The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters

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Publication date: 2014
Publisher: Amulet Books
Pages: 342
My rating: 4.5 stars
Ages: 13+

When Olivia's father decides she has become too rebellious, he hires mesmerist Henri Reverie to cure her of her "unfeminine" thoughts. After her hypnotism, she sees people for who they truly are: monsters, angels, ghosts. She is also unable to argue. Horrified, Olivia tries to convince Henri to put her back, but Henri needs the money Olivia's father promised him.

Set against the suffrage movement in Oregon, this book was an excellent look at the struggle of women not only to get the vote, but to be heard. There is a bit of fantasy, but it is interwoven in such a way that makes it seem typical of the period. To add to that, there are real photographs included at the beginning of several chapters of women or the places discussed.

When I picked this book up at the library, I thought it would be a kind of ghost story or mystery. Though that expectation was proven wrong, what I was given was so much better. I was so into the story of Olivia and Henri that I read it in one afternoon. It was interesting, informative, romantic, and gripping.

No language and no sex.

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