This is a contemporary magical realism/fantastical story that follows our main character Kane Montgomery who wakes up in the hospital following a coma. He learns that police found him nearly dead in the river.
But he cannot remember anything at all about the accident – how he got there, what he was even doing there. Moreover, everything now seems a bit strange and off-kilter — a feeling that this world isn’t quite right.
He then discovers that one of the girls from his school was a friend of his, and they hung out quite a bit, especially over the past few months. The funny thing is that he has no recollection of ever being friends with this person. Moreover, he then discovers that he was extremely close to three other classmates who call themselves “The Others” but again, no memory of ever associating with them.
At this point, he has no idea who he can trust, and the gaps in his memory disturb him more and more.
But when fantastical worlds begin materializing out of nothing, Kane has to put his trust in these one-time-friends/strangers to figure out what in the heck is going on. Oh, and he has to do this before a certain villain destroys the world, and only he can stop it…if only he could remember what he needs to do.
This was such a delightfully queer and campy book. Our main character, Kane, is gay. There may or may not be a love interest, and another one of the main characters is a quite flamboyant drag queen.
But apart from that, I also found this to be quite an imaginative and fun romp, full of magic and adventure. The premise of dream worlds becoming manifest was also quite compelling, and I thought the author did an excellent job of bringing it to life.
The visual imagery was stunning and really solidified the whole concept for me. What I especially enjoyed, however, was how and why these dream worlds or “reveries” came into being and how they could prove deadly for all those involved.
It was fun journeying along with Kane as he tried to fill in the gaps in his memory until he discovers the sinister and dangerous truth of his and The Others’ situation. I thought this was quite an ambitious novel and enjoyed this fascinating world.
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