Review: The Cure For Dreaming by Cat Winters

Title/Author: The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters
Genre: YA, historical, supernatural
Rating: 4/5 stars
Synopsis: Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl—a suffragist—in an age that prefers its girls to be docile. It’s 1900 in Oregon, and Olivia’s father, concerned that she’s headed for trouble, convinces a stage mesmerist to try to hypnotize the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a terrible gift instead: she’s able to see people’s true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness, while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more determined to speak her mind, and so she’s drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women. Winters breathes new life into history once again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout.

Review:

Thoughts on the Overall Book: I usually avoid suffragist books like the plague, but this one was actually enjoyable, and Cat Winters gives us another interesting supernatural sort of read that was not disappointing in the least.

Cover--Yea or Nay: I love the cover, I think it's really cool, the font is beautiful, and it's just the kind of things that makes me want to pick up a book, as the time period is obvious.

Characters: Olivia is an enjoyable protagonist. Mostly, I liked how she was a strong female character, but even though she's into women's suffrage, she's still not a rampant man-hating harpy like so many of them are. She just wants to make her own way in the world, and I respect that. There were a few times I didn't totally agree with her, but for the most part, I didn't have any complaints on her character. Her father on the other hand, I enjoyed hating. At first I wasn't sure whether he was a more misunderstood character or not, but as the book progressed, I could not forgive him for what he did to his own daughter. There is no excuse for that, it's just disgusting. Then there was Percy, who I saw coming a mile away, but he wasn't so terrible that I spent a whole lot of time hating on him. I loved Henry, as is probably to be expected. He was just the kind of male characters I always fall in love with. And his devotion and the loving relationship he shared with his sister made me like him more. (view spoiler) As for supporting characters, I also liked Frannie and her family, and Percy's other friends were so fun to dislike.

The Romance: There's not a ton of romance here, and no love triangles, thankfully. As is pretty obvious, Olivia and Henry end up forming an attachment to each other, and there's kissing involved, but it never gets so mushy that it's annoying and takes over the plot. I was very invested in their relationship, and I thought it very sweet.

Writing Style: Cat Winters is a very good writer, what I love especially is how she is able to capture a time period so well that it really feels like you're in it. This was not nearly as dark as In the Shadow of Blackbirds but it was just as well written, and still had a strange supernatural twist to it, even though there were sadly no ghosts in this one. I really loved how she described the way Olivia was able to see things after her hypnotism, it was very vivid and it worked for me. You have to know going into this book that it's going to be a little strange, but that's part of the joy.

Accuracy/ Believability: Very accurate as far as the time period. I would have liked an author's or historical note in the back, but from what I know of the time period anyway, it seemed pretty much very well done. Of course the hypnotism stuff isn't exactly real to life, but it gives the story a cool twist.

Problems/What bothered me: I probably never would have read this book had it not been recommended to me by a friend I trust, because I do not read suffragist novels, but this one was the most if not the only, tasteful suffragist novel ever. Yes, there were still a couple parts that had my eyes rolling, but I think it captured the softer side, and through Olivia who just simply wanted to be able to make her own way in the world, it was bearable. It was certainly not a rampant man-hater novel, and I respect Cat Winters for that.

Conclusion: 4/5 stars. Enjoyable book. Not sure whether I liked this one or In the Shadow of Blackbirds better, but I am really looking forward to the next novel Cat Winters comes out with.

Recommended Audience: Girl read 16 and up. Fans of gothic supernatural historical novels would enjoy it. Definitely check this out if you also liked In the Shadow of Blackbirds

(Read this review with spoilers on Goodreads) 

Two WWI Movie Reviews

Since May 2nd was the famous Red Baron's birthday, I decided that I would post my reviews for two WWI movies. I am going to be posting reviews for my favorite (and maybe not so favorite) movies on my blog hopefully, so this is only one of the first.

First of all, one of my favorite movies of all time is Flyboys. This is actually what made me into a WWI buff in the first place. It's about the Lafayette Escadrille which was a contingent of the French air service for Americans to join before America officially joined the war effort. It was much like the Foreign Legion but for pilots. In fact, historically, several of the real Escadrille pilots had transferred from the Legion. The hero of this movie is Blaine Rawlings (played by James Franco), a young man from Texas whose family ranch has gone bankrupt. He got into a fight with the landlord, and decided to skip town instead of getting arrested, and ends up joining the Lafayette Escadrille. There's an amazing cast of characters in this movie. A son of a rich man who's a little stuck up, a young man who comes from a long line of military heroes who has the "prove myself worthy" problem, an ex-thief  and a young black boxer who was based off Eugene Bullard--the first black man to fly in combat. (I always find it refreshing how un-racist the French are--unless it's dealing with the English ;) And, of course, the typical angsty character, Reed Cassidy, the last one alive of his former squadron and made pretty cynical because of it (you know those types ;) All these characters form a great comradeship amongst each other. One of my favorite things in this movie was the camaraderie. It was just really well done. And the love interest (a French girl who is left taking care of her brother's children after he and his wife were killed in a bombing) is not detracting from the story line. (A huge plus.)

This movie was pretty good in the historical accuracy from what I have read. The planes were amazing and the dogfighting scenes were really awesome! Some of them could have put Star Wars to shame ;) The only thing I can tag them on was the fact that all the German planes (except the main baddie's which was black) were red Fokker Driedeckers (triplanes) that modeled Richthofen's famous plane. But the director mentions this in interviews and admits to doing it so viewers could tell whose plane was whose. This is why you should read author's notes before complaining about historical inaccuracy! We all have our reasons =)

In short, if you like war movies, flying movies, are a WWI buff or whatever, you should still watch this movie because it's a sadly underrated film. I give it five stars definitely!

Now for the second movie, this one is called "The Red Baron" and yes, it's about Manfred von Richthofen. For the most part, this movie was good, though not very accurate. The setting and the flying and planes and everything were pretty much okay, but they didn't really get everything about Manfred's life quite right. (It was about as accurate as Braveheart, meaning it had a lot of poetic license.). The actor who played Manfred (Matthias Schweighofer) was great though. He was actually German which was a plus, and he uncannily looked just like him! It was freaky at times, especially when he was wearing a sweater in the movie that looked just like one I have seen pictures of Manfred wearing. (Costuming did great on this movie.) My main problem was his love affair with the nurse. Leave it to the screen writers to HAVE to add romance to every thing. If it hadn't been for that, it would have been a great movie. There was never any historical record of Manfred being in love with the nurse, Kate Osterdorf. That was one reason I really loved Jeff Shaara's book To the Last Man because he didn't put any romantic interest between them. But movies are movies... So, for me, there was a lot of time that could have been spent in this movie between Manfred and his comrades instead of him with the girl he never really fell in love with. I also had a problem that they made Lothar (Manfred's younger brother) somewhat of a brat. What I've read of him, he was pretty nice. But again, that's what happens with movies.

The movie was good, though I didn't like it as much as Flyboys. I think it deserves three and a half stars.