience—I found too many things distracting, which really hampered my ability to get into the plot because the distractions obscured the plot, and then when I did get into the plot, it was extremely confusing.

I wanted to love this, I would have settled for being mildly entertained by it, but there was something about it that made me not connect. I would have to say it was the super slow plot and the delivery of the story that kept me from really becoming invested. It was an absolute struggle for me to pay attention. Where this started and where this ended were two different places. It got weirder and weirder as the story continued. It almost felt like magical realism and I tend to really struggle with that type of story.

Disclaimer: I was given an ARC of REVERIE for free through NetGalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

REVERIE is a wild ride from start to finish. Though I'm having trouble deciding whether or not that's a good thing.

REVERIE'S strongest element was Kane's relationship with Poesy (the drag queen sorceress, as other readers have called her) and how it unfolds and evolves over the course of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed Kane's first encounter with Poesy, as well as her various encaptivating monologues.

Then, there are the reveries themselves. These events tended to go to crap rather quickly, usually by Kane's clumsy hand or The Others simply not listening to his warnings. Reveries each have their own plot and storyline to follow, constructed entirely from the victim's subconscious. They can be a fantasy world, if you play along, or a nightmare, if you act against the plot and create a plot twist. As someone who studies story structure, I had way too much fun learning more about reveries and their inner workings!

While the reveries were interesting by design and heartbreaking when the plots went off course, I wish we were given more variety when it came to their endless possibilities. I don't remember Kane and The Others ever reaching the end of one successfully, with no twists or malfunctioning magical powers. It's hinted at by The Others -- that they were more experienced and had unraveled plenty of reveries without issues for years -- but we don't get to witness it ourselves. It all became very predictable.

The Others. This is where the waters got a little murky. I loved the idea of The Others, don't get me wrong, but the characters felt more Middle Grade than the high-school-aged magicians they were supposed to be. As I briefly mentioned before, they don't listen to Kane unless it's convenient for them in the moment. It got them into a lot of trouble, which is funny considering how adamant they were about Kane taking the dangers of these reveries seriously. If only they'd taken their own advice? By the end of the story, I was rooting for the antagonist.

A romance for Kane happened at some point, which was the focus of the ending? I came out of it a bit confused.

REVERIE had some fantastic queer representation and I appreciated the lighthearted gay humor more than I can possibly put into words. Despite the issues stated above, I think this could be a wonderful read for the Middle Grade category.

This was so much fun!

I adored the characters that we got to follow in this story, extra points for living in Amity ;)

Reverie was so much fun, the magical aspects were so well written, it truly felt as though I was on an adventure while reading this.

What an original story!

Unfortunately, not all made since to me. But this book had so many things that could have worked better.

I cannot pin point what was off but something was off for me.

I really did enjoy the representation of marginalized characters.

Thank you sourcebooks fire for an advanced copy of this book for my sassy thoughts.

A fun, inventive fantasy that kept me guessing for a good part of the book.

I really enjoyed the characters as a whole and the twisting story line that kept things intriguing for a good part of the book. I normally get a little annoyed with a plot that has the main character left in the dark for a portion of the book but La Sala made it work here. While it was frustrating that Kane didn't know everything, it allowed me as a reader to empathize with him as he gradually discovered what was happening around him. Finally realizing what all of the foreshadowing and plot twists had been about at the finale was a great reveal and really brought home the final big boss fight for me. I also really enjoyed all the representation in the book.

The audio narration was also very good. The reader captured Kane's voice and feelings very well throughout the book and kept me invested right up 'till the end.

If you like twisty fantasy with an intriguing concept and a fabulous villain, check this book out.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me early access to this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this 3.5/5 stars but I always round up.

The concept of this book was really cool and I enjoyed the way the plot played out. The book was described as being "Inception meets The Magicians" so I wasn't bothered at all by being confused a bit at the beginning. I personally didn't find it too hard to follow (I saw reviews that said otherwise).

However, I definitely think the characters didn't have as much depth as I would have liked. I actually wish this had been a series so we could explore the magic more and the author could have developed the characters more through showing rather than telling.

I will read more by this author.

Everyone said this book was wild and I am pleased to report that it is, in fact, wild. Dreamscape books are so thrillingly odd, and I kind of just love it?! Also the blend of contemporary and fantasy is my favourite. The writing was lush too, some of the turns of phrase truly standing out as a gorgeous way to put things. And it all felt so metaphorical. Kane is there fighting actual dreams turning into poisoned monsters -- but we also talk about how a person needs a dream, how your own dreams can poison you, but without them you can turn into a husk.


Not to mention the group dynamics. Kane has lost his memories, so he isn't sure if the others are even friends or foe. And I LOVED how their powers were also their greatest fears. Ursula is absolutely the softest and sweetest, but she's badass with super strength. Elliot craves facts and truth, but he's an illusionist and manipulator. Adaline could change memories though it ruins her life too. And Kane? He is too powerful and it could unravel him.

The only things I waver on are: how literally every character had to be paired up, how the villain was the singular character under the trans umbrella (knowing drag queens are villanised in real life, I did expect a meaningful twist to be there for her origin story? but it just...wasn't), and Kane starts off with a lot of OCD traits that just...vanished.

Whimsical and bizarre, an explosion of unapologetic queer delight. It really is for readers who crave unfettered imagination, with twists at every corner.

I desperately wanted to love this, but I simply had no interest in this book. It had a great start, and then I hit the 20% mark where the 'fantasy' starts and I lost all interest in the confusion of it all. I felt like I'd been thrown headfirst into a high school fever dream, and nobody wants to be stuck in those. The characters didn't blow me away, the plot itself was confusing. Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me.

The cover art is visually stunning and immediately attracted me to this book. As the fantasy elements are revealed and the reveries are explained, the reader learns along with the main character; Kane's memory is incomplete after an accident that occurred under inexplicable circumstances. Reality is malleable, and each person's perception of reality can manifest itself in dangerous ways. The most important takeaway from this novel is the representation of members of the LGBT community and the validation of their life experiences in a heteronormative society. Overall, the book was well-written and original, but for me personally, it lacked a certain element that might have allowed me to connect with the characters.

"Sometimes the things we believe in are the most dangerous things about us."

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"Dreams can be parasites we sacrifice ourselves to. Dreams can be monstrous, beautiful things incubated in misery and hatched by spite. Or dreams can be the artifacts we excavate to discover who we really are."

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Inexplicably, I struggled with this one. It had the most vivid scenes that were beautifully written but I didn't enjoy the story as much as I'd hoped. I think part of it is because you are dropped right into a story where the main character, Kane, remembers nothing about who he is. So you're on a journey with him through his pursuit of his truth. Turns out that truth is that he is a part of a small group of teens who are seemingly heroes saving the world from these vivid daydreams that seem to be ripping apart reality. The revelations of what's really going on and why and how Kane fits in didn't come as fast as I'd hoped and were revealed in the most confusing ways.

The story has great representation and lessons about tolerance and acceptance. I'd say it skews towards the younger side of YA. There is a lot going on but not as much tension building as I'd hoped. The emotions felt shallow and I think in the end I just didn't care about the characters enough.

Check this one out if you want to adventure through the depths of your imagination and get lost for a few hours. I'd say this one is the Wizard of Oz meets The Maze Runner.

Thanks to Netgalley for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

4 stars

Inception + The Magicians = one great YA book.

Reverie has been on my TBR for far too long and I am so glad I finally read it. Ryan La Sala did not disappoint, this was the second book of his I have read and I think he's a new favorite.

The book immediately starts off with a mystery, Kane is found half dead with no memory. Kane feels like something is wrong but he cannot pinpoint what it is. He meets a few people who claim to be his friends. It definitely kept me up late as we unraveled the beautiful mystery that is Reverie.

I really enjoyed Kane and I loved the self-exploration. Would definitely recommend this book!