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Opposite World
Memories are malleable, dreams are a battlefield, and reality is a shifting landscape. Think Inception meets Dark Matter, with echoes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the unsettling corporate dystopia of Severance.
Piper “Pip” Screed remembers nothing about her mother’s mysterious death or the strange episode that left her in a deep, unexplained sleep. All she knows is that her father uprooted them to a secluded mountain cabin, severed all ties to the outside world, and refuses to answer her questions.
Fifteen years later, Pip escapes isolation and discovers The Reverie Cloud—a revolutionary sleep-therapy program that merges the subconscious with virtual reality. Here, users can experience their desires, confront fears, and rewrite their pasts in a dreamscape indistinguishable from reality. But when The Reverie Cloud falls into the hands of those who see her subconscious as a prize, Pip becomes ensnared within its unstable architecture. Now locked inside the program, she must navigate its mercurial layers, face the horrors buried within her subconscious, and unravel the truth about her past before time runs out. Worse, she’s not the only one at risk—her father’s life hangs in the balance, too.
But the deeper Pip ventures, the more dangerous the game becomes. If she pushes too far, she may never escape. Yet only by confronting the truth can she hope to uncover what really happened to her mother—before the program consumes her entirely.
Blending science fiction with psychological horror, surreal fantasy, and an aching tremor of human longing, OPPOSITE WORLD is an exploration of memory, identity, and the thin divide between perception and reality.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress.
Piper “Pip” Screed remembers nothing about her mother’s mysterious death or the strange episode that left her in a deep, unexplained sleep. All she knows is that her father uprooted them to a secluded mountain cabin, severed all ties to the outside world, and refuses to answer her questions.
Fifteen years later, Pip escapes isolation and discovers The Reverie Cloud—a revolutionary sleep-therapy program that merges the subconscious with virtual reality. Here, users can experience their desires, confront fears, and rewrite their pasts in a dreamscape indistinguishable from reality. But when The Reverie Cloud falls into the hands of those who see her subconscious as a prize, Pip becomes ensnared within its unstable architecture. Now locked inside the program, she must navigate its mercurial layers, face the horrors buried within her subconscious, and unravel the truth about her past before time runs out. Worse, she’s not the only one at risk—her father’s life hangs in the balance, too.
But the deeper Pip ventures, the more dangerous the game becomes. If she pushes too far, she may never escape. Yet only by confronting the truth can she hope to uncover what really happened to her mother—before the program consumes her entirely.
Blending science fiction with psychological horror, surreal fantasy, and an aching tremor of human longing, OPPOSITE WORLD is an exploration of memory, identity, and the thin divide between perception and reality.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published November 11, 2025
11 people are currently reading
5269 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Anne Martins
2 books48 followersElizabeth Anne Martins is a Philadelphia-based writer who studied English and Publishing at Rosemont College. Her writing often explores resilience, identity, and survival, blending speculative elements with deeply human stories.
Her debut novel, Dry Lands, is a post-apocalyptic story of motherhood and survival set in a world reshaped by water. The book was named a 2024 Great Group Reads pick by the Women’s National Book Association and has resonated with readers who connect with its themes of hope and endurance.
When she’s not writing, Elizabeth can usually be found at the piano, composing something new or playing a duet with her son and husband. Music, like storytelling, is her way of making sense of the world—one note or word at a time.
Her debut novel, Dry Lands, is a post-apocalyptic story of motherhood and survival set in a world reshaped by water. The book was named a 2024 Great Group Reads pick by the Women’s National Book Association and has resonated with readers who connect with its themes of hope and endurance.
When she’s not writing, Elizabeth can usually be found at the piano, composing something new or playing a duet with her son and husband. Music, like storytelling, is her way of making sense of the world—one note or word at a time.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
November 6, 2025
This started out pretty strong, and then got more and more bizarre from the 50% mark on. I thought it was interesting before that and was very curious to find out what had happened when Pip was a child. Yes, we find out, but it’s such a slog to get to the hows and whys. The unveiling of everything takes too long, and then the story has an ending not unlike “The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King”, and by that, I mean that just when you think it’s over, there’s another scene. And another. And yet another. And one more for the road. I. Just. Wanted. It. To. End. Already.
In sum, the story’s premise is fantastic. It needs quite a bit of trimming down, though, to be a good novel. It’s a one and done for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
In sum, the story’s premise is fantastic. It needs quite a bit of trimming down, though, to be a good novel. It’s a one and done for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Flame Tree Press for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.
November 6, 2025
Mini blurb: The daughter of a former computer scientist who's hiding from his past gets involved in the same technology he contributed to creating - one that can rewrite the user's experiences - and once trapped in the program itself, must battle corporate overlords and unbury the truth about her own life, in a literal trip down memory lane.
***
First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Flame Tree Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.
Fair warning: Opposite World has all the markings of an intriguing sci-fi/thriller/coming-of-age blend, but it takes a bit for it to get there. The first chapters speed through the protagonist's formative years spent on the run with her father, after her mother's death and a mysterious incident that prompted him to hide from his former colleagues. I understand that the author had to play her cards close to her chest, but the complete lack of answers and the way Pip only questions it up to a point are frustrating and hard to buy into. That and the author's penchant for extravagant/clunky metaphors ("his eyes dripping over me like syrup"; "the door flung open like an open wound") had me worried that I wouldn't enjoy OW that much. Thankfully, things pick up (and get more interesting) when the aforementioned sci-fi content is finally introduced, and the story takes an Inception-meets-The-Matrix turn that ends up being totally its own thing (the fact that the similes start to get more sparse doesn't hurt either). Everything Pip and the reader thought they knew is flipped on its head, and if the dream/memory world requires some suspension of disbelief, it's such an immersive, exciting and visually stunning experience that you'll find yourself not caring (that much) about that. I'm still salty about certain...misguided parental behaviours (to put it mildly) and Pip's acceptation of them, and I'm not a fan of the unnecessarily long epilogue that causes the story to fizzle out, at least to an extent (I mean everything that comes after the climax, not the Epilogue proper); but I came for the dreamscape/memoryscape, and I have no complaints about that. Brilliant.
Note: as a rule, I review every book that I rate 4 stars and above in full, unless it's a novella or an anthology. But I didn't want to go in too deep about this one to avoid spoilers, and it felt easy to summarise its contents (and my opinions) in a few sentences, so I took the mini-review route.
***
First off...DISCLAIMER: I requested this title on NetGalley. Thanks to Flame Tree Press for providing a temporary ecopy. This didn't influence my review in any way.
Fair warning: Opposite World has all the markings of an intriguing sci-fi/thriller/coming-of-age blend, but it takes a bit for it to get there. The first chapters speed through the protagonist's formative years spent on the run with her father, after her mother's death and a mysterious incident that prompted him to hide from his former colleagues. I understand that the author had to play her cards close to her chest, but the complete lack of answers and the way Pip only questions it up to a point are frustrating and hard to buy into. That and the author's penchant for extravagant/clunky metaphors ("his eyes dripping over me like syrup"; "the door flung open like an open wound") had me worried that I wouldn't enjoy OW that much. Thankfully, things pick up (and get more interesting) when the aforementioned sci-fi content is finally introduced, and the story takes an Inception-meets-The-Matrix turn that ends up being totally its own thing (the fact that the similes start to get more sparse doesn't hurt either). Everything Pip and the reader thought they knew is flipped on its head, and if the dream/memory world requires some suspension of disbelief, it's such an immersive, exciting and visually stunning experience that you'll find yourself not caring (that much) about that. I'm still salty about certain...misguided parental behaviours (to put it mildly) and Pip's acceptation of them, and I'm not a fan of the unnecessarily long epilogue that causes the story to fizzle out, at least to an extent (I mean everything that comes after the climax, not the Epilogue proper); but I came for the dreamscape/memoryscape, and I have no complaints about that. Brilliant.
Note: as a rule, I review every book that I rate 4 stars and above in full, unless it's a novella or an anthology. But I didn't want to go in too deep about this one to avoid spoilers, and it felt easy to summarise its contents (and my opinions) in a few sentences, so I took the mini-review route.
November 5, 2025
The moment I've seen this title and glanced at the blurb, I have felt an immediate pull towards this novel. I couldn't explain why but I knew I had to read this book!
𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 was mysterious, gripping and intriguing, a fresh and intelligent tale I had a wonderful time getting lost myself in. The chapters were incredibly short, I devoured them like there's no tomorrow! Learning about The Reverie Cloud and the dreams were a fascinating experience. It was hard to tell what was reality and what was a dream and I absolutely loved the mystery behind it, even though it was terrifying to imagine having lied to your entire life and not knowing which of your memories are real or implanted...
I highly recommend checking out this book!
𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 was mysterious, gripping and intriguing, a fresh and intelligent tale I had a wonderful time getting lost myself in. The chapters were incredibly short, I devoured them like there's no tomorrow! Learning about The Reverie Cloud and the dreams were a fascinating experience. It was hard to tell what was reality and what was a dream and I absolutely loved the mystery behind it, even though it was terrifying to imagine having lied to your entire life and not knowing which of your memories are real or implanted...
I highly recommend checking out this book!
September 7, 2025
Such a wild ride. Spoilers ahead! This book has everything: brooding tech overlords, a subconscious memory-eating dragon, Matrix-style battles inside the mind, glitchy dreamscapes, nature vs tech, and one very confused but determined heroine named Pip. It starts off with a chaotic episode, then slows into something calm and literary, then flips into the wildest trip I've read in a long time. I already want to read it again, just to catch all the details I missed the first time. Part thriller, part sci-fi, but also very human. Think inception, but with more heart.
January 17, 2026
I really wanted to like this book, it started off so good, but by the midway mark it just went on and on. I thought it would never end. You could have easily cut out about 100 pages and it would have been perfectly fine.
October 6, 2025
Opposite World by Elizabeth Anne Martins
3.85 rounded up to 4 🔮🔮🔮🔮orbs
Pub. Date: Nov. 11, 2025
Flame Tree Press
50 miles east of Seattle…
💡 Orbs Prologue: Flames licked at the ceiling of our small cabin. The black residue of burnt timber gently falls to the floor. I stare back at the girl. Framed in an elaborate Baroque gilding, I study the specimen. Piper, or “Pip,” is her name, and although she is not yet aware, she is in grave danger. The crackle of the fire moves closer, and soon my face is fractured, splintered to my essence, from the combustion. It is somewhat apropos that Pip should see her face through my cracked surface. My message is clear: your story is not what it appears; one must delve deeper beyond the surface, into the darkest recesses of our memories, to conjure forth the strength to survive this treacherous game.
🔩 Nuts & Bolts: Something beautifully tragic resonates within this tale written by the author, Elizabeth Anne Martins. Futuristic aspirations beckon to Piper Screed, who currently lives a sheltered life in the forest, guarded closely by her father, with no answers as to why. For as long as Pip can remember, Dr. Richard Screed has warned her of mingling outside a constrained area of safety. Pip has always wondered what the cause of this deep-rooted paranoia might be. As Pip begins to wander further into adulthood, a relationship with a boy named Farley Renner blossoms, with Richard reluctantly relenting to his daughter's wishes. Feeling a sense of freedom, she starts a job at Nyxyn, a company that builds digital ecosystems, under the recommendation of Vera, Farley’s aunt. Nyxyn is just a small step on a long staircase to a bigger project, one that could have the potential to change the world—the Reverie Cloud. A world created by one's dreams, a virtual reality where one travels into a dreamlike state, wandering through the images of their memory banks, pleasantly described by Martins as a “playground for the mind.” This emotional stimulation comes with its undesirable side effects, one being getting stuck in a loop cycle and an unfortunate demise in the physical realm. Pip discovers her story through revisiting ingrained recollections of both the traumatic and fantastical varieties. Nothing short of a whirlwind of emotions ensues. Begging the reader, does Pip have what it takes to help those she loves before time runs out?
👍 Orbs Pros: The earth; the inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust. Layered. An investigation into the subconscious, past thoughts tucked away for safekeeping, allowing us to survive the rigors of life. There is something so compelling about this concept. I could explain the novel as commandeering a simple rowboat through the Southern Atlantic Ocean, holding on for dear life, trying to find reason within the journey. Feeling danger in the mission, yet satisfaction in overcoming obstacles deemed far too great. The complex prose offered by Elizabeth Anne Martins is neatly bundled in a fairly digestible package. I remember watching the movie Inception and being lost, yet faced with some of the same intricacies, this novel was conveyed in a more manageable way. This approach to a futuristic way the world might treat PTSD is fascinating, albeit with a certain amount of danger involved.
👎 Orbs Cons: While Martins does an impressive job of conveying a relatively straightforward and understandable story, it is confusing by nature. Hopping from memories, present, past, and everywhere in between. Traveling through the five senses, each invoking a different sort of memory accessed from a seemingly different place, can be formidable. There was a period ¾ into this virtual setting where I remained imprisoned, much like the character Pip herself; it felt claustrophobic, suffocating, and tiresome. While there was plenty of action, my little pea brain was suffering from overthinking. Perhaps in retrospect, Martins did a marvelous job of putting me squarely in a world where I felt these emotions, but I can’t deny that part of me resented it.
Recommended! So where, oh where, does the Orb sit on this one? I will say this will be a memorable book, one that I may refer to in the future. Conceptually, a look into the future left me in awe and terrified at the same time. AI, ChatGPT, all of it boggles my mind as a person who grew up with Lincoln Logs and Tonka trucks. This was an experience, and one I won’t soon forget.
💡 Orbs Epilogue: More cracks emerged; I was simply falling apart. Parts of me crashed and fell into the ashes coating the floor. From Pip’s periphery, I gleaned, attempting to speak in riddles, to help uncover those mysteries she so desired. The crash of the beams on the other side of the structure was a warning; the chimes outside began to swing and ring wildly. Turbulent in nature, 1, 2, 3,… Surely this must be a signal to Pip, but what? 4… Orchestral music strums tensely, a violin bow frantically weaving back and forth, exuding a frenzied pace… 5…slower now…. 6. Silence… Pip leaves the building; I gaze up at the ceiling. My journey has ended, dear reader, and yet I have satisfaction that Pip’s story is just beginning.
Many thanks to Bea at Flame Tree Press for the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.
3.85 rounded up to 4 🔮🔮🔮🔮orbs
Pub. Date: Nov. 11, 2025
Flame Tree Press
50 miles east of Seattle…
💡 Orbs Prologue: Flames licked at the ceiling of our small cabin. The black residue of burnt timber gently falls to the floor. I stare back at the girl. Framed in an elaborate Baroque gilding, I study the specimen. Piper, or “Pip,” is her name, and although she is not yet aware, she is in grave danger. The crackle of the fire moves closer, and soon my face is fractured, splintered to my essence, from the combustion. It is somewhat apropos that Pip should see her face through my cracked surface. My message is clear: your story is not what it appears; one must delve deeper beyond the surface, into the darkest recesses of our memories, to conjure forth the strength to survive this treacherous game.
🔩 Nuts & Bolts: Something beautifully tragic resonates within this tale written by the author, Elizabeth Anne Martins. Futuristic aspirations beckon to Piper Screed, who currently lives a sheltered life in the forest, guarded closely by her father, with no answers as to why. For as long as Pip can remember, Dr. Richard Screed has warned her of mingling outside a constrained area of safety. Pip has always wondered what the cause of this deep-rooted paranoia might be. As Pip begins to wander further into adulthood, a relationship with a boy named Farley Renner blossoms, with Richard reluctantly relenting to his daughter's wishes. Feeling a sense of freedom, she starts a job at Nyxyn, a company that builds digital ecosystems, under the recommendation of Vera, Farley’s aunt. Nyxyn is just a small step on a long staircase to a bigger project, one that could have the potential to change the world—the Reverie Cloud. A world created by one's dreams, a virtual reality where one travels into a dreamlike state, wandering through the images of their memory banks, pleasantly described by Martins as a “playground for the mind.” This emotional stimulation comes with its undesirable side effects, one being getting stuck in a loop cycle and an unfortunate demise in the physical realm. Pip discovers her story through revisiting ingrained recollections of both the traumatic and fantastical varieties. Nothing short of a whirlwind of emotions ensues. Begging the reader, does Pip have what it takes to help those she loves before time runs out?
👍 Orbs Pros: The earth; the inner core, the outer core, the mantle, and the crust. Layered. An investigation into the subconscious, past thoughts tucked away for safekeeping, allowing us to survive the rigors of life. There is something so compelling about this concept. I could explain the novel as commandeering a simple rowboat through the Southern Atlantic Ocean, holding on for dear life, trying to find reason within the journey. Feeling danger in the mission, yet satisfaction in overcoming obstacles deemed far too great. The complex prose offered by Elizabeth Anne Martins is neatly bundled in a fairly digestible package. I remember watching the movie Inception and being lost, yet faced with some of the same intricacies, this novel was conveyed in a more manageable way. This approach to a futuristic way the world might treat PTSD is fascinating, albeit with a certain amount of danger involved.
👎 Orbs Cons: While Martins does an impressive job of conveying a relatively straightforward and understandable story, it is confusing by nature. Hopping from memories, present, past, and everywhere in between. Traveling through the five senses, each invoking a different sort of memory accessed from a seemingly different place, can be formidable. There was a period ¾ into this virtual setting where I remained imprisoned, much like the character Pip herself; it felt claustrophobic, suffocating, and tiresome. While there was plenty of action, my little pea brain was suffering from overthinking. Perhaps in retrospect, Martins did a marvelous job of putting me squarely in a world where I felt these emotions, but I can’t deny that part of me resented it.
Recommended! So where, oh where, does the Orb sit on this one? I will say this will be a memorable book, one that I may refer to in the future. Conceptually, a look into the future left me in awe and terrified at the same time. AI, ChatGPT, all of it boggles my mind as a person who grew up with Lincoln Logs and Tonka trucks. This was an experience, and one I won’t soon forget.
💡 Orbs Epilogue: More cracks emerged; I was simply falling apart. Parts of me crashed and fell into the ashes coating the floor. From Pip’s periphery, I gleaned, attempting to speak in riddles, to help uncover those mysteries she so desired. The crash of the beams on the other side of the structure was a warning; the chimes outside began to swing and ring wildly. Turbulent in nature, 1, 2, 3,… Surely this must be a signal to Pip, but what? 4… Orchestral music strums tensely, a violin bow frantically weaving back and forth, exuding a frenzied pace… 5…slower now…. 6. Silence… Pip leaves the building; I gaze up at the ceiling. My journey has ended, dear reader, and yet I have satisfaction that Pip’s story is just beginning.
Many thanks to Bea at Flame Tree Press for the ARC through NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion.
November 21, 2025
In Opposite World, by Elizabeth Anne Martins, we follow main character Pip Screed from her childhood, when she lives off-grid in the Snoqualmie woods with her reclusive widower father, through to young adulthood, when she gets a job with a tech company and becomes hooked on one of their clients’ products: a sleep therapy programme called The Reverie Cloud.
The Reverie Cloud gives users the opportunity to consciously shape and interact with dreamscapes, whether they want to do-over painful memories to overcome traumas or boost their confidence, participate in exciting video game-like adventures, or simply relax and unwind in tranquil settings precisely tailored to them.
Pip hopes to access buried memories that answer some burning questions she has: what was behind the convulsive attacks she suffered as a child, one of which knocked her out for months? How did her mother die? Why did her father become so paranoid and move them out to the sticks following her mother’s death?
As it turns out, Pip isn’t the only one looking for something in her subconscious: the people behind the software have reason to believe she’s the key to some information that could make them very rich and powerful indeed – and they’ll do whatever it takes to get at it.
As soon as I saw the blurb for Opposite World, I just knew I had to read it. A couple of years ago, I wrote a short story where a fictionalised version of myself used a VR therapy programme to interact with her younger self at moments when she’d needed to feel seen and understood, but I was never quite happy with the ending, so I was really curious to see what Martins made of a not-dissimilar premise. And the answer is: so much!
This story is a real feat of imagination. Not only is The Reverie Cloud itself – the six types of scenario it presents to the user, and the multitudes contained within them – full of wonders and well-realised, but its pertinence to Pip’s life before she starts actively using it as an adult, and the consequences it could have for both individual users and society as a whole if it was widely adopted, are cleverly conceived and well-thought-out.
For all its potential benefits, The Reverie Cloud is riddled with risks and dangers. An individual could choose to use it to overcome their personal traumas – or a military could impose it on soldiers, turning them into killing machines by pushing them to reconcile with their past actions, or even changing their memories themselves, thereby limiting the psychological effects of committing atrocities.
As Pip finds, the programme is not only an addictive escape from reality, but a way for bad actors to get at her. Forced into the sixth, most experimental dreamscape option, she has to prevent the programme’s creators from seeing something in her memories that would send its potential for harm stratospheric, while fighting off enemies who have joined her in the same simulation, and trying to escape before she’s trapped there forever.
In case that wasn’t bad enough, Pip also becomes horribly aware of the dangers of interacting with the master versions of memories, as opposed to copies of them created for therapeutic purposes. For one thing, we are our memories, so any inorganic (i.e. beyond the way they naturally alter each time we consciously recall them) tampering with them is destabilising at best, and catastrophic at worst. For another, some mind-bending (and delightfully spooky) temporal weirdness occurs, as strange experiences Pip has in her waking life come to be explained by subsequent interactions with her memories. It’s all very intense!
The marketing materials for Opposite World liken it to a number of books that are now on my TBR list, as well as the film Inception. To these, I would add Maggie Stiefvater’s Dreamer Trilogy where, like Pip, the characters have to learn to control their dreamscapes or else be controlled by them, and Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out, which was brought to my mind by Pip’s “memory carousel” and strategic retreat to particularly stable “core memories”.
Not unlike memories, Opposite World isn’t perfect – I groaned a little when Pip doodled a superlative app interface on her first try, without any training or experience in UI design that I was aware of, and the last few chapters dragged a little and might have been condensed into the epilogue. Even so: what a read.
Opposite World is imaginative, sophisticated, and full of suspense.
The Reverie Cloud gives users the opportunity to consciously shape and interact with dreamscapes, whether they want to do-over painful memories to overcome traumas or boost their confidence, participate in exciting video game-like adventures, or simply relax and unwind in tranquil settings precisely tailored to them.
Pip hopes to access buried memories that answer some burning questions she has: what was behind the convulsive attacks she suffered as a child, one of which knocked her out for months? How did her mother die? Why did her father become so paranoid and move them out to the sticks following her mother’s death?
As it turns out, Pip isn’t the only one looking for something in her subconscious: the people behind the software have reason to believe she’s the key to some information that could make them very rich and powerful indeed – and they’ll do whatever it takes to get at it.
As soon as I saw the blurb for Opposite World, I just knew I had to read it. A couple of years ago, I wrote a short story where a fictionalised version of myself used a VR therapy programme to interact with her younger self at moments when she’d needed to feel seen and understood, but I was never quite happy with the ending, so I was really curious to see what Martins made of a not-dissimilar premise. And the answer is: so much!
This story is a real feat of imagination. Not only is The Reverie Cloud itself – the six types of scenario it presents to the user, and the multitudes contained within them – full of wonders and well-realised, but its pertinence to Pip’s life before she starts actively using it as an adult, and the consequences it could have for both individual users and society as a whole if it was widely adopted, are cleverly conceived and well-thought-out.
For all its potential benefits, The Reverie Cloud is riddled with risks and dangers. An individual could choose to use it to overcome their personal traumas – or a military could impose it on soldiers, turning them into killing machines by pushing them to reconcile with their past actions, or even changing their memories themselves, thereby limiting the psychological effects of committing atrocities.
As Pip finds, the programme is not only an addictive escape from reality, but a way for bad actors to get at her. Forced into the sixth, most experimental dreamscape option, she has to prevent the programme’s creators from seeing something in her memories that would send its potential for harm stratospheric, while fighting off enemies who have joined her in the same simulation, and trying to escape before she’s trapped there forever.
In case that wasn’t bad enough, Pip also becomes horribly aware of the dangers of interacting with the master versions of memories, as opposed to copies of them created for therapeutic purposes. For one thing, we are our memories, so any inorganic (i.e. beyond the way they naturally alter each time we consciously recall them) tampering with them is destabilising at best, and catastrophic at worst. For another, some mind-bending (and delightfully spooky) temporal weirdness occurs, as strange experiences Pip has in her waking life come to be explained by subsequent interactions with her memories. It’s all very intense!
The marketing materials for Opposite World liken it to a number of books that are now on my TBR list, as well as the film Inception. To these, I would add Maggie Stiefvater’s Dreamer Trilogy where, like Pip, the characters have to learn to control their dreamscapes or else be controlled by them, and Disney/Pixar’s Inside Out, which was brought to my mind by Pip’s “memory carousel” and strategic retreat to particularly stable “core memories”.
Not unlike memories, Opposite World isn’t perfect – I groaned a little when Pip doodled a superlative app interface on her first try, without any training or experience in UI design that I was aware of, and the last few chapters dragged a little and might have been condensed into the epilogue. Even so: what a read.
Opposite World is imaginative, sophisticated, and full of suspense.
November 14, 2025
Opposite World is not a book to read quickly. It’s meant to be thought about, talked about, and studied.
The story begins in nature, quiet and solitary, before shifting into a high-tech dreamscape called The Reverie Cloud. Inside this programme, a user sleeps while their avatar explores a virtual world where any desire can be fulfilled. They can even revisit their own memories, or the likeness of people they know and love. The contrast between the calm, earthy beginning and the fast-paced digital world is striking. It feels like the book truly takes its title to heart. It is unconventional, experimental, and damn cool.
On the surface, the plot follows a young woman named Pip entering a VR programme to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death and her missing, manic father. At its core, though, the story is about addiction…not to a substance, but to different versions of yourself. Inside The Reverie Cloud, Pip becomes bold, fearless, and free, the opposite of her anxious, isolated self in the real world. Her transformation is thrilling at first but soon spirals out of control as she begins to question what’s real, which memories she can trust, who she can trust, and who she truly is. The book also brings up parental trauma and what happens when the truth of your childhood begins to crystallise, and you realise the truth about the people who raised you. It captures that duality of loving your caretakers while still holding onto anger, of recognising both care and damage in the same tangled-up voice. The theme of opposites surfaces again here, as the story becomes an exploration of how we move through innocence, into anger, and eventually towards acceptance and maturity.
Moving on, the scattered, non-linear memories mirror what it feels like to black out or lose pieces of yourself to trauma, dependency, or both. The disorientation is intentional, and you feel it alongside Pip. You want her to find her way out, to break the loop, to heal. Her descent becomes a metaphor for how pain drives escape and how healing only begins when you face what hurts.
This is not a traditional sci-fi thriller. It’s a cerebral journey about how our choices in the present rewrite our past and shape our future, and how the stories we tell ourselves define who we become.
Opposite World is an experience, sometimes unsettling, sometimes maddening, sometimes cinematic, wild, and fun. But always, vulnerable. Always searching for truth.
MAJOR SPOILER (my feelings on the book’s structure):
The book’s structure reveals, at a certain point, that what we’re reading is told from the point of view of altered memories. Events seem to be unfolding linearly, but soon the reader learns that everything that has happened on the left side of the book is a result of what happens on the right…omg, almost like the two sides of the brain. I found this so intriguing and haven’t ever read anything like this before. To me, it was designed to show the imperfectness of memories, that we can’t always trust them, and how the brain is wired to build meaning even out of chaos. As the book itself says, “the brain craves structure, not truth.” In the end, it’s up to us to decide what story we want to tell ourselves.
The story begins in nature, quiet and solitary, before shifting into a high-tech dreamscape called The Reverie Cloud. Inside this programme, a user sleeps while their avatar explores a virtual world where any desire can be fulfilled. They can even revisit their own memories, or the likeness of people they know and love. The contrast between the calm, earthy beginning and the fast-paced digital world is striking. It feels like the book truly takes its title to heart. It is unconventional, experimental, and damn cool.
On the surface, the plot follows a young woman named Pip entering a VR programme to uncover the truth behind her mother’s death and her missing, manic father. At its core, though, the story is about addiction…not to a substance, but to different versions of yourself. Inside The Reverie Cloud, Pip becomes bold, fearless, and free, the opposite of her anxious, isolated self in the real world. Her transformation is thrilling at first but soon spirals out of control as she begins to question what’s real, which memories she can trust, who she can trust, and who she truly is. The book also brings up parental trauma and what happens when the truth of your childhood begins to crystallise, and you realise the truth about the people who raised you. It captures that duality of loving your caretakers while still holding onto anger, of recognising both care and damage in the same tangled-up voice. The theme of opposites surfaces again here, as the story becomes an exploration of how we move through innocence, into anger, and eventually towards acceptance and maturity.
Moving on, the scattered, non-linear memories mirror what it feels like to black out or lose pieces of yourself to trauma, dependency, or both. The disorientation is intentional, and you feel it alongside Pip. You want her to find her way out, to break the loop, to heal. Her descent becomes a metaphor for how pain drives escape and how healing only begins when you face what hurts.
This is not a traditional sci-fi thriller. It’s a cerebral journey about how our choices in the present rewrite our past and shape our future, and how the stories we tell ourselves define who we become.
Opposite World is an experience, sometimes unsettling, sometimes maddening, sometimes cinematic, wild, and fun. But always, vulnerable. Always searching for truth.
MAJOR SPOILER (my feelings on the book’s structure):
The book’s structure reveals, at a certain point, that what we’re reading is told from the point of view of altered memories. Events seem to be unfolding linearly, but soon the reader learns that everything that has happened on the left side of the book is a result of what happens on the right…omg, almost like the two sides of the brain. I found this so intriguing and haven’t ever read anything like this before. To me, it was designed to show the imperfectness of memories, that we can’t always trust them, and how the brain is wired to build meaning even out of chaos. As the book itself says, “the brain craves structure, not truth.” In the end, it’s up to us to decide what story we want to tell ourselves.
September 15, 2025
With a blurb containing comparisons to Inception, Dark Matter, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Minds and Severance, I was really excited to start reading Opposite World.
Pip has been introduced to The Reverie Cloud, a service which shapes your dreaming experience, allowing you to take control – going on epic quests or reliving a moment from your own memories. But as dream and reality start to blur, Pip learns that her memories and experiences may not be as objective as she believes…
Opposite World, by all accounts should have been one of my standout books of the year - it’s standalone sci-fi, there’s a shady corporation, an unreliable narrator and it focuses on topics of dreams and technology - all the things I love in a book. However, there was something about the writing of this that stopped me from engaging in it fully. Although the beginning of the book, Pip’s childhood and the mystery of her missing mother pulled me in, the middle portion of the book started feeling very repetitive, with Pip slipping into paranoia and having endless sessions at the Reverie Cloud. I didn’t feel enough empathy with her to care about what was happening to her, and her thoughts were so jumbled and confused it was hard to work out what was happening. This is of course, by design when it comes to the next section, but I think it dragged the pace and confused the action a little too much without the payoff.
The later part of the book – where we are fully in the dream world then suddenly felt a bit like a fever dream. As a reader I was grasping at concepts and trying to work out what was real and what had happened, but not in a satisfying way. Characters became caricatures of themselves, and we were told about events that hadn’t even been hinted at before. I also struggled with the idea of altering memories to leave hints, as this affects the timeline in ways that weren’t really explored here.
After the main storyline is wrapped up, there are then several epilogue chapters which are years afterwards, with some vague foreshadowing. I found myself not really caring about this – I think it would have been better to condense these and just have one satisfying epilogue rather than trying to shoehorn in characters I had honestly forgotten existed or talking about trick or treating.
Overall, Opposite World was a bit of a mess for me – great concept but the pace dragged in the middle, and I struggled to empathise or really know what was going on for the rest of it. Thank you to NetGalley & Flame Tree Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
For more of my reviews check out Kindig Blog
Pip has been introduced to The Reverie Cloud, a service which shapes your dreaming experience, allowing you to take control – going on epic quests or reliving a moment from your own memories. But as dream and reality start to blur, Pip learns that her memories and experiences may not be as objective as she believes…
Opposite World, by all accounts should have been one of my standout books of the year - it’s standalone sci-fi, there’s a shady corporation, an unreliable narrator and it focuses on topics of dreams and technology - all the things I love in a book. However, there was something about the writing of this that stopped me from engaging in it fully. Although the beginning of the book, Pip’s childhood and the mystery of her missing mother pulled me in, the middle portion of the book started feeling very repetitive, with Pip slipping into paranoia and having endless sessions at the Reverie Cloud. I didn’t feel enough empathy with her to care about what was happening to her, and her thoughts were so jumbled and confused it was hard to work out what was happening. This is of course, by design when it comes to the next section, but I think it dragged the pace and confused the action a little too much without the payoff.
The later part of the book – where we are fully in the dream world then suddenly felt a bit like a fever dream. As a reader I was grasping at concepts and trying to work out what was real and what had happened, but not in a satisfying way. Characters became caricatures of themselves, and we were told about events that hadn’t even been hinted at before. I also struggled with the idea of altering memories to leave hints, as this affects the timeline in ways that weren’t really explored here.
After the main storyline is wrapped up, there are then several epilogue chapters which are years afterwards, with some vague foreshadowing. I found myself not really caring about this – I think it would have been better to condense these and just have one satisfying epilogue rather than trying to shoehorn in characters I had honestly forgotten existed or talking about trick or treating.
Overall, Opposite World was a bit of a mess for me – great concept but the pace dragged in the middle, and I struggled to empathise or really know what was going on for the rest of it. Thank you to NetGalley & Flame Tree Press for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
For more of my reviews check out Kindig Blog
December 3, 2025
3.5*
Pip's dad has kept her isolated and afraid in the woods for most of her life, but he hasn't exactly been forthcoming about why. All Pip knows is that she misses her mother, wishes her father would communicate, and finds herself all grown up and in a marriage to literally the only dude she's ever met. So when she gets a job at her husband's aunt's tech company, she's glad to have a purpose. But soon, she finds herself in this... dreamscape sleep therapy thing, which she is really into. But nothing is as it seems, and Pip is about to find out why her dad was being so secretive.
I can't tell you much more than that, because then you'd know all the things! I liked the twists of this one, and I enjoyed Pip's story. My main gripe was that it felt longer than it needed to be in places, which is unfortunate because it's a really solid story otherwise. I am usually iffy about dreams, but this one had enough intrigue and mystery to keep me on my toes. It also ended up being a lot more emotional than I thought, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it too.
Bottom Line: Loved the twists and turns, loved Pip's story and emotional journey, just wished it hadn't felt as draggy in spots.
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
Pip's dad has kept her isolated and afraid in the woods for most of her life, but he hasn't exactly been forthcoming about why. All Pip knows is that she misses her mother, wishes her father would communicate, and finds herself all grown up and in a marriage to literally the only dude she's ever met. So when she gets a job at her husband's aunt's tech company, she's glad to have a purpose. But soon, she finds herself in this... dreamscape sleep therapy thing, which she is really into. But nothing is as it seems, and Pip is about to find out why her dad was being so secretive.
I can't tell you much more than that, because then you'd know all the things! I liked the twists of this one, and I enjoyed Pip's story. My main gripe was that it felt longer than it needed to be in places, which is unfortunate because it's a really solid story otherwise. I am usually iffy about dreams, but this one had enough intrigue and mystery to keep me on my toes. It also ended up being a lot more emotional than I thought, and I really enjoyed that aspect of it too.
Bottom Line: Loved the twists and turns, loved Pip's story and emotional journey, just wished it hadn't felt as draggy in spots.
You can find the full review and all the fancy and/or randomness that accompanies it at It Starts at Midnight
November 8, 2025
Another interesting memory alteration thriller. I just finished another book that dealt with similar tropes but I’m always in the mood for weird, mind bending reads. Opposite World follows Pip. Following the abrupt death of her mother, 12yo Pip and her father head to the woods of WA to try and fly under the radar. Pip’s father is convinced he is being targeted by some sort of organization, but he refuses to give Pip any details. Pip eventually grows up, marries and begins working at an app development company. Soon Pip is given access to technology which allows its users to experience a different reality or review memories and things get intense.
This book would make a great movie. It’s very cinematically written which make it an easy read and one that plays out well in the mind. Pip, Vera, Farley and her father are all fun, dimensional characters. I loved the sci fi vibe that is interwoven in the second half, although I struggled to fully connect some of the dots of the Evadere aspect. I enjoyed the overall concepts and think this book will do well with readers who prefer theatrical leaning books. The last quarter of the book felt a bit too on the nose at times. Some of the more shadowy characters lacked dimension and the ending felt a bit too long. If you like weird books that play out well in the mind this is a solid read. I’d slot it more of a weird thriller than horror but one that still deals with subconscious terrorism in a bizarre way.
This book would make a great movie. It’s very cinematically written which make it an easy read and one that plays out well in the mind. Pip, Vera, Farley and her father are all fun, dimensional characters. I loved the sci fi vibe that is interwoven in the second half, although I struggled to fully connect some of the dots of the Evadere aspect. I enjoyed the overall concepts and think this book will do well with readers who prefer theatrical leaning books. The last quarter of the book felt a bit too on the nose at times. Some of the more shadowy characters lacked dimension and the ending felt a bit too long. If you like weird books that play out well in the mind this is a solid read. I’d slot it more of a weird thriller than horror but one that still deals with subconscious terrorism in a bizarre way.
November 30, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for allowing me this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book hooked me from the beginning, then sort of veered off path to expectations, then sort of clicked back in place at the end in a nice way. I was never super pulled from page to page but I enjoyed the journey. The ending might have been a bit vague for my tastes but maybe there will be a sequel the way it is set up.
This followed a sort of classic science fiction storyline with some interesting twists and variences I really enjoyed. I disliked most of the side characters until certain factors are revealed at the end buuuut it did also feel like the damage to their reputation had been done and I wasn't vibing with them at all. That said, that is really my only complaint though. The parts I liked far outweighed my skepticism towards everyone around her and it was super interesting watching everything unfold through the end. It was a tad predictable but it wasn't distracting, I still enjoyed what happened.
Overall I'd recommend this for any sci-fi fan & hope Elizabeth continues to make stories like this!
This book hooked me from the beginning, then sort of veered off path to expectations, then sort of clicked back in place at the end in a nice way. I was never super pulled from page to page but I enjoyed the journey. The ending might have been a bit vague for my tastes but maybe there will be a sequel the way it is set up.
This followed a sort of classic science fiction storyline with some interesting twists and variences I really enjoyed. I disliked most of the side characters until certain factors are revealed at the end buuuut it did also feel like the damage to their reputation had been done and I wasn't vibing with them at all. That said, that is really my only complaint though. The parts I liked far outweighed my skepticism towards everyone around her and it was super interesting watching everything unfold through the end. It was a tad predictable but it wasn't distracting, I still enjoyed what happened.
Overall I'd recommend this for any sci-fi fan & hope Elizabeth continues to make stories like this!
November 18, 2025
Opposite World is a dystopian sci-fi thriller / coming of age tale in which we follow Piper ( Pip ) who's Father, following her Mother's mysterious death, takes her to a secluded mountain cabin. Fast forward 15 years, and Pip manages to escape the isolation and finds herself involved in a sleep therapy program called "The Reverie Cloud". Once connected to the program, users merge their subconscious with virtual reality, but Pip becomes trapped and must confront the deepest recesses of her own mind in order to discover the truth.
Want to know more? Be sure to pick your copy up to find out.
So all in all, an incredibly entertaining, intriguing read that for me was very much reminiscent of the films Total Recall, The Matrix and Inception .
It did take it's time to get going, I must admit, but once the pace hit, it's twist after twist and turn after turn.
You get mixed up in reality and dreams and everything in between.
It's a fresh take on the idea of becoming trapped in your own dreams but retains the feeling of being new and groundbreaking.
4 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟's from me.
Want to know more? Be sure to pick your copy up to find out.
So all in all, an incredibly entertaining, intriguing read that for me was very much reminiscent of the films Total Recall, The Matrix and Inception .
It did take it's time to get going, I must admit, but once the pace hit, it's twist after twist and turn after turn.
You get mixed up in reality and dreams and everything in between.
It's a fresh take on the idea of becoming trapped in your own dreams but retains the feeling of being new and groundbreaking.
4 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟's from me.
November 11, 2025
💖 Blurb-
Memories are malleable, dreams are a battlefield, and reality is a shifting landscape. Think Inception meets Dark Matter, with echoes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the unsettling corporate dystopia of Severance.
Piper “Pip” Screed remembers nothing about her mother’s mysterious death or the strange episode that left her in a deep, unexplained sleep. All she knows is that her father uprooted them to a secluded mountain cabin, severed all ties to the outside world, and refuses to answer her questions.
Fifteen years later, Pip escapes isolation and discovers The Reverie Cloud—a revolutionary sleep-therapy program that merges the subconscious with virtual reality. Here, users can experience their desires, confront fears, and rewrite their pasts in a dreamscape indistinguishable from reality. But when The Reverie Cloud falls into the hands of those who see her subconscious as a prize, Pip becomes ensnared within its unstable architecture. Now locked inside the program, she must navigate its mercurial layers, face the horrors buried within her subconscious, and unravel the truth about her past before time runs out. Worse, she’s not the only one at risk—her father’s life hangs in the balance, too.
But the deeper Pip ventures, the more dangerous the game becomes. If she pushes too far, she may never escape. Yet only by confronting the truth can she hope to uncover what really happened to her mother—before the program consumes her entirely.
Blending science fiction with psychological horror, surreal fantasy, and an aching tremor of human longing, OPPOSITE WORLD is an exploration of memory, identity, and the thin divide between perception and reality.
💜 Review -
This was such an interesting read. I was hooked from the very first page and I kept reading until the end as I wanted to know what happened. I hadn't read anything like this before and I found it interesting and entertaining. There was plenty of content and twists and turns to keep me interested. The story and word building was brilliant and there was a great cast of characters. I highly recommend it and I look forward to reading more by the author.
💓 Thank you to Random Things Tours, the author and publisher for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
Memories are malleable, dreams are a battlefield, and reality is a shifting landscape. Think Inception meets Dark Matter, with echoes of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the unsettling corporate dystopia of Severance.
Piper “Pip” Screed remembers nothing about her mother’s mysterious death or the strange episode that left her in a deep, unexplained sleep. All she knows is that her father uprooted them to a secluded mountain cabin, severed all ties to the outside world, and refuses to answer her questions.
Fifteen years later, Pip escapes isolation and discovers The Reverie Cloud—a revolutionary sleep-therapy program that merges the subconscious with virtual reality. Here, users can experience their desires, confront fears, and rewrite their pasts in a dreamscape indistinguishable from reality. But when The Reverie Cloud falls into the hands of those who see her subconscious as a prize, Pip becomes ensnared within its unstable architecture. Now locked inside the program, she must navigate its mercurial layers, face the horrors buried within her subconscious, and unravel the truth about her past before time runs out. Worse, she’s not the only one at risk—her father’s life hangs in the balance, too.
But the deeper Pip ventures, the more dangerous the game becomes. If she pushes too far, she may never escape. Yet only by confronting the truth can she hope to uncover what really happened to her mother—before the program consumes her entirely.
Blending science fiction with psychological horror, surreal fantasy, and an aching tremor of human longing, OPPOSITE WORLD is an exploration of memory, identity, and the thin divide between perception and reality.
💜 Review -
This was such an interesting read. I was hooked from the very first page and I kept reading until the end as I wanted to know what happened. I hadn't read anything like this before and I found it interesting and entertaining. There was plenty of content and twists and turns to keep me interested. The story and word building was brilliant and there was a great cast of characters. I highly recommend it and I look forward to reading more by the author.
💓 Thank you to Random Things Tours, the author and publisher for my copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
December 28, 2025
Elizabeth has done it again, weaving a spellbinding tale that leaves you breathless! After being utterly captivated by Dry Lands last year, I was eagerly awaiting this new release, and it did not disappoint. I devoured it in just 24 hours, unable to tear myself away from its gripping pages.
From the very first chapter, I was ensnared in a web of mystery and intrigue, teetering on the edge of understanding. The plot was a thrilling rollercoaster, with twists and turns that kept me guessing at every turn. I felt as though I was on the brink of losing my mind, just like the characters.
But then, like a master magician, Elizabeth revealed the hidden truths, taking me on an exhilarating journey through the labyrinth of someone’s mind and memories. If you’re a fan of science fiction with a spine-tingling dose of suspense, this book is an absolute must-read. Add it to your list immediately…you won’t regret it!
From the very first chapter, I was ensnared in a web of mystery and intrigue, teetering on the edge of understanding. The plot was a thrilling rollercoaster, with twists and turns that kept me guessing at every turn. I felt as though I was on the brink of losing my mind, just like the characters.
But then, like a master magician, Elizabeth revealed the hidden truths, taking me on an exhilarating journey through the labyrinth of someone’s mind and memories. If you’re a fan of science fiction with a spine-tingling dose of suspense, this book is an absolute must-read. Add it to your list immediately…you won’t regret it!
December 16, 2025
I loved this concept. One of my favorite genres is dystopian/sci-fi, and this story really brought the idea of AI into a well-thought-out, calculated narrative. I enjoyed the premise and especially appreciate when an author presents a unique concept and fully commits to it…and does it well.
The visual imagery was strong throughout, and Elizabeth M. is very descriptive in her writing, which made it easy to picture the world and its systems. You can clearly see the intention behind the story and the themes she wanted to explore.
The only drawback for me was near the ending, where the conclusion felt like it dragged a bit. I found myself thinking, “Wait… another chapter?” That said, it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.
I’d definitely recommend trying this one if you enjoy sci-fi or dystopian stories, especially those that explore AI!!
The visual imagery was strong throughout, and Elizabeth M. is very descriptive in her writing, which made it easy to picture the world and its systems. You can clearly see the intention behind the story and the themes she wanted to explore.
The only drawback for me was near the ending, where the conclusion felt like it dragged a bit. I found myself thinking, “Wait… another chapter?” That said, it didn’t take away from my overall enjoyment of the book.
I’d definitely recommend trying this one if you enjoy sci-fi or dystopian stories, especially those that explore AI!!
January 12, 2026
I was not that impressed with this book. There were still a lot of questions. She wasn’t traveling back in time, she was just messing with her own memories. And how did people die stuck in a memory? Wouldn’t they just be in a coma? Also, why did they hook up Farley and throw him in Pip’s head when she was running from Victor? Wouldn’t it have made more sense just to kill him? Or capture him so they could use him later to manipulate Pip? Why didn’t Victor just sedate her and take all her memories? If the Reverie Cloud had the essentially unlimited funding it seemed to have wouldn’t they just find another genius to do their programming when Pip’s father left? Also, because of the funding it seemed to have, clearly powerful people were behind it and would just hire another Victor and continue the work. How the characters reacted and acted toward things did not seem to accurately reflect human nature.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 24, 2025
Opposite World is an exciting novel with great pacing that really sucked me in. The split between living in a no-tech world to the highest-tech world was captivating and watching them collide was tense, eerie and even emotional.
The concept and execution of this idea was well done and the worldbuilding was great. As the book progressed layers peeled away and I was immersed into this strange dichotomic world.
The lead female character was great and strong, even though her rise was perhaps a bit far-fetched. But c’mon, it works, this is fiction!
Readers who liked watching the Matrix, Inception and even the Tron series (Tron 3 especially) will probably enjoy this book!
Thank you to Elizabeth Anne Martins, Flame Tree Press and Netgalley for the gifted early eCopy!
The concept and execution of this idea was well done and the worldbuilding was great. As the book progressed layers peeled away and I was immersed into this strange dichotomic world.
The lead female character was great and strong, even though her rise was perhaps a bit far-fetched. But c’mon, it works, this is fiction!
Readers who liked watching the Matrix, Inception and even the Tron series (Tron 3 especially) will probably enjoy this book!
Thank you to Elizabeth Anne Martins, Flame Tree Press and Netgalley for the gifted early eCopy!
January 13, 2026
As a general rule, I don't read thrillers or mysteries. I usually pass. But I love dystopian and read Dry Lands and really loved it. I enjoyed the author's writing style and story telling so I picked up Opposite World. I LOVED IT!
I love how the story unfolds. I found it believable, written in a way a child's memory would be, not necessarily the whole story or completely reliable. Pip knew something was wrong. I was surprised how some things fell into place just right. I'm trying not to comment on the events. I definitely recommend this story for all the dystopian fans. A lot happens in the dream world.
I did receive a review copy but that had no influence on my review. Thank you. This is my honest and voluntary review.
I love how the story unfolds. I found it believable, written in a way a child's memory would be, not necessarily the whole story or completely reliable. Pip knew something was wrong. I was surprised how some things fell into place just right. I'm trying not to comment on the events. I definitely recommend this story for all the dystopian fans. A lot happens in the dream world.
I did receive a review copy but that had no influence on my review. Thank you. This is my honest and voluntary review.
December 23, 2025
⭐2.75
This started off very strong and wasn't like anything I've ever read before. I enjoyed short chapters and getting to know Pip and her character.
However, I started losing interest around halfway through and was struggling to keep up with what's going on and where the story was taking me, as Pip wasn't a very reliable narrator and her thoughts and inner voice were all over the place.
It's a very strong concept but felt way too long for me and slightly bizarre, where at the end I just didn't care enough.
Thank you NetGalley, I appreciate the chance of reading this before its release date.
This started off very strong and wasn't like anything I've ever read before. I enjoyed short chapters and getting to know Pip and her character.
However, I started losing interest around halfway through and was struggling to keep up with what's going on and where the story was taking me, as Pip wasn't a very reliable narrator and her thoughts and inner voice were all over the place.
It's a very strong concept but felt way too long for me and slightly bizarre, where at the end I just didn't care enough.
Thank you NetGalley, I appreciate the chance of reading this before its release date.
August 15, 2025
Thank you, NetGalley, and Flame Tree Press, for allowing me to read this book early. The opinion in this review is my own.
This was such a fun read. It gives great cyberpunk, 1984, psychological horror vibes and it delivers. Pip is a great character that you want to root for. She tries so hard and is so earnest, but also resilient. The story world-builds without having info-dumping. The flow feels natural and it feels like watching a movie. It did get slightly slower in the middle, but that’s the only complaint. I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in the premise.
This was such a fun read. It gives great cyberpunk, 1984, psychological horror vibes and it delivers. Pip is a great character that you want to root for. She tries so hard and is so earnest, but also resilient. The story world-builds without having info-dumping. The flow feels natural and it feels like watching a movie. It did get slightly slower in the middle, but that’s the only complaint. I highly recommend this book if you’re interested in the premise.
October 19, 2025
I absolutely loved this book. Watching Pip’s development throughout the story was such an experience, she grew older, but not necessarily wiser right away, which made her journey feel all the more real. Seeing everything unfold through her eyes from beginning to end was a true adventure. The twists were brilliant and kept me hooked the entire time, and the way the story connected so seamlessly made it impossible to put down. The ending was a beautiful and satisfying conclusion to an incredible read.
November 17, 2025
Opposite World had a cool idea, it sadly failed to grab me while I read it. For me, the narration was too distant and disconnected. It caused me to never care about the characters and I never got pulled into the story. It is told in a very straightforward way I think some readers could appreciate.
Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Note: ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
December 8, 2025
I enjoyed this one so much. It kept me from first to last page. Everything about this one was perfect. The tone, the setting, the plot, the characters… I mean EVERYTHING! This will be an auto read author for me from now on!
October 21, 2025
Start to finish, couldn't put this book down! Loved it
November 5, 2025
i loved the short chapters and i love that there were times you were questioning your own sanity as a reader 👀 definitely inception vibes
November 12, 2025
3.5 / 5 🌟
November 5, 2025
This book was definitely a crazy read, and just like Inception, The Matrix and Dark Matter, I didn’t get it. Ha. It makes your thoughts twists in ways that are not normal trying to comprehend the “reality” of what you are reading.
The first half of the book was customary, a little unusual in the story, but nothing you couldn’t follow. But once you get into the subconscious world, all hell breaks loose, and I got lost trying to follow all the little things that could happen in there.
A strange and mindbending story, Opposite World could definitely be your thing if you liked the movies listed above and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Thank you to the author, Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy of this book.
The first half of the book was customary, a little unusual in the story, but nothing you couldn’t follow. But once you get into the subconscious world, all hell breaks loose, and I got lost trying to follow all the little things that could happen in there.
A strange and mindbending story, Opposite World could definitely be your thing if you liked the movies listed above and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
Thank you to the author, Flame Tree Press and NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy of this book.
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