Ryan La Sala's debut, Reverie, is a darkly imagined, riveting fantasy that delves into the unlimited potential of getting lost in one's dreams.
When Kane wakes in the hospital, he can't remember the accident. Apparently, he rammed his dad's car into an old mill--"which exploded on impact"--and needed to be pulled from the river. The police think the whole thing was deliberate, suicidal even, and they want answers. Kane undergoes a psych evaluation, where the dazzling Dr. Poesy warns him that his "story takes place within a much larger story"--a story that is bigger than the East Amity Police investigation and potentially dangerous. At school, Kane learns that he has a small, close-knit group of friends who call themselves "The Others"; they, like the experience of the accident, have "been cut from his memory entirely." Kane, seeking information, eavesdrops on them debating how to handle him and his missing powers. Another "reverie" will be happening soon, they say, and it's Kane who has always unraveled them. This time, the group agrees to keep him away. Furious and needing to learn more, Kane seeks out the reverie and discovers a "crazy fantasy" involving "a subterranean civilization that worships a god called the Cymo."
In East Amity, where dreams actually do become real, readers feel the tangible danger as the fantasies spin out of control. Like so many others in Reverie, Kane wants to believe he can escape into the "intoxicating potential" of dreams. But, before the end of this thrilling narrative, Kane must either come to terms with fighting "for a reality that fails so many, so often" or, instead, fight to change it. --Lynn Becker, blogger and host of Book Talk, a monthly online discussion of children's books for SCBWI