Have you ever had a conversation with a deceased person in a dream? Have you ever had an out-of-body or near death experience? Where does this fall into the science fiction genre? Is it more science or fiction? These are the questions that come up while reading Patrick Morgan’s science fiction romance, Realms. Below is my review of Realms and the deeper questions that it brings up while grounding it to our basic understanding of reality, identity, and love.
Realms plot synopsis
Seventeen-year-old David Abbott wakes up with amnesia after being in a coma for several weeks following a car accident. His relieved parents attempt to jog his memory, but nothing feels familiar to him. He hates the food he claims to love, feels indifferent about being reunited with his “dream car,” and has no memory of the people who raised him or the place where he lives.
One day, David convinces his mom to drive him out to the scene of the accident. There, he finds a teenage girl unconscious in the woods. She wakes up hysterical to see him and calls him Daniel. The more he interacts with her, the more she shares her belief that he is not who they say he is. In fact, the two of them are trapped in the wrong bodies and have to find a way to get back home.
As crazy as her theory sounds, David begins to question it more and more. His connection to this girl, Jessica, grows stronger the more time they spend together. Together, they work to find out how they got here and how they can get home.
David Abbott’s arc
Technically, Realms can be considered science fiction, but it’s firmly grounded in a small, personal story between two people. David floats through this story in a dazed, dreamlike state brought on by his amnesia. He seems to have no personality or strong reactions to anything that is going on around him.
His parents are good people, overprotective but gentle, unwilling to press their luck after their only child not only wakes up but need minimal physical rehab in order to function again. They seem to take his amnesia in stride, helping him work through it.
David is mild-mannered and goes with the flow of events. He eats what’s put in front of him, complies with the schedule put before him, and tries to keep his parents happy, despite the fact that he doesn’t even recognize them.
When he meets Jessica, it opens his eyes to a more familiar, psychic connection that opens up seemingly far-fetched but possible supernatural solutions to his confusion. This pulls him into two different directions, comparable to the leap that every teenager makes between childhood and adulthood. Remain the dutiful, model son or allow your emotions to veer you towards the young girl.
A supernatural love story
The story explores the supernatural concepts of dream sharing, alternate realities, and the ability of our unconscious minds to travel through different “realms” and land in different bodies. Without spoiling the twist that arrives midway through the book, this is essentially a love story that utilizes these concepts to describe the lengths this couple will go in order to stay together and maintain life as they know it.
Morgan doesn’t try to over-explain these concepts. There is no expert or any character or tool that provides David and Jessica with a concrete understanding of the science behind these theories. It’s also an idea that they keep largely to themselves and do little to experiment with.
Instead, they are guided by feeling and their shared connection. David only feels like himself around Jessica, despite the fact that she is truly a stranger in his world. The two did not know each other prior to their accidents. If anyone, she should be the unfamiliar addition to his life. However, his urge to be near her leads him to break the smothering grasp of his parents.
While explaining herself to David, Jessica says, “You feel it, too; the connection between us, the love that’s there. That’s not an accident, and it’s not imagined. It’s real. It’s always been real from the second we first met- and I’m not talking about when the boy and girl met in the forest.”
Not a YA novel
Despite the main characters being teenagers, this book can’t really be categorized as a YA novel. A lot of this has to do with the twist, but aside from that, David and Jessica don’t really act like teenagers.
David’s first person narration is very rigid and dense. He doesn’t speak like a teenager or seem to have teenage interests. His tone is formal, and his thoughts spiral without invoking outbursts of emotion.
As a result, the book is a slow burn, taking its time to unravel. Much like the cover suggests, the book has a very gray, hazy feel to it. The reader always knows what’s going on, but it’s difficult to judge where the story is heading. It’s not so much that I felt the book should have been longer, but I would have liked to have seen some of the inner monologue replaced with juicier plot details.
David concentrates on the mundane routine of his days. He’s understandably uncomfortable in his own skin and doesn’t really have any desire to do teenage activities and puts off going back to school as long as he can, not due to any kind of lack of discipline but because of a fear of venturing through this world he has been thrown into and forced to make sense of.
Resolving the conflict
The story has no real villain or antagonist. Jessica’s dad is scary and overprotective, but he never becomes dangerous or stands too much in their way. But ultimately, the only thing standing in their way is what the two don’t know.
David’s parents are kept in the dark about most of Jessica’s theories. They too keep David close, but they also become one of the reasons not to pursue the potentially deadly act of disconnecting their minds from their bodies in order to travel back to where they belong.
Jessica’s plans are poorly researched. Given the measures she took to find David, she neglected to come up with a plan to get back. The two explore dream sharing as a way to communicate when they can’t be together, but it takes practice and a deeper level of unconsciousness to actually pull off their plan.
The only other person who David is comfortable in confiding in is his counselor, Dr. Eiding. She’s an accommodating woman who not only listens without judgement but also maintains confidentiality. She is set up to be the key factor in this whole plan.
In the end, however, it’s not science or supernatural theory that they rely on but pure instinct and love to carry out their plan. I would have loved to have been given more explanation and resolution to the story, but it’s ultimately a satisfying conclusion that ties up the major loose ends.
My recommendation
Realms is a novel that I’d recommend to those who gravitate towards love stories with a little paranormal, sci-fi element sprinkled in. It’s a gentle read, straying away from raunchiness or a gore factor in order to shock or repel its readers.
It does get bogged down in its narration at times which slows the story to a crawl without exploring anything new about the characters. I would have also have liked some raised stakes and more road blocks for the characters to maneuver through and overcome.
Still, I’d recommend it to an audience older than its protagonist who prefer more thoughtful-character driven rather than plot-driven books. It’s more about the personal than the sensational, and who knows? There could be some truth in the sensational that is there.
We’ll only know once we reach the level of unconsciousness that allows us to travel between potential realms. The question will be, which realm will you travel to, and who will you travel with?
Check out my interview with Patrick Morgan here!
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