Alright, this review is going to get a bit political for the first part, so if you don’t like me saying that America isn’t the very best country out there, I’d suggest you take your leave.

This book resonated with me a lot more now that I’ve gotten a broader view of America and racism as a whole. I feel like some scenes in this book hit a lot harder than they once would have when I was blinded to the problems of the world and the only thing that caught my eyes in this book was that Louis had been dead the entire time.

But the more I think about this series, and think about events that happen in later books, the more I think about how a book based in the ‘Return to Normalcy’ era of America is really reflecting our world today.

Let’s start with the Sleeping Sickness. The Sleeping Sickness is--wouldn’t you have guessed--a sickness that’s running a rampage all over New York. This sickness is very simple. You go to sleep, you don’t wake up. Now, for the nineteen twenties, this isn’t very surprising. The flu could kill you. Two characters in this story have suffered from infantile paralysis, which I’m pretty sure is mostly abolished by now.

What also isn’t very surprising is that instantly everybody (other than the decent main characters) point to the immigrants, specifically the Chinese immigrants.

Sound familiar?

Oh. it doesn’t yet? Flash back to a time when our former president that has a pretty large cult that will repeat anything he says like a dumbfounded parrot called this thing the ‘Chinese Virus’ and Chinese citizens instantly got hell from people who are too much of cowards to give up their comfortable, privileged life for two seconds, even if it would save the world. I don’t give a **** if you didn’t mean to pin an already vulnerable group of people in the U.S for the virus, you still did and did he ever apologize? No.

Another thing in this series is that a lot of the problems are perpetuated because America can’t shove their ignorance up their ass to save their own selves because the government says it’s alright, therefore it’s alright. And Jake Marlowe says so, it doesn’t matter if he’s shady and practically killing his workers, he’s just so dreamy.

Let’s tie this back to the fact that if Americans would have taken fifteen days to swallow their pride for the benefit of others, we would be so much better off than what we currently are. And now the same people who wouldn’t back down for the courtesy of others, are complaining that this pandemic isn’t under control. That’s a big theme in America. We don’t follow the rules of the game, but we want the rewards. And all these famous people that still have platforms despite the fact that they’ve been caught being racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and sending unsolsitced photos to there teenage fans.

America’s problems are mostly caused by pride and greed. We want money and we want power. And we will stab you in the front or the back to get it.

Now, on to the second part where I’m a bit more light hearted.

This book focuses on Henry and Ling for the most part, who are two of my favorite characters in the series. I really like Ling. She’s an asexual (I’m pretty sure) lesbian character who can’t walk because of infantile paralysis. She’s strong as hell and I ship her so hard with Alma even though they haven’t even met yet from where I’m reading.

Henry is wonderful and deserves the best in life. I want him, Theta, and Ling to just go to California and live out their dreams because that’s what they deserve. Henry and Ling are such a good duo and they’re precious.

I am kind of disappointed that Isaiah and Memphis were pushed to the side a lot for this book, because, as I said, in my last review, but I know that we had to push other characters out of the way so we could focus on new additions of characters and plot.

This book was certainly more creepy than the original Diviners. There were some descriptions where I genuinely got queasy. Wouldn’t take that into consideration, though, because I’m a wimp. I literally watched fifteen minutes of the Scream TV show beside an eight and five year old and felt like I wanted to throw up while they literally weren’t fazed. If I remember correctly, Before The Devil Breaks You was the worst when it came to the creepy factor, but I can’t remember much from that book so maybe my memory is just a bit foggy.

Overall, it was a four star. I may have shed a tear or two and I think it’s a solid entry to the series.

Lair of Dreams - Likewise Book Reviews

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