The Cure for Dreaming - Review

Title: The Cure for Dreaming
Author: Cat Winters
Series/ Standalone: Standalone
Rating: 4.5 stars


*There will be spoilers for The Cure for Dreaming, so read it then read this!*

Another amazing gothic story from Cat Winters! I picked this up with high expectations, having read In The Shadow of Blackbirds previously and loved it, and I think for the most part it lived up to my hopes!



First of all, the many good parts. I loved all of the references to Dracula, despite never reading it, and The Cure for Dreaming has made me want to pick up Bram Stoker's novel! I also loved the descriptions of various people; the image of a woman fading as a man nears her is such a powerful image, as was the sharp teeth of Dr Mead. And it was wonderful to see how Olivia grew as a character, how she became braver and braver as more people pushed her back.



The characters were excellent! Not a single one felt under-developed or one-dimensional. I was especially pleased with how we left Sadie: a budding Suffragist no longer content with being silenced (by not voting or hypnotists). Even the characters we weren't meant to like (Dr Mead, Percy etc.) were well-developed. And the love interest...Henry was amazing and caring and a pretty cool hypnotist (Henri Reverie is an awesome stage name), and if I was Olivia, I would not have left him at the station!



Which brings me on to the ending. I felt like the book needed an epilogue, just a really short one, as it didn't feel completely satisfying. Even a one or two page scene where Olivia is walking through the college and finds that Henry is waiting for her would have sufficed, as it wasn't a solid ending and left me heart-broken because of the Henry/Olivia feels. Their relationship was so beautiful - especially the scene on the bicycle, oh, and in the theatre! - and it was mean to end it like that. We never even got to meet Olivia's mother, which we could have done in an epilogue.


I'm really interested in Suffragettes/gists and how women gained the vote, but I didn't really know much about American Suffragists, so I enjoyed reading about that, although some parts were quite shocking and made me think about how lucky we are now. I also liked how there were quite a few female characters that didn't want the right to vote, so we got most viewpoints of the time. As with In The Shadow of Blackbirds, Cat Winters mixes the historical features in with the plot brilliantly.


The Cure for Dreaming is a great book, especially if you're interested in women's suffrage, and the cover is just gorgeous (although a spider died in mine...It's less pretty now...but that's another post). Anyway, let me know if you've read this! Did you like it? Are you excited for The Uninvited or The Steep and Thorny Way (Because I am!)?
Thanks for reading(: