Review: Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz & Ron Bass

Lucid
Adrienne Stoltz & Ron Bass
Publication date: October 2nd 2012
by Razorbill

 

What if you could dream your way into a different life? What if you could choose to live that life forever?

Sloane and Maggie have never met. Sloane is a straight-A student with a big and loving family. Maggie lives a glamorously independent life as an up-and-coming actress in New York. The two girls couldn't be more different--except for one thing. They share a secret that they can't tell a soul. At night, they dream that they're each other.

The deeper they're pulled into the promise of their own lives, the more their worlds begin to blur dangerously together. Before long, Sloane and Maggie can no longer tell which life is real and which is just a dream. They realize that eventually they will have to choose one life to wake up to, or risk spiraling into insanity. But that means giving up one world, one love, and one self, forever.

*A copy was provided by Penguin Canada for review purposes*

Ok ok.. I think I loved it. But I'm not sure. This was just very .... You know the movie Inception? Yeah, kinda like that. I'm so lost, yet I love it... I think.

For one thing, Lucid is a book that makes you think. You have to piece every single moment together to begin to understand what just happened. And this is what you will see yourself doing after you turn the last page. Then you will want to immediately read it again in a new light, so you can grasp the puzzling nature of the plot.

I'm not sure how many of you watched Momento!? But that movie, you're watching it with no idea what the frick is going on. You end it with no better idea of who killed his wife - at all. So you watch it again, hoping that after seeing the ending you will see things clearer. Lucid if kind of like that. Although not nearly as complex (I mean I watched Momento 4 times and I'm still not convinced I know who the killer is), it makes you think, it makes you relive every single event that happened in the book so you can grasp exactly what was happening to Sloane and Maggie. Being so intricate, you have to be ready to work on your own verdict on its conclusion. It's not a clean-cut ending, you have to dissect it and interpret it. I guarantee it's one that you will need to discuss with others who have also read it. This may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I relish in books that make me second guess things, and leave me with a need to decipher every page. These are the type of books that I get to remember for a long time.

Before this perplexing--and quite emotional--ending, we get a journey into the lives of two very different girls with a big secret - when they go to sleep at night, they dream of each other's day. From the first page, you'll be found wondering what exactly is happening to these girls. Is one of them schizophrenic? Is there a paranormal side to the book? Are they both real? If not, which life is real, and which one is just a dream? A very fascinating concept for sure. It boggled my mind over and over, then the more I thought about it, the more freaked out I became. However, this "situation" is only one part of this very deep, and incredibly touching novel.

Beautiful and heartbreaking; after everything is said and done, this novel is really about love. Real love, love that is raw, and natural, and all encompassing. A love that belongs to you and no one else. Both of these girls are searching for The One, and I loved how they would not settle for anything but, nor for the wrong reasons. They love themselves first. Their self respect is admirable, and the same can be said for the responsibilities they take on. I truly enjoyed both protagonists immensely, all the while constantly wondering if anything I was reading was even real; was either of these wonderful girls just a dream? A vision? A past life? Infinite theories aside, I found myself surprised by how deeply moving this book had become. There's love and joy and family, but there's also grief and fear and panic and dread that are all running running rampant in this plot. Then when their lives begin to collide, the panic they felt, I felt too. I didn't know what was real at all anymore. The identity crisis and confusion is complete insanity and, my word, I savoured it, and loved every second where another piece of my mind got blown to bits. Poof.

An incredibly unique reading experience that will leave your mind to mush, and your heart to pieces. Fans of movies such as Black Swan, Momento, and Inception will absolutely find their next fix inside Lucid.

5 Hot Espressos