A review by shlebby
Reverie by Ryan La Sala

3.0

Reverie by Ryan La Sala was better than okay, but less than good. I gave it 3.5 stars, here's why:

1. Their was a lot of talk about friendship and relationships, that's all it was though. talk. There was no substance to any of the relationships, they all felt empty. We were being told that they were growing closer but the "friends" rarely talk, and when they do it usually ends in an argument, and they don't have any small relationship-building scenes like Kane and Dean have. (The only relationship in the book that elicited any real emotion)


2. I LOVED Kane and Dean, I liked how their lil love story was not the main plot. There were enough hidden moments between them that made me feel fuzzy.


3. Let's make this simple cause the reveries were too confusing.
I know this is Ryan La Sala's debut novel so I was prepared for this going in. The reveries are dense abstract worlds. The concept is incredible and fantastic to read about, but it was not executed as well as it could have been. There were info dumps at the start of each reverie to describe setting, which kind of skimmed the surface of what the world looked like. It felt like I was missing pieces and I could never fully see the reveries.

I could never tell which world I was in, I had to continuously remind myself what the plot was

Overall, Reverie was a fun easy read although somewhat confusing. I appreciated the amazing fantastical idea of dreams becoming reality, the queer main character, and the queer antagonist.