Lucid

Sloane Margaret “Maggie” Jameson is a glamorous up-and-coming actress in New York City. Sloane Margaret Jameson is also a straight-A student living in small town Connecticut. At night, the two girls, Maggie and Sloane, dream of each other’s lives. For each of them, their life is reality and the dreams are just that—dreams. But is that it? Two girls share their lives in dreams without anything else going on? Are they crazy? Are they both real? What, exactly, is going on?

Those are just a few questions you’ll find yourself asking while reading Lucid. Critically acclaimed screenwriter Ron Bass and his partner Adrienne Stoltz deliver a thought-provoking contemporary novel that explores the power of dreams and of the human mind. I guarantee you’ve never seen contemporary young adult fiction done quite like this.

Though their lives could not have been more different, I found that Maggie and Sloane’s narrative voices were identical. As chapters progressed, I often could not tell the difference between them. Their thoughts, reactions, and moods were the same. Whether they live in alternate realities, or are just some sort of hallucinations, it’s obvious that the two girls share a deep connection, beyond the obvious shared-dreams.

I will say that Lucid takes a while to build up to the crazy psychological thriller aspects. For most of the book, Bass and Stoltz write about two girls going about their lives, dealing with inevitable love triangles. (Both Maggie and Sloane are total boy magnets, obviously.) And though my brand of contemporary isn’t usually so romance-centric, I didn’t actually mind their stories separately. Toward the last 70 pages, however, Maggie and Sloane’s lives started to intersect, and that’s when craziness went down.

I’m going to be honest and say that the conclusion shocked me. I’m not often surprised while reading, but Lucid was not at all what I expected. In fact, I’d been all set up for the authors to take the story in one direction, and when they wrenched that ending right out from under me, I felt a tad bit miffed. My surprise was absolute.

Lucid is different. It’s a lot more different than even I was expecting, which probably says something. Though it may have got off to a rocky start, the intense thrills in the last few chapters mostly made up for it. I was surprised, as I said, but there may have been something lacking, on a whole. Either way, however, this is a seriously unique novel that’s totally worth reading.

First Thoughts:
I was super excited to read this book. The blurb grabbed my attention right away. I had also read some really great reviews, so I had high hopes and expectations coming into it. Let's just say that I was not disappointed!

Final Thoughts:
The plot was ingenious! I loved the concept of the sort of alternate lives that the main characters Maggie and Sloane lived. Each girl was conscious of the other, even though they didn't know whether each other was simply a figment of their imagination or something more. They knew that when one fell asleep, they dreamed the life of the other and vice versa. As a reader, you take the ride along with the girls, as they try to live their own lives, while also worrying about this "other" part of themselves and what it might mean. It is NOT one of those situations where, as the reader, you will know what is really going on while the characters are left in the dark. I could not figure out for the life of me why or how this was happening to the girls. Or even if one girl was dreaming the other. For the entire book, you will be constantly trying to figure out what the heck is going on, and I mean that in the best possible way. It is one of the things I loved most about Lucid. Most of the time, I can figure out the mystery long before it is revealed by the author. Ooh no. Not this time.

The characters were beautifully written. You really get to feel as though you know both Maggie and Sloane personally and they were both amazing! Sometimes I wanted to reach into the book to smack some sense into them, but in a good way if that makes sense. They makes mistakes that all teenage girls make when it comes to life and love. I came to care for both characters so much that it was incredibly wonderful to see them going through the process of finding themselves.

Lucid is an amazing mix of beautifully developed characters and a truly clever plot. You will get two completely different girls, with different lives, while at the same time, everything is connected in an eerie way. I absolutely loved this book and I recommend it to EVERYONE! No matter your preference, you will find something to love about Lucid. At the end of the book, I literally sat there for about five minutes just staring at like final sentence. I was captivated! You will not understand what I mean until you read it, and to say anything more would be a spoiler. I was still thinking about this book for days after I finished reading it. It was that good. It was romantic, thrilling, happy and sad. A truly breathtaking novel!