The story begins on Halloween night in 1900. Olivia Mead, the daughter of a brutal dentist, Dr. Walter Mead, has arrived in a theater, along with other respectable members of Portland city, to watch a performance by a French/American hypnotist, named Henry Reverie. Mr. Reverie hypnotizes Olivia but this paranormal touch is just the beginning of the story…
In an era where women are silenced, unable to vote, get a job or higher education, Olivia’s father instructs Henry Reverie to ‘cure’ her from the ‘unladylike’ dreams that she has. And what are those dreams? Suffrage, the right of women to vote, the right to choose higher education, the right to speak their minds about trivial and serious matters.
But it’s the early 1900s and Feminism seems like a very unfamiliar word to the people of this time. Women are viewed as docile and stupid human beings, whose only role in life is to get married, give birth to children and spend their whole lives doing housework and looking after their husbands and children. There are some really ‘educated’ men who are opposed to suffrage and to the liberation of women of any kind, age, social background and status.
Olivia, in the beginning of the novel at least, is a hidden suffragist. She wants to fight for women’s rights but she’s scared of her abusive father’s reaction. Dr. Mead belongs to this category of men, who I’d love to witness them dying from a million horrible deaths.
An anti-suffragist, a bully, a puny old man who believes that women are brought on this planet only to please their husbands and stay inside their houses for their entire lives, Dr. Mead is a victim of himself. Rude, brutal, uneducated and a deep misogynist, Dr. Mead is the accurate portrait of the reasons a million women suffered back in those times. He is violent, both on the inside and on the outside and I hated him with all my heart.
Going back to Olivia Mead and Henry Reverie, I must say that I fell head over heels in love with both of these characters. Olivia Mead is a fierce, though sometimes confused, young lady, so different from almost all the other girls her age. She wants to witness a world where men and women are equal and wants to fight about women’s rights and their liberation from the traps of men. I adored her.
She was a sassy and fearful young woman, so real in her flawed fear and courage. Yes, she had her moments of despair and disappointment, but in the end she proved to anyone that when you try to silence someone, he/she will only come back at you stronger and louder than ever. Henry Reverie is, too, an excellent book character. A passionate and kind young man, the opposite of hateful Dr. Mead. A romance begins blossoming between Olivia and him, but this is only one aspect of the story, I don’t want to reveal more stuff in order to avoid possible spoilers.
Overall, 5 out of 5 stars. This book is a masterpiece. Cat Winters’s exceptional writing style managed to make me travel back to this era where women’s voices -and whole lives to be honest- were silenced under the iron fists of men, literally and metaphorically. A fast plot, with a beautiful paranormal touch and strong, amazingly beautiful, protagonists. An ode to Feminism and the History written by women. This book must be read by EVERYONE. I think it is equally appropriate to a woman of 15 years and to a man of 50 years. Yes, it belongs to the Young-adult genre, but I don’t think it should be restricted to a young audience.
This book is powerful, its meanings are deep and tremendously important. Feminism has come a long way until 1900, but I’m sure women still have got a long way to go. Every single day, we witness in the news cases of violation of fundamental women’s rights, murders and men who aren’t brought to justice as they should be. This book will awaken the minds of many men and women alike and I’m fairly certain it will make all of you want to read books about Feminism. That’s what I’m going to do actually when I finish writing this review.
Please read ‘The Cure for Dreaming’. Even if the story doesn’t touch you, I’m sure its characters will. Its message will spread inside your veins and into your bones and it will make you see the world from a different perspective. Well done, Cat Winters. I’m officially one of your warmest and most devoted fans.
- Goodreads rating – 3.89
- REVIEW – Antonia