Title: Lucid
Author: Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass
Release date: October 2, 2012
Publisher: Razorbill
Pages: 342
Source: ALA
Reading level: YA

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.

Lucid is one of the most fascinating books I’ve read. Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass’ debut novel is hopefully only the first of many books from this awesome writing team.

Maggie and Sloane are two completely opposite girls but they have one thing in common; they dream that they are each other. Maggie is an aspiring actress who lives in New York City. She’s bold, outgoing, and very much a loner. Sloane is a normal high school girl in a cute suburban town. She’s a bit shy but she’s got a good set of friends and everyone in her school likes her. However, she’s heartbroken over the death of one of her best friends and she isn’t having an easy time moving on. It’s even harder since she has a secret about him that no one else knew. The only one who knows her secret is Maggie and Sloane knows all of Maggie’s secrets. The only problem is that dream and reality is starting to blur. Sloane and Maggie’s lives are blending together and neither one knows what is real and what is dream. Will they be able to figure it out before one or both of them lost their minds?

Maggie and Sloane are both fabulous characters. They are definitely complete opposites but they are both so easy to like. Maggie is the girl that everyone wants to be. She’s bold, fierce, brave, and beautiful. She doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything and she goes after what she wants. Sloane is the girl that everyone wants to be friends with. She’s funny, nice, smart, and a little shy. They are both supremely well-rounded characters and they are both girls that readers will want to see get a happy ending.

The story is completely unique and fascinating. It’s a mix of contemporary and paranormal although the paranormal element isn’t typical paranormal. The idea of lucid dreaming is a very common idea and Lucid is one of the most realistic paranormal books out there. While the paranormal aspect isn’t a prominent aspect it does help speed up the pacing of the book. It’s nearly impossible to put Lucid down once you start it. It’s an all-consuming story that will definitely stick with you long after you’ve finished it.

The only reason Lucid didn’t get five stars from me is because the ending was very confusing. I won’t go into details obviously but I honestly don’t know what exactly happened for the last 100 pages or so. Lucid is what I would classify as a psychological thriller and it definitely makes you think. There was just a little too much that I couldn’t figure out. After thinking about the end, I do feel like I might know what happened but there is no concrete answer. I honestly don’t know if I would have liked the book more with a certain ending or if maybe this was the perfect way to do it.

Overall, Lucid is definitely one debut of 2012 that I highly recommend. Some people may not enjoy it because of the rather confusing ending but if you think you can get past that you should definitely give it a shot.

Looking for more reviews of Lucid?
Birth of a New Witch’s review
Once Upon A Prologue’s review