Reverie by Ryan La Sala
“ 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.”
“If you look at most female archetypes—the mother, the virgin, the whore—their power comes from their relation to men. But not the Witch. The Witch derives her power from nature. She calls forth her dreams with spells and incantations. With poetry. And I think that’s why we are frightened of them. What’s scarier to the world of men than a woman limited only by her imagination?”
― Ryan La Sala, Reverie
This book took me a while to get into. At least in the beginning, Kane’s memory loss was very jarring. And the way his friends treated him felt a lot like gaslighting, and it really bothered me. There was also some pretty gruesome violence at times, that I did not expect at all. However, I’m glad I stuck with it, because there is some really fantastic imagery in this book. Some of the Reveries were amazingly detailed and beautiful. Like the one with jeweled eggs that hatch giant jeweled creatures. Giant, deadly, jeweled creatures, but what a cool dream! This book is also super queer. Kane can literally shoot rainbows out of his hands. The super powers that all queers wish we had!
Genre: ya, fantasy, contemporary, lgbtqia+
Representation: gay/queer
Content Warnings: fantasy violence, kidnapping, serious injury, gaslighting, memory loss