Three teenagers enter the Labyrinth of Greek myth and fight nightmarish supernatural creatures in the high-adrenaline, blood-stained YA dark fantasy The Labyrinth of Waking Dreams by Michelle Kulwicki (At the End of the River Styx).
The Labyrinth is "a plane of darkness," filled with "horrors," separated from the world by an invisible magical barrier. A secret society of blood magicians, all "children of gods," protect the Earth by keeping the barrier closed. However, the barrier is breaking down and wears especially thin over Barren's Peak, a small West Virginia town. Eighteen-year-old, blonde Thea is a lifelong Barren's Peak resident who dropped out of high school to care for her disabled father. Her only escapes are parties and Callum, the mysterious new boy in town with "dark olive skin and weirdly grey eyes." Thea doesn't know Callum is a magician, ordered to spy on her by the magicians' Council. When tan, chestnut-haired Oliver, Callum's first love and an exiled magician, arrives, flesh-eating fairies attack Thea and Callum. The only way Oliver can think to escape is into the Labyrinth--but once there, the minotaur "is only the beginning." Thea, Callum, and Oliver must fight their way out again "through monsters and trials [they] can't even begin to consider."
Kulwicki's plot races at a breakneck speed, forcing the teens on a bloody race through a world of fearsome monsters and shadowy magicians in this first title in a series. Thea, Callum, and Oliver have distinctly different POVs, personal arcs, and complex relationships that Kulwicki skillfully uses as motivations and corruptions throughout their perilous quest. --Alanna Felton, freelance reviewer