Dream with me.

Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I wish this book had come with a warning about how much it was going to hurt my sleep: the late hours spent awake to the age-old mantra of "just to the end of this chapter", followed by dreams sculpted out of the novel's eerie, melancholy world.

The story takes place in 1920s New York City, where Evie O'Neill has shot to fame as America's "Sweetheart Seer" thanks to her charisma and her abilities to see the past through objects. But even though Evie seems like the star of the show, she's not. She's just one of many "Diviners": people born with supernatural abilities, from healing to destruction to control of dreams. The characters who possess these powers are diverse, and it's refreshing to see a fantasy novel that doesn't focus solely on heterosexual, able-bodied, white characters.

I came to care a lot about each person in this story because each of them has unique vulnerabilities and challenges, and I loved watching the friendships develop among them. The romances were remarkably touching. It's one of the rare cases where I didn't mind reading many different points of view, because everyone has an interesting story and a distinctive voice. Additionally, there's a huge set of minor characters that we get to know briefly but deeply. A recurring theme is what "The American Dream" means to different people - like any dream, it can be beautiful and inspiring, but also ephemeral and sometimes a nightmare in disguise.

And what does Libba Bray do with this fascinating ensemble of humans? She marches them steadily into the gates of hell, of course. New Yorkers start falling asleep and having marvelous dreams - dreams that are too good to wake up from, ever. Their minds soar while their bodies fall apart. I love this idea because it plays off a very natural tendency, at least for me: escapism. When things get too difficult, I just want to go to sleep, and having nice dreams is a plus. Here, we follow that desire to its deep, dark conclusion.

As this "sleeping sickness" spreads, vicious wraiths materialize through the city, the Diviners struggle to solve mysteries about the people closest to them, and quiet men in a brown sedan watch and wait. There's an uneasy but lush atmosphere that feels real and pulls you in, with a world of decaying horrors flickering in and out of visibility under a glittering, blossoming surface. It's all the more frightening because you want to get a better look at what's just out of sight, but you're terrified of what you might find.

Every city is a ghost.

New buildings rise upon the bones of the old so that each shiny steel beam, each tower of brick carries within it the memories of what has gone before, an architectural haunting.

The story unfolds on the border between mystery and supernatural, and does a nice job of creating a fantasy world that's original and surprising, with enough logic for the mystery to make sense. It's reminiscent of Bray's previous fantasy series, the Gemma Doyle Trilogy, which I loved as a teenager (and there's an awesome little easter egg in this book for anyone who is). The reason I'm giving this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that it ends with just a few too many loose ends to be truly satisfying. I definitely enjoyed the suspense of the build-up and realize that some questions need to remain open for the next book(s) in the series. However, at 600+ pages long, it's strange to find that you're nearing the end of the book and feeling disappointed at the realization that there's not enough room for the payoff that you thought was coming.

On the other hand, it's good to know that there's more of this story to come. I haven't really looked forward to new installments of a fantasy series since the days of Harry Potter, so it's nice to have that feeling of anticipation again.

(Huge thanks to Little, Brown for the advance copy.)

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