i had actually never listened to selena's music before, so first of all thank you for introducing me to the soundtrack of my life for the next few months.

dreaming of you is a novel in verse that follows our narrator as she resuscitates selena, and the consequences of that decision. it's poetry that touches on the magic, using horror elements to highlight the difficulties of fame, growing up in a world that doesn't feel made for you, and the uncertainties of navigating life and romance as a woman. to me it straddles the line between horror and speculative almost historical fiction ? we love a slightly revisionist but academically supported reading !

it's a funny book that made me laugh, and it's also tender, clever, slightly weird and creepy. there are poems that honestly brought me to tears and the little experimentations with form felt truly meaningful. there's a balance in the poems between going forward with the story and having moments of poetic pause, there's a strong nostalgia too, and a vivid quality to how the past shows up on the page. i really liked the way technology, digital and analog, kind of "interferes" and snakes its way into the novel.

so yes! more more more!! so many thing that i love in poetry are there: the way it blends specific cultural references that i don't always get, how it has slightly autobiographical moments, the weirdness, the academic perspectives... it's just steeped in intertextuality in a way that hits my soft spots.


I received an eARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Dreaming of You by Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a wildly strange and hilarious novel in verse. The author narrates the story largely in stream of consciousness. This sometimes didn’t work for me as it was a little confusing, but the book really picks up steam about a third of the way in when the plot is more established. The humor is dark and sometimes the content is really thought provoking. I found myself laughing out loud at some parts. I read the book and listened to the audiobook, which is masterfully narrated by the author. Lozada-Oliva has such fantastic delivery, I would recommend pairing the physical book and audiobook. I found the poems easier to follow when read aloud. I recommend this book if you’re looking for something unexpected.

Thank you Astra Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC.

This novel in verse is about Melissa, a young poet who brings Selena Quintanilla-Perez. I grew up listening to Selena’s music so I was very excited for this one, and loved all of the references to her music and her life. That being said, this book was a wild ride and not quite what I expected. This is unlike anything I have ever read, its very surreal and truly a unique book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the advanced copy.

I really need to do more research and request books written by diverse authors as this one proved that we have a lot of undiscovered gem out here!

Thanks Melissa for writing this one!

The in-verse format perfectly blended with the tone of the storyline which created a balanced narration and emotion.

RATING: 4stars

I received this book for free in exchange for my honest review.

I do not even know what I think of this book. I had picked it thinking it would be in verse which it was but I must have missed some piece of the information as I found myself often confused while reading this book. Melissa brings back the spirit of celebrity Selena and finds herself disappearing instead.
While a quick read you have to spend time thinking about what is happening and suspend disbelief while reading this story that jumps around a lot and often leaves you with less information that you expect to have.
That being said Lozada-Oliva has written something that I found compelling enough to finish and I am sure it would be the right book for somebody, that somebody is just not me.

There were several things that drew me into Melissa Lozada-Oliva’s, Dreaming In Verse.

•In recent years I’ve grown fond of the novel in verse structure.
•I like the cover art.
•The description of the book made it a must-read for me: it’s about SELENA!!!!
—And—
•I figured anyone who had the gall to essentially resurrect Selena Quintanilla was worth giving a go!

I think the author was creative in envisioning the themes explored in this book. It was weird and absurd and at times hedged on the side of comical. But then there were the more pressing themes relating to identity, love, celebrity worship, disillusionment, death, and obsession.

I was a bit surprised that the story didn’t focus much more on the resurrection of Selena. While I appreciated especially the dialogues of Selena’s father, Abraham and even her murderer, Yolanda there were times I felt that the story fell short of its original intention. I found myself confused several times wondering who was narrating; the author or Yolanda.

So many questions and thoughts followed the murder of our beloved Selena and so I suppose I would have enjoyed exploring those more.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lozada-Oliva takes us on a delightfully morbid journey to bring back the beloved singer Selena. Through meandering poems about social media, culture, bodies, etc., Lozada-Oliva captures both a sense of unease and beauty.

Nonsensical and all over the place.

How did this even get a green light ?

I tried hard to relate and or understand. Selena is an icon that many feel she is their friend. I can remember where I was when watching the news of her attack and death. For someone to try to take her story with out even understanding her is foul.

I read a bit of this and loved most of it, but I have somehow seemed to have lost my download of this book, so I don't know how the ending is supposed to go.

This was a wild ride. At times I was confused, at other times I found myself cackling like a mad woman. These poems weren’t your typical lyrical verses, dripping with agony or swirling with beauty. These were raw, more visceral. It was difficult to keep up at times, sometimes I found myself lost and trying to figure what the hell was going on. The author took us on such a strange and unforgettable journey following a young woman who resurrected the incomparable Selena. I would highly recommend for fans of the late songstress, poetry and lovers of the unconventional.

I received this ARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

An eerie novel in verse that addresses celebrity, obsession, jealousy, loneliness, and more. You might be able to bring back your idols, but at what cost?

Celebrity, loss, resurrects, popstar, genre-binding, Latinx-author, womanhood, disillusionment.

Literally, so much could have been with these words, but the book failed to move me. I have read novels in verse before but now many to understand the various forms they can take. In the case of Dreaming of You, I think readers will have a love-hate relationship with the book, because it's not meant for everybody, even though if you may be into lyrical verse. The story was interesting but the layout didn't do much for me.

However, Melissa does have a unique writing style, so I may try out some of her other standalone poetry books.

Thank you to the publishers for sending an e-copy.
didn’t know what to expect with this one, all I knew was that I loved this cover and poetry.
Selena, Latinx, and so much more are written very beautifully.
This was a very fast read and I enjoyed it.

I received a free copy of Dreaming of You from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Celebrity deaths affect us more than we'd life to admit. What if you could bring your favorite star back from the dead?

Written in verse, Dreaming Of You weaves a story of loneliness, loss, and the pervasiveness of pop culture on our collective psyche.

I’m still not sure how to rate this book. It was definitely unique. But it also was weird, like really weird I have never read anything like it before. Still I kind of enjoyed it?? It was a story about how Selena was brought back to life. Also I LOVE the cover, it’s stunning. It was actually one of the reasons I requested the book! All in all I think I kind of enjoyed it, even though it was indeed as I said strange

The cover of this book is what enticed me to read it. Told in poetic verse, Lozada-Oliva explores loneliness, pop culture, death, Latina identity, motherhood and queerness. Ultimately, I don't think this novel was for me. Whilst an interesting concept for a story, I struggled to stay engaged. I found some of the poems beautifully told, but the story confused me and I didn't understand some of what Lozada-Oliva was trying to convey.

Thank you to Astra House and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's Copy!

Available October 26th

Coasting in a surreal landscape, Melissa Lozada-Oliva's collection "Dreaming of You" tackles everything from relationships to family and identity, with a strong dose of Selena Quintanilla. Much like the beloved songs, these poems are timeless and memorable.

Dreaming of you is timeless, tasteful, and flavored like an experiment gone right. It’s my new favorite novel in verse.

With all the lyricism of your favorite fever dream, the novel follows a journey from seance to self. Melissa is lonely to her core, and imagines Selena Quinanilla as her best friend. So one night, when the darkness is just kissing death’s doorstep, Melissa brings Selena Quintanilla back from the dead. Yet something is off. The Selena that comes back is all static and blur. She can only speak in sound bites from the past. And as Selena begins to crystallize, Melissa feels herself fading.

With tenderness, Lozada-Oliva starts a crusading interrogation of how our relationship to pop culture is disingenuous. What if bringing Selena back just means killing her again? What does it mean to love someone whose tragedy formed a community? As she writes, “is Selena the hole that’s been carved out for me? I can jam my body through it but I’ll probably fall to the other side. Is my body Selena-adjacent?”

Then there is the question of celebrity idolization. Are we all Icarus, taking our darlings too close to the sun? Imagine for a moment if they lived to a ripe old age, long enough to tweet that they are pro-life? We are relentless in our desire to savor celebrities in their prime, yet so quick to discard their humanity. We fine-tune ourselves against them. We juxtapose our jealousy with idolatry to justify their commercialization.

While the novel focuses on our relationship with pop idols, as well feminism, queerness and latinidad; I couldn’t help but wonder if I am part of a generation who is defined by grief, who needs manufactured jealousy to feel anything. I wonder how much social media skews my perception of myself, yet I am still here because I also struggle for a self without others. The novel felt like a personal call-out in certain ways, but I didn’t come out with answers.

Instead, I admire the beauty of the hand that wrote those words.

Instead, I walk out of the pages with my cheeks singed red, reverberating in the aftermath of a haunted slap.

ARC received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very weird title and that isn't necessarily a bad thing; the strangeness is part of what I enjoyed. Dreaming of You is a novel told in verse about a woman resurrecting Selena and the strangeness and problems that follow. I loved the eerie-ness of this, the strange off-ness that comes with an undead celebrity running around and starting another tour and I think Lozada-Oliva's conversational and almost rambling style lends well to these confessional-style poems. Although this is a very surreal story, the themes are very much grounded in reality - loneliness, pop culture icon worship, death, womanhood, identity , etc. Despite the premise, this story isn't *really* about Selena as much as she's used as a vehicle for exploring these topics.

Despite the conversational style, I did get lost a few times - a few times I was wondering, is this Melissa's perspective or Yolanda's? Is this happening now or is this hypothetical? Sometimes I didn't mind so much, it's surreal and bordering reality and fantasy anyway and I was focused on the feelings more than anything but other times I felt too lost to get into it. There were some individual poems I did *really* like on their own and I think I would have almost liked a thematically linked but not a novel in verse collection from this author? I definitely want to try more of her work even if this didn't quite work for me, but I wouldn't necessarily not recommend this either. It's a shorter work and if you're in the mood for something strange exploring loneliness and pop culture and identity, I'd say give it a try.

I had a lot of expectation for this book, mostly because of its cover; it was okay though. It wasn't a great read for me, sometimes it felt a little confusing, but it tackles such important subjects. I enjoyed some verses.