10 new YA novels to make your holidays bright this December

Reverie – Ryan La Sala

Reverie the imaginative debut novel from Ryan La Sala mixes the ideas and tone behind fantasy and sci-fi stories like Inception and The Magicians to create something entirely new. Something happened to Kane Montgomery in his old hometown. Or he did something terrible. He’s not sure. He doesn’t remember. But now he has to prove he’s stable enough to go back to school, which is sort of difficult when he’s having what appear to be visions of monsters and possibly imaginary encounters with a glamorous, magical queer person named Dr. Poesy. And when he and his colorful group of friends – Ursula, Elliot, Adeline and Dean – are pulled into a series of immersive fantasy worlds in the minds of the town’s residents, fantasy and reality blur in dangerous ways.

Westworld fans familiar with that series’ concept of “reveries” will likely be instantly suspicious of much of this premise, but the elusive nature of the story and, honestly, of Kane himself will keep you guessing throughout. He’s the definition of an unreliable narrator, but it’s because he knows there are things he doesn’t know, not because he’s specifically trying to warp the story he’s telling.

The official synopsis describes the story thusly.

"All Kane Montgomery knows for certain is that the police found him half-dead in the river. He can’t remember how he got there, what happened after, and why his life seems so different now. And it’s not just Kane who’s different, the world feels off, reality itself seems different. As Kane pieces together clues, three almost-strangers claim to be his friends and the only people who can truly tell him what’s going on. But as he and the others are dragged into unimaginable worlds that materialize out of nowhere—the gym warps into a subterranean temple, a historical home nearby blooms into a Victorian romance rife with scandal and sorcery—Kane realizes that nothing in his life is an accident. And when a sinister force threatens to alter reality for good, they will have to do everything they can to stop it before it unravels everything they know."

Reverie is available now.