Kane Montgomery was the last person at his school to find out he was gay. As other students at school gradually became aware of it (before he did), the sleepover and party invitations stopped coming and friends dropped off the radar, considering it too risky to associate with someone who was “different.” Because of this, Kane has developed an aloof, don’t-care attitude that separates him from his school companions and turns him into something of a mystery. When he is found half-dead one night in a car submerged in a pond and discovers he has also set a building on fire, he is at a loss to explain it. Sent to Dr. Posey, a psychiatrist chosen to counsel with him before the local police rules on the investigation, Kane begins to notice peculiar things about Posey and also to have odd encounters with some students who seem to know him and who call themselves “The Others.”
The Others bring Kane back into their group, reteaching him what he has forgotten about their supernatural powers and about his former involvement in their mission of guiding people in a safe fashion through their “reveries” (“what happens when a person’s imagined world becomes real . . . like miniature realities, with their own plots and rules and perils”) so that the magical force of etherea (“the magic that makes real the unreal”) does not take hold and destroy actual reality by creating a totally new reality from their dreams. It is complicated and difficult work to relearn, and it is made even more challenging by Posey’s plan to discover and claim the loom (a crown-shaped instrument that has the “ability to weave new worlds from the imagination of mortals.”). Got that? I hope so, because much of the book revolves around the reveries of local folks that are fantastical in description and purpose, and you’re for sure going to need that understanding to make it through this book.
YA fantasy fans will like this one. Language issues are infrequent and standard fare (f***, shit, ass). Romance of all varieties is found in the book but there is no sex. There is violence described in the reveries. Gender fluidity is handled in a matter-of-fact fashion.
Categories: Bullying, Controversial YA Topics, Crime, Depression, Diversity, Dysfunctional Relationships, Fantasy, Grief, LGBTQIA, Mysteries, Navigating through High School, Offensive Language in YA Literature, Peer Relationships, Supernatural/Occult, Violence, Wizarding and Magic
Before You Buy YA 
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