Fractured Dreamer is a novel by A.K. Adler.
Finished on: 5.2.2025
[I won this book in a LibraryThing Early Reviewer give-away.]

Content Note: (critical treatment of) queermisia

Plot:
In Affiza, magic is only seen as a curse, so Bassim has to take care not to show that he is deeply connected with a tree elemental, Lief. But that’s not the only thing that he is hiding. When he makes a wish to just be seen for who he really is, suddenly there is Alec, a boy from another world. For Alec, being in Bassim’s world is a revelation, and not just because magic is real there. Every morning, when he wakes up back in London in a body that everybody thinks is a girl, he feels more keenly how much being Alec is important for him. When a curse moves through Affiza, Bassim knows that he is the reason – and Alec vows to help.

Fractured Dreamer was a good read with engaging characters, an inventive magic system and a nice resolution to the story. I loved spending time with this book.

Fractured Dreamer caught my eye for the queer representation, but more than simply having characters that are queer, the entire story is about what it does to people when they (feel they) have to be closeted and don’t know or can’t live true to themselves. Although Bassim’s and Alec’s experiences are vastly different, there is a commonality to their story that will resonate with a lot of queer people. (I don’t know if Adler is trans themself, I don’t even know their gender, but the description of Alec’s experience in particular felt very personal.)

I was rooting for them very hard in any case, and while I guessed some parts about the curse and where it came from, I didn’t know how Adler would resolve their relationship with each other. But they found an excellent way that both allowed their relationship to become a little messy and resolved nicely and sweetly (just to set expectations, though: no HEA, this is not a romance novel).

I was also really impressed with how distinct Adler keeps the two point of views the story is told from. It certainly helps that Bassim’s perspective is in third person and Alec’s in first, but they are very different personalities and it shows beyond this switch.

And the magic system is also really interesting and quite original, I thought. I loved exploring how things work in Bassim’s work – and how they also spill over into London, or rather, how London and Affiza are connected. That being said, the book’s weakest point is probably the showdown when the curse is resolved: descriptions got confusing here and I am not exactly sure that I understood how things worked, exactly. But honestly, it didn’t matter that much. I could enjoy it without understanding every detail.

Summarizing: absolutely lovely.