Title: The Cure For Dreaming
Author: Cat Winters
Publication Date: October 2014
Version: Audiobook
Genre: YA, Magical Realism, Historical Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl—a suffragist—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 mesmerist to try to hypnotize 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, 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.
This is my first Cat Winters book and I officially want to read every single one of her novels. Seriously, I just added all of her work on my every growing TBR because this book was INCREDIBLE.
First, I loved the character of Olivia Mead. She is brave, loving, and fiercely intelligent. Oh, also, she’s a badass suffragist in a time where it was very much frowned upon to be a suffragist. Winters has a gift of creating characters that behave in a way that makes sense for the time period she’s writing about while still focusing on the surrounding issues, in this case, the right to vote for women.
I am also always so happy when romance, girl hate, and love triangles aren’t the sole focus of YA novels with everything else simply acting as a catalyst for these tropes, and this book does a perfect job of keeping the main storyline the focus with romance taking the back seat.
The only reason this is more like 4.5 stars and not 5 is because it was the tiniest bit repetitive in parts, but I absolutely adored everything else about this book. I listened to it on audiobook since my library audio app had it (and it was a totally random but incredible pick!), but apparently the physical book has photos from the 1900s which is awesome.
So, if you like gorgeously written, atmospheric books with historical fiction, magical realism, and a whole lot of awesome women fighting for social justice, this needs to be your next book!
Advertisements Share this:
