Eleven years after a world war destroyed the consumer-driven, plastic-based existence of 2055, a new order of players jostles for power. Streaky electricity, ravaging drought, a scarcity of food, and deadly Monarch butterflies make for an increasingly desperate situation.
Worlds collide when both Mother and Sharps’s children are kidnapped by the unstable plastic surgeon Alpha Plus and taken to The Fountain of Youth compound. There’s flowing water and beautiful people and beautiful clothes and an incongruous convent where children wear smart uniforms and are tutored by nuns. Lovely, until they discover that a subterranean sex trade funds the compound and the man who leads it is mad. Can Mother, Sharps, and the others take down Alpha Plus and his army? Or will they too become pawns in his bid for world domination?
Hilarious and at the same time poignant, Everything You Dream Is Real is a fabulous, adventure-filled sequel to highly acclaimed The Rage Room that will delight fans both new and old.
“Witty and elegant, dorky and weird: Everything You Dream Is Real is a fantastically riveting book, loaded with strange delights, scary caprices and an infinity of comic turns and twists.”
—Lynn Crosbie, author of Chicken and where did you sleep last night?
“Lisa de Nikolits’s Everything You Dream Is Real is aptly named: this novel reads like delirious hallucination, but one with unmistakable immediacy. Come for the sci-fi and action-adventure; stay for the love story that lurks just below the surface.”
—Mark Sampson, All the Animals on Earth, The Slip, and Sad Peninsula
“An original, adventurous, and vital writer, Lisa de Nikolits holds up a cracked, kaleidoscopic mirror to our times. Everything You Dream Is Real thrusts readers into an extraordinary, disturbing future and takes them on a raucous, high-stakes, one-of-a-kind journey filled with hope, revenge, love, and tentacles.”
—Daniel Scott Tysdal, Wave Forms and Doom Scrolls
“In this wonderfully weird sequel to The Rage Room, an ensemble cast of quirky characters create havoc inside the head of time-travelling anti-hero Sharps. Sexy and funny, Everything You Dream Is Real combines futuristic adventures with irreverent romance to create an entertaining, high-energy read.”
—Terri Favro, The Sisters Sputnik
“This is one rollicking ride! In her stunning follow up to The Rage Room, Lisa de Nikolits punches the gas right from the starting line and never stops, taking us through a mind-bending series of twists and turns that will leave you breathless.”
—Richard Ehisen, The Open Mic
“Lisa de Nikolits’s uniquely subversive, quirky approach to writing about complex topics is entertainment at its finest. A zany excursion with vivid characters, Everything You Dream Is Real manages to balance absurdity with profound insight, leaving me with much to contemplate even as I’m still laughing.”
—Darcia Helle, Quiet Fury Books
“A riot of imagination. Most authors trot out the same tropes, but Lisa de Nikolits takes you on a triumphantly bizarre roller coaster of a novel where mass murder can be solved by time travel, 1980s pop culture rules, and sometimes love can survive dystopia. Read Everything You Dream is Real and challenge your perception!”
—Melissa Yi, author of Wolf Ice
“What I love about reading Lisa’s books is that every time I start one, I never know what I’m going to get! Each new book is a totally different, quirky, fun, wild ride and I love that. The hilarity mixed with the darkness makes for such a weird, delicious combination! Seriously, there is not a dull moment!”
—Wendy Barrows, Wall-Wall books
“A strange story that is oddly satisfying and thoroughly entertaining … I liked that there were many twists; it helped with the suspense. My favourite part of the book was the author’s writing style. It felt like your best friend was telling you a story in a uniquely funny way.”
—Ioanna Kormouli, Nana’s Book Reviews
“Anything can happen; you just have to dream it. Everything You Dream Is Real is a story that will hook you with butterfly wings but with these dreams, watch where you’re going. You could wake to a whole other world.”
—Elaine Sapp, Elaine Loves to Read
Inanna Admin –
Everything You Dream is Real by Lisa De Nikolits
reviewed by Alison Manley
The Miramichi Reader – October 17, 2022
https://miramichireader.ca/2022/10/everything-you-dream-is-real-by-lisa-de-nikolits/
Excerpt (full review at the link above):
Everything You Dream is Real is fast-paced and more than a little bonkers, with a cast of characters trying to live in a world populated by endless dangers and yet entirely focused on their libidos…this is a bright, wild, chaotic novel, and certainly not like much I’ve read before. For a strange, trippy ride, check it out.
Inanna Admin –
Everything You Dream is Real by Lisa De Nikolits
reviewed by The Quarantine Review Issue 14 – December 22, 2022
https://www.thequarantinereview.ca/main/issue14 (print issue)
This book is a trip like no other. This journey into the fantastic is a follow up to The Rage Room, but operates on its own level and is satisfying in its own right. An acid trip of a novel like this could easily fall off the rails in less-skilled hands, but Lisa de Nikolits is a spec fiction master and handles the plot and characters expertly.
This novel defies genre and presents a whacky reality that, at first, sounds disorienting to the casual reader, but what works best about it is how rooted the book is in human desire. The wild machinations of the characters seem far-out on the surface, but de Nikolits excels in characterization and even the craziest plot points are grounded in motivations and intentions that resonate with readers who may never reach for the spec fiction shelf.