Lucid [Hardcover]

Adrienne Stoltz (Author), Ron Bass (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 2, 2012

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.

This is a dazzling debut that will steal readers' hearts.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-Sloane is a motivated student living in Mystic, Connecticut, with her mom, dad, and two brothers, and she has several close friends. She hopes to attend Columbia after graduation. Maggie is a loner and a free spirit who is working on her GED while pursuing an acting career in New York City. Her mother works long hours, and the teen is left to take care of her seven-year-old sister. These two girls have one thing in common, though: when they fall asleep, each dreams about the other's life. The dreams are so vivid that each one feels as if she is the other person. As their lives become complicated by first loves, worried parents, and unexpected friendships, Sloane's and Maggie's realities begin to blur. Are they both real? Is one of them mentally ill and imagining the other? Are they the same person? The tense story builds to a riveting climax, pulling readers in multiple directions along the way and forcing them to guess what is real and what is a dream. The plot is told from the girls' alternating points of view; both of them are well-drawn and dynamic protagonists. Even the secondary characters are fully developed. This first novel from a screenplay-writing duo is wildly unique and completely engrossing from the first page to the last. The ending begs to be reread, and teens are left anxiously wondering about the girls and their fates. This one will fly off the shelves.-Tammy Turner, Centennial High School, Frisco, TXα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About the Author

Ron Bass is the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Rain Man, My Best Friend's Wedding, and The Joy Luck Club, among many others. He has collaborated on screenplays with Adrienne Stoltz for the past ten years. This is their first novel.

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Razorbill; 1 edition (October 2, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595145192
• ISBN-13: 978-1595145192
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #767,058 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting premise, but ultimately fails to deliver October 25, 2012

By The Book Muncher VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Aside from sharing the same full name, Sloane and Maggie couldn't be more different. Sloane is the good girl, a dedicated student and loving daughter; for the most part, she's content with the life she has, though sometimes she wishes it were a little more exciting. Maggie, on the other hand, is living the high life as an up-and-coming actress in New York City, though she rarely admits that it sometimes gets lonely amidst all the glitz and glamour. But even though these girls' lives seem to be the complete opposite, they're actually not--because every night, each dreams that she's the other. At first, it's a delicious little secret, a sweet escape from their own lives once they close their eyes, but soon, things start to get messy. As people from their dream worlds start to bleed into their waking states, neither Sloane nor Maggie is sure anymore what's real and what's imaginary.

For me, Lucid was a book that held so much promise. I was captivated by the idea of two different people who dreamed each other's lives, only to find out that only one of them might be real. And for a while, I was quite enchanted by this; I enjoyed watching how Sloane would react to what went on in Maggie's life and vice versa. After a while, though, I started to get bored because unfortunately, I just couldn't quite connect with either Maggie or Sloane and the pacing was lagging too much to maintain my interest, though I briefly became more interested in the plot again as it began to pick up, once the dream and waking worlds started to blend together. Ultimately, though, I was rather dissatisfied. The ending was too ambiguous and open ended that it felt like none of the questions of identity that were posed in this story were answered. Unfortunately, while I loved the concept for this book, in the end, I felt that it failed to fully deliver.

Lucid will still be enjoyed by fans of Dream Girl by Lauren Mechling, And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman, and Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Love! December 26, 2012

By Jay Mittener

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I absolutely loved this book. It is an honest and thoughtful tale that kept me engaged for the entire read. The character development is superb and the story is great. I believe this is labeled as a teen read but i think it is a teen-adult book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Review from So Many Books, So Little Time November 19, 2012

By A. Mason

Format:Hardcover

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Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Book Review- Lucid
I just finished reading Lucid by Adrienne Stoltz and Ron Bass for an Around the World ARC Tour.

From Goodreads:

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.

This is a dazzling debut that will steal readers' hearts.

Wow. After sititng here reading the ending, my mind is circling round and round trying to figure out just what happened. I mean, I'm pretty sure I got who the real person was at the end, but getting there was just weird.

I liked both girls. I liked reading about Maggie's glamourous-ish life but also felt so sorry for her. Her mother who acted more like a sister instead of a parent. Her father who died too soon. And the responsibility of taking care of a younger sister who she was crazy about. And I liked Sloane. I liked who she was as a person and wanted her to be happy. She seemed so normal, with the loving family yet slight teenage angst towards her mom.

I knew that it would turn out that one girl was the real one, but there was also this part of me that was just waiting for the book to turn into some sci/fi story. Luckily, it did not. But the ending completely threw me for a loop. The last couple of chapters were just so random and both girls' thoughts were thrown together so it was hard to get who was thinking and saying what. And I didn't particularly enjoy that. In fact, I really enjoyed the book up until that point. And then it just lost my interest. It was too much. I bet a lot of readers will love this ending but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Oh well.