The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters. New York: Amulet Books, 2014. 978-1-4197-1216-6

Summary

Olivia has very strong opinions, and her Father is not a fan of them. In fact, he dislikes how opinionated Olivia is so much that he hires a hypnotist, Henri, to make Olivia change. However, Henri very cleverly words his instructions telling Olivia to “see the world how it truly is” and the unexpected happens. Olivia starts seeing the people around her — friends, family, strangers on the street, how they truly are — and most often than not they appear to Olivia as monsters.
However, her father realizes what has happened and orders Henri to do it properly. So now Olivia has to work with Henri to make her father happy while making others see how horrible it is to have a voice and not be heard.

Impressions

I absolutely love how Cat Winters took a historical fiction topic and makes it read not as a historical fiction, but as a light horror book. I think this is key with historical fiction books because many times you say “historical fiction” to a teen and they run in the other direction. You really feel the frustration Olivia feels with her father, the predicament he and Henri force her into, and her desire to fight back. I found the types of monsters that she saw many of the others in her society as really interesting, and those who weren’t monsters at all- like the gentleman she passed on the street who she saw as wearing a dress. There are a lot of jumping off points in The Cure for Dreaming for awesome discussions.

Further Information

The Cure For Dreaming is an excellent book for Young Adult Book Groups. It would also fit perfectly on a historical fiction display, a horror display (I currently have it on our Halloween display), or a strong female character display.

If you like The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters you might also enjoy Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers, In the Shadows of Blackbirds by Cat Winters, and The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud.

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