Wednesday, September 8, 2021

Review: Lucid Book 1: REM World Trilogy by L.R. Evans

When I read the author's logline for this book on Twitter, 'An angsty gay funeral director must stop a bubbly male escort from joining an immortal tyrant', I expected something completely different than what I got. I am thoroughly NOT disappointed, and what I read matches well with the tagline on the cover of the book, 'Dreams are real and they can kill you'. With the logline, I had expected a more humorous tale than the story that delivered more in line with the tagline. I tried my best to not go into this book with too many expectations when the author approached me for a review. My only hesitation at the time is one that might cause hesitation for others: it's a big book.

And, of course, if you follow me on Twitter, you already know that I am a very busy person.

Lucid gives you an intriguing and often action-packed first half. It flows smoothly and strongly, slowly revealing the mysteries and intrigue of this new world we find ourselves in called REM World. It's a fascinating place and Evans does an incredible job of laying the groundwork of the world-building without overwhelming the reader with unnecessary details. It flows beautifully.

The character development is wonderful, bolstered by glimpses into our contemporary world which often adds to the intrigue of the story that is being delivered to us in REM World. It's a beautiful jigsaw puzzle that, in certain instances, gives us wonderful insight in retrospect.

One thing about this story that gave me a small issue is that about the midpoint of the story, I found myself expecting that we were wrapping up already for the next book. It felt like a setup for what should have been book two. However, what came in the second half of the book would have been lacking if separated from the first half. So, I understand why this was one larger book instead of two slightly smaller books. To be honest, I wouldn't have minded the chance to spend MORE time in this world. It really is a good story.
 
In my opinion, the mid-point lull in action which serves the purpose of building up to the second half of Lucid dragged on a bit too long. It was a necessary setup, but a part of me wishes it could have been a bit shorter. I also wonder if Evans had treated the book a bit like two books combined as I have sometimes seen. Lucid Part 1 and Lucid Part 2 (subtitles optional) to make the transition in the story easier for readers to adjust to. Other than one or two clichéd phrases, this is probably one of my two biggest critiques.

In the second half of Lucid, the mysteries have become less about the world and more focused on the relationships between the characters. While the first part of the book was significantly more plot-driven—this is what I mean about a shift between the first and second halves of the book. It provided plenty of tense moments and the revelations provided really gave a new perspective to the first half. In this second half of the book, we are also given the chance to see more of the contemporary—well historical to us—waking world of our main character.

This second part really dragged me into love the our MC, Julian. It was also so incredibly heartbreaking and hard. Evans didn't shy away from dealing with some major LGBTQ+ issues and, not to give anything away, also presents an honest trans and poly positive narrative in this second bit. It made my heart sing. There is nothing I love more than to see representation.

As the story culminates toward the final battle, we still have a few surprises left to discover. I won't spoil the ending for you. I hate spoilers in reviews. I try to never do them, however, the end of the book did leave me with a few mixed feelings. Do not get me wrong, I really liked Lucid and I am excited to find out what happens in the next book, but I am also a bit worried. How it ended left me wondering about a few major plot issues--including a certain critical plot point that isn't generally something that bothers me, but that one is too big of a plot point to even mention here.

As per usual, I read the back-cover blurb after the fact and I will say that Evans summed a huge part of the second half in one sentence "A harrowing journey of self-destruction, addiction, grief, trauma, and healing." This is what made it a hard, but worthy read because everything was handled so well.

If you love honest LGBTQ stories that give you a new way of looking at things and if you aren't tied rigidly to the expected story structures and genre conventions, you will like this story. You might even love it because there is so much to love. This was such a close call to being a five-star review for me and I really wish I could so with integrity, however, the two major issues I had did bring it down to a four-star which means this is still a good novel and worthy of your time and attention.

I cannot wait to see what Evans does in the next book.