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They Meet In Dreams
H.B. Wasiak
They Meet In Dreams has a fascinating premise — a teenage romance existing only in dreams. I feel that dreams show a deeper part of the self; our truest emotions, desires, thoughts, and fears. I love that the author took this idea and rolled with it, creating a unique dreamscape as a meeting place for two very tangible characters.
When Max has an unusual dream featuring a boy named Andy, he writes it off as just a weird dream. But the dream recurs, and soon he realizes Andy is more than a figure in his dreams — he’s real, Max can’t stop thinking about him, and worst of all, he’s hiding something.
The setting and characters in Max’s real life are 90s nostalgia without diving too hard into caricatures or tropes. His family and relationships are complicated, his teenage emotions accurately unhinged.
I also really enjoyed the humor scattered throughout. It’s full of little one liners that will make you smirk.
Some of the scenes felt jarring, pieced together in an unusual way, but I think this was intentional and it certainly added to the dreamlike feel of Max and Andy’s dream chats.
This book unfolds slowly, dreamlike, and is almost exclusively character driven. I enjoyed reliving a millennial high school experience and discovering more about the characters and their motivations and lives.
The ending is where my hesitancy begins.
VAGUE SPOILER.
I did not expect this teenage relationship/gay awakening to work out, of course. I expected a bittersweet ending – Andy and Max going their separate ways, ultimately discovering pieces of themselves together and splitting, always having the memory of their shared dreams. This ending jumped more into the Bury Your Gays trope, and I’m not totally sure how I feel about it. I think perhaps the author’s aim was to emphasize that a romantic relationship can’t save you, to emphasize the brutality of teenage bullying and parental abuse and neglect, and to paint a poignant picture of another teenage relationship that ends in heartbreak and memories, a la The Fault in Our Stars.
END SPOILER.
Ultimately I enjoyed this book and the author gave me a lot to think about. I recommend it for a solid YA read, if you don’t mind a lack of happily ever after.
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Thank you H.B. Wasiak for the ebook ✨
They Meet In Dreams can be purchased here.
The Midnight Review 