LUCID by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass

LUCID

by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass

published 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.

This is a dazzling debut that will steal readers' hearts.

                        

5 owls

Lucid took me by complete surprise.

Maggie and Sloane live completely different lives, but they're interestingly connected: at night, when one of them goes to bed, they dream of the other. The novel is told through two different perspectives, and at the beginning, they're just about how the lives are different and how the wonder of their connection, but as the novel progresses, their perspectives blur and things take a turn for the terrifying.

While Lucid in general took me by complete surprise, what also shocked me was the complete difference between the beginning and the end of the book. At first, the book plays out like a Gossip Girl-style case study bundle, and by the end, it is a twisted psychological thrill ride. The journey is only half the fun; trying to figure out the vague, emotional ending will leave you breathless.