Slow, but tense and satisfying. Klune impresses with his depiction of the depth of longing between men. ( )

Because I'm a long-time reader of sf, I knew Amorea was artificial and Mike was likely in some kind of coma. The how and the why and the reality and the solution - that is where the cool factor and the beauty lies in this story. Don't skip the very short Author's Note at the end, either.

Yes I am assuming you're hurrying off to read this right now. Go! ( )

Mike Frazier lives a cozy life in an idyllic 1950s town where all the townsfolk are eagerly waiting for him and his almost boyfriend Sean to finally make things official. But things don't seem quite right to Mike (readers were clued in right away by this 1950s town's enthusiasm for Mike's relationship with another man), and he slowly starts to pick at the seams of his life. This is a slow burn of a novel, with Mike and Sean's relationship coming together at a glacial but somehow lovely pace, and the mystery of what is really going being revealed in tiny tiny layers until "Mike" wakes up from a coma in a hospital and learns that he's been part of an experiment to create a world for coma patients inside their heads. Then begins a fight between Greg, the "real" personality, and "Mike," the created personality from the coma world--who will win, and which future will that personality choose: "real" life or coma life with a future with Sean? Utlimately I guess this is at least in part a story about fighting for love, but I enjoyed the romance *far* more than the sff elements, mostly because I felt the romance was done better. I will definitely be checking out more Klune (the sentence writing was aces, as was the character development) to see if I like some of his other work better. ( )

Story: 9
First MC: 9
Second MC: 8
Secondary characters: 7
Mystery: 9
Sexual tension: 5
Humor: 3
Hotness: 4
Product placement: 1
Ridiculousness: 2
Annoying: 1
Audio: 10
To re-read: 8

I need to stop reading sad stories, depresses me to no end. Amazing book, though slowly you figure out the mystery but still, they journey was amazing.

One thing caught me by surprise: the father, he was a man who beat up his wife, but he watches animal shows. And there for a moment he is just a man, maybe with broken dreams.

I'm in owe at a writer who produces books that make laugh out loud like [b:Tell Me It's Real|17194490|Tell Me It's Real (At First Sight, #1)|T.J. Klune|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357359699s/17194490.jpg|23666405] and [b:The Lightning-Struck Heart|24468673|The Lightning-Struck Heart (Tales From Verania, #1)|T.J. Klune|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434402683s/24468673.jpg|44061547], then turn around and write "murmuration" and [b:Into This River I Drown|17213054|Into This River I Drown|T.J. Klune|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1357498784s/17213054.jpg|23695986]. Astonishing ( )