Early Review: The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters

Title: The Cure for Dreaming
Author: Cat Winters
Publisher: Amulet Books
Release Date: October 14, 2014
Source: ARC via ALA
Find it Here: Amazon, Goodreads

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. Winters breathes new life into history once again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout.

My thoughts: 

Going into The Cure for Dreaming, I was super excited and really looking forward to reading something somewhat spooky! Hearing about books like this really makes me excited that fall is coming in a couple months and makes me wish it was coming much sooner.  The Cure for Dreaming takes place in the overcast city of Portland which just makes me think that creepy things can happen there all the time.  

The main character Olivia lives in a time people when women were finally voicing their concerns and really wanting to be treated as equal with men.  When she hops on board with the Women's Suffrage movement, her father becomes so concerned that she is becoming too independent that he hires a hypnotist to help "cure" her dreams of going to college and other "nonsense". 

100 page Evaluation: Really interesting so far! Set in Portland so totally dreary but in a good way. Gives the book a really creepy feel. May have a paranormal aspect? They talk about Dracula a lot which makes me was to read it. Perfect fall read for around Halloween. Interested to see where this hypnotism thing goes.  I really like the creepy pictures.  

Overall thoughts: I was really hoping for something a little scarier, maybe something that was scary enough that I couldn't read it at night for fear that it would keep me up.  But it's nothing like that. The whole tone of the book is just creepy. It ends on a fairly good note and, I don't want to spoil anything, but she definitely doesn't turn out to be the typical girl in the end.  It was a little disappointing only because I thought it was going to be absolutely amazing and the cover just makes it seem like it's going to be different than it really is.  I'm definitely glad I read it because it was one of my most anticipated reads of this fall!