The Cure for Dreaming

by Tom Leveen

Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl -- a suffragette -- in an age that prefers its girls to be docile. It's 1900 in Oregon and Olivia's father, concerned that she's headed for trouble, convinces a stage hypnotist to try to hypnotise the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a terrible gift instead: She's able to see people's true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness, while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more determined to speak her mind somehow -- and so she's drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women and the women's suffrage movement. Like in In the Shadow of Blackbirds, Winters takes a historical time period and a popular fad (in this case, stage hypnosis) and breathes new life into it with an atmospheric, vividly conceived story.

• ISBN13: 9781419712166
• Publish Date: 14 October 2014 (first published 1 October 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 8 February 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Abrams
• Imprint: Amulet Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 368
• Language: English
• URL: http://abramsandchronicle.co.uk/books/young-adult/9781419712166-cure-for-dreaming-the

Reviews

[shannonmiz]

Right up front I am going to tell you the only problem I had with this book: It ended. And it doesn't have a sequel. That's it.

Oh, where do I begin? How will this not just be flailing? And feels. Flails and Feels: The Cure For Dreaming story. 

We can stop there really. I will shoo you away to go read this book. Bye!

No? Okay, well let's see. First, Olivia is the best. I love Olivia. She isn't going to take nonsense from anyone. Not her father, and certainly not some hypnotist. She is the perfect protagonist for this book, because she was believable as a suffragist. Sadly, in this time period, plenty of women not only didn't want the right to vote, they actually were against women voting in general. It behooves me as a woman in modern society, of course. I suppose I can understand women who didn't fight for their rights, who for whatever reason chose not to speak out. But women speaking out against other women just absolutely blows my mind. I know it happened, historically there is no disproving it, but it does render me speechless. And mad, for the suffragists who put themselves out there for the good of women everywhere. My tangent is over, but the point is that Olivia was the kind of character who quite simply did not care what anyone else thought of her. She believed in what she believed in, and she was going to be herself no matter the cost. Of course, her father was bound and determined to stop her from being anything but a baby-making housewife.

Enter Henri. Olivia first meets him at a magic show, during which she is selected as an audience assistant, and finds the image of her hypnotized self all over the city's newspaper. Obviously, dear old dad thinks this is the perfect way to quell young Olivia's desire to you know, live her own life, so he hires Henri to hypnotize her into submission. Dear old dad gets more than he bargains for when Henri gives Olivia much more than a distaste for rebellion. She is forced to say "All is well" instead of any true, angry feelings, but Henri also gives her the ability to see the world as it truly is, which can be a blessing or a curse.

As for Henri himself... well, he was amazing. And the ever changing relationship and trust between Olivia and Henri absolutely had me captivated. It was one thing I wished for more of, but understood why the focus simply would not be the relationship. There are some great side characters too, all of whom are quite believable and add to the story. There are some women who while more subtle than Olivia, are strong and brave in their own rights, like Frannie and Gerda and Genevieve. There are, of course, characters who are more like Olivia's father, caring little about women outside their roles as wives or mothers.

The hypnotism aspect itself is pretty great too, though I don't particularly believe that hypnotism works, it worked in this book. There wasn't a real explanation for how Henri does his work, but again, I don't really think there is an explanation. It's just one of those things that "is". Add in some Dracula love, and this book just has a little bit of everything.  I absolutely recommend this book, and it has earned a spot on my Favorites shelf. Gorgeous writing, amazing characters, and a time period setting that will make you appreciate the women that fought for you, The Cure For Dreaming is a thought provoking and thoroughly enjoyable book.
This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight

[celinenyx]

Action-packed and brutal, Sick is the archetype of young-adult zombie fiction with an intelligent background.

What would you do when one of your schoolmates all of a sudden starts nomming your drama teacher? The world has turned upside down for Brian and his friends, when an infection gets on the loose inside their fenced-in school. It turns innocent drama geeks into hunched-over monsters with no concern for their own safety, and Brian is stuck in the middle, his sister and girlfriend on campus somewhere.

When you've read one zombie book set in a high-school, you kind of know the drill. The kids can't rely on teachers (since they are usually the first to go down) and hole up somewhere, and eventually try to fight their way out, maybe trying to save some loved ones in the mean time. When the book is also suspenseful, you've got your standard zombie book. It takes originality and heart to make the book good, and Sick delivered that.

Apart from the zombies in Mira Grant's Newsflesh series, I haven't come across a believable explanation for zombie-ism. Sick provides an interesting new angle - instead of zombies being the walking dead, they're humans in so much pain that they don't act as humans any more. Once the human is dead, the zombie won't get up. The monsters are still human, and I loved how Brian still sees them as human. It brought along a whole set of emotions for him; are you allowed to kill another human being to save your own life? This is usually glossed over in zombie fiction, where they see zombies as essentially dead humans, with no chance of rescuing them.

Brian is of course part of the leaders of a small survivors pack. The power dynamics were quite realistic, but weren't much of interest to me. Neither was the discussion whether or not the army was coming. Everything from the extremely locked up school to that kind of political struggles are so thoroughly American and therefore alien to me that it kind of goes past me. My school had a gate that went to about your navel. It didn't have any security except for the school's assistants that also figured as concierge. There was no sneaking out, you just walked away if you wanted to skip class; the gates only closed at night. My personal experiences are so opposed from Brian's that the first few chapters didn't hook me.

When disaster strikes though, I got engaged in the story of Brian looking for his sister and girlfriend. The book is the perfect length - long enough to get some feels in there, but short enough so the action isn't drawn out. Fans of zombie fiction will eat Sick up.