In Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass, the reader is treated to a tale of two protagonists, each of whom believes she is dreaming the life of the other. Maggie is a glamorous up-and-coming teen actress in New York with a totally glamorous life, and Sloane is the girl-next-door from a small town. When one of them goes to sleep, she dreams the life of the other, and soon the lives are intertwining in unexpected and sometimes frightening ways. Each of them fears that she may not be "real" and that her dream persona may be the real girl while she herself is only the dream. So this is a story that plays with our minds along with those of the two narrators. The fact that each girl recounts her story in the first person adds to the sense of immediacy and the sense of fear of not being real.
Of course in a book like this the readers are left to wonder, ponder, and generally stress out about the ending, long before we ever get to the ending. If, after all, it's true that only one of the girls is "real", then have we wasted our time with the story of the other girl, and what is the point of it all? While reviewers varied on the extent to which they appreciated the final resolution, I found myself relatively happy with it. I was all set up for a major disappointment - for something creepy or eerie or generally paranormal going on. And I enjoyed the way everything was deftly tied together by the authors, and explained without falling back on some tired deus-ex-machina approach. So I would recommend giving this book a read and not stressing out about the ending as you go. There's some light romance and a little action, but nothing that would make it unsuitable for a younger audience. It is, above all, a story about identity, growing up and coping with family, love and loss.
Of course in a book like this the readers are left to wonder, ponder, and generally stress out about the ending, long before we ever get to the ending. If, after all, it's true that only one of the girls is "real", then have we wasted our time with the story of the other girl, and what is the point of it all? While reviewers varied on the extent to which they appreciated the final resolution, I found myself relatively happy with it. I was all set up for a major disappointment - for something creepy or eerie or generally paranormal going on. And I enjoyed the way everything was deftly tied together by the authors, and explained without falling back on some tired deus-ex-machina approach. So I would recommend giving this book a read and not stressing out about the ending as you go. There's some light romance and a little action, but nothing that would make it unsuitable for a younger audience. It is, above all, a story about identity, growing up and coping with family, love and loss.
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