The Others are able to enter these alternate worlds and only Kane can cast them away and free those trapped inside. La Sala was influenced by his love of anime, especially the 1985 film 'Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind' when creating his otherworldly landscapes. Reveries are born of anxieties and fears and manifest as alternate universes that bleed into this one - pulling unwilling townspeople into strange settings and storylines. Fantasy, though? That’ll kill you, thanks to a strange phenomenon the Others call “reveries.” Reality isn’t so great, but he’s managing. Recent brush with the law aside, Kane’s a quiet kid who befriends lunch ladies and prefers to hang with books. Kane wields prismatic flames, “alleged lesbian jock” and brawler Ursula flings protective shields, “Reigning Sociopath of Amity Regional High” Adeline alters memories, and “jawline-blessed Adonis” Elliot creates illusions. Slowly, he pieces memories together as he befriends three fellow high school students and learns that they all have magical powers. Turns out he’s forgotten whole chunks of his life before that, too. The book opens on Kane’s conundrum: He recently woke up from a coma and doesn’t remember why he crashed his dad’s car into a town landmark. Kane and the others don’t have time for handwringing when they’re too busy saving the town. There are no plot points fueled by what if everyone finds out I’m gay paranoia. We learn, “Maybe a more astute child would have tried harder to rein themselves in, but Kane was the last to know he was gay and therefore powerless to deny it once he was finally told.” The word powerless might be there, but there’s also a power to this post-coming out point of view - a welcomed result of books about queer characters actually being written by queer people. That is, those like Kane - whose coming out experience mirror’s La Sala’s - don’t really have the ability of being in because their childhood eccentricities effectively outed them. “For some queer people, coming out is something that’s done to them,” says La Sala, who wrote the novel while he lived in Roxbury, the South End, and Somerville before moving to New York City this past summer.

Long before readers discover protagonist Kane Montgomery shooting rainbow-hued fire from his hands at a scene-stealing drag queen villain, readers realize that the characters in 'Reverie' wield their queerness as power.

Mostly, though, the book is queer as hell.

Both the others in society and also the capitol-O Others, or what a group of four teenagers call themselves when they develop magical powers and battle chaotic forces in their small Connecticut town. 3 from Sourcebooks Fire - is the story of others. 'Reverie' - the debut young adult novel by Ryan La Sala, out on Dec. Facebook Email This article is more than 3 years old.

Reverie ryan la sala