The Cure for Dreaming

I very much enjoyed this book. It was a nice dose of magical realism/touch of fantasy mixed in with young adult historical fiction about women's rights in Portland, Oregon. I related to the main character and had fun following her journey from beleaguered daughter to strong adult. The romance was pretty sweet between the hero and heroine, but her run ins with other suitors had me anxious because my adult mind knew how bad it could (and does still) get for women caught in situations they don't want to be in, but have no power to control. The hypnosis spin on the entire women's rights movement was so clever! I loved how removing the voices of society ladies at the end was a visceral education in what their husbands and beaus were doing to them. Loved it.

I think my favorite part of the story, however, is that the heroine and hero go their separate ways at the end. They have responsibilities to themselves and their families, and they hope to run into each other again, but it's not the end of the world that they are not together. It is what it is. I loved that.

Every once in a while in the narrative, it seemed the author clung to colors as a way to describe things... In a paragraph I read about gunmetal gray clouds and the color of a bicycle seat (red, I think), and something that was blue... it was a lot. That would be my one complaint, that sometimes in trying to describe, we lost the point because we were swimming in a bunch of colors.

Great book, though! Would totally read again.