Lucid Review

TITLE Lucid
AUTHOR Adrienne Stoltz & Ron Bass
PUBLICATION October 2nd 2012 by Razorbill
READ November 11, 2012
SOURCE Gift from Giselle (Xpresso Reads)

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.

There is so much I want to say about Lucid. I loved every single word of this novel, I loved the characters and I loved the shift that the novel took at the tail end that brought buckets of tears to my eyes. That last point is one that I can't elaborate on, and I really wish I could but I don't want to ruin the story for you.

I guess what is safe to talk about is the fantastic characters that make up this story. In Sloane's world she is surrounded by a loving family and the most amazing friends a person could hope for. The family dynamic was developed perfectly; the conflict she has with her mother, the loving distant relationship with her father and the sibling inside jokes with her and her brothers was easy to relate to. What was the real gem in her story was her relationship with her best friend Gordey. I liked him so much, he was sweet and compassionate and all of that was wrapped up in an athlete, so how perfect is that right? The love that we experience as Sloane's tale unfolds is matched with the detached feel that is ever present in Maggie's story. Her father passed away years ago and her mother has lost herself in her work and is hardly ever around. This has made Maggie step in as a figurehead mother to her little sister Jade. The parts with Jade and Maggie were great, that little girl had such an attitude and an awesome sense of humour, while it was sad to see how she has aged well beyond her 7 years it was also super cute.

Both girls long for more than just their family relationships and throughout the story they both find it. Maggie finds Andrew and Sloane finds James, and the progression of these relationships was beautiful. There is definitely no insta-love here, these relationships grow over time and through troubling situations flourish. I absorbed every single word along the way and while there was never really a set plot to the story I was so immersed in it that I didn't give a damn. I loved these girls lives and I wanted to live every single moment with them.

And folks, that's about the extent of what I can talk about when it comes to Lucid. This novel reads like the one of the best contemporaries for the first 3/4's and in the finale shifts into a complete and utter mind fu*k. I don't want to ruin anything about it so I'm going to stop here but I want everyone to give this novel a shot because you will most definitely be blown away. This is definitely one that I will be going out to buy in hardcover to replace that ARC that I read because it is just that darn good!