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Variations on a Dream: A Novel
From the Giller-shortlisted author of Glorious Frazzled Beings comes a beguiling debut novel humming with sensuality, intelligence, and a tinge of the absurd.
After years of shouldering the childcare and housework, trying to keep her creative life and career alive, and managing her husband’s existential anxieties, the once whimsical Sarah is too burned out to dream. Most days, all she can muster is an imaginary version of her husband Trevor, one who actually listens to her, an almost-IRL replica of the husband in the picture-perfect image of their family she crafts online. Meanwhile, Trevor is caught in a downward spiral of his own. Strangled by his fear of artistic mediocrity and mounting sexual frustration, he fantasizes about the early college days when their romance was still athrill with seductive possibility.
When both Sarah and Trevor secretly stumble on an auteur porn film based on the ancient Greek myth of Ariadne and Dionysus, they are immediately sucked into a dizzying maze of obsession, betrayal, and duplicate selves echoing backwards in time. With the arrival of a brilliant, alluring new student in Trevor’s university class, the line between fantasy and reality is increasingly blurred, threatening to collapse the walls of their mythology forever.
With startling psychological insight, a sly sense of humour, and all the peculiar twists of a fairytale, Variations on a Dream is a fearless exploration of the lengths we will go to save what we believe to be a dream come true.
After years of shouldering the childcare and housework, trying to keep her creative life and career alive, and managing her husband’s existential anxieties, the once whimsical Sarah is too burned out to dream. Most days, all she can muster is an imaginary version of her husband Trevor, one who actually listens to her, an almost-IRL replica of the husband in the picture-perfect image of their family she crafts online. Meanwhile, Trevor is caught in a downward spiral of his own. Strangled by his fear of artistic mediocrity and mounting sexual frustration, he fantasizes about the early college days when their romance was still athrill with seductive possibility.
When both Sarah and Trevor secretly stumble on an auteur porn film based on the ancient Greek myth of Ariadne and Dionysus, they are immediately sucked into a dizzying maze of obsession, betrayal, and duplicate selves echoing backwards in time. With the arrival of a brilliant, alluring new student in Trevor’s university class, the line between fantasy and reality is increasingly blurred, threatening to collapse the walls of their mythology forever.
With startling psychological insight, a sly sense of humour, and all the peculiar twists of a fairytale, Variations on a Dream is a fearless exploration of the lengths we will go to save what we believe to be a dream come true.
- GenresLiterary Fiction
464 pages, Paperback
Published February 3, 2026
11 people are currently reading
260 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 9, 2026
DNF @ 316 pages so I'm still calling this read. I can't handle any more of these books about shitty husbands and their sniveling wives. If he was a loser when you married him, he's not just going to magically stop being one!!
March 31, 2026
Picked it out solely based on the beautiful cover and ended up loving it! Oop!
I've never read anything quite like this before. It was very artsy. And while I typically run away from poetry, it really worked in this.
Following a tale as old as time... porn addicted and deeply insecure man meets equally insecure woman who believes that to be loved, she must be indispensable, doing everything she can to make things easier for him. We've all been there...
It really had me thinking about marriage [and motherhood]. In 2026, it's all starting to feel like a trap. Slowly chipping away at your soul. They say women who are single live happier, longer lives. And we all know why!
Definitely not for everyone, but it was for me. #CanCon
Memorable quotes:
"'Ugh, ugh, ugh... Yes, baby, yes. You like that? You dirty, dirty little girl. You want this? You want more?' ... 'Umm?' Sarah thought. How to respond? Surprising... She felt innocent, not dirty. She tried, 'Be nice to me?'" (87) You have to laugh!
"'You, Sarah, are my Domestic Goddess," Trevor would often say to her in their castle in Mississauga, during the dream-come-true phase of playing house together..." (121) nightmare!!
"...from Domestic Goddess to Divine Mama." (148) call the cops!
"She wished he would see that she had been there the entire time, giving him her all. She loved this man, and loving him was diminishing her. Each time she hoped, he shattered it. Showing his real self to her, time and time again, and she had just been refusing to see, blotting herself out in the process.
See me! See me! See me! she heard a little voice inside her shout." (345)
I've never read anything quite like this before. It was very artsy. And while I typically run away from poetry, it really worked in this.
Following a tale as old as time... porn addicted and deeply insecure man meets equally insecure woman who believes that to be loved, she must be indispensable, doing everything she can to make things easier for him. We've all been there...
It really had me thinking about marriage [and motherhood]. In 2026, it's all starting to feel like a trap. Slowly chipping away at your soul. They say women who are single live happier, longer lives. And we all know why!
Definitely not for everyone, but it was for me. #CanCon
Memorable quotes:
"'Ugh, ugh, ugh... Yes, baby, yes. You like that? You dirty, dirty little girl. You want this? You want more?' ... 'Umm?' Sarah thought. How to respond? Surprising... She felt innocent, not dirty. She tried, 'Be nice to me?'" (87) You have to laugh!
"'You, Sarah, are my Domestic Goddess," Trevor would often say to her in their castle in Mississauga, during the dream-come-true phase of playing house together..." (121) nightmare!!
"...from Domestic Goddess to Divine Mama." (148) call the cops!
"She wished he would see that she had been there the entire time, giving him her all. She loved this man, and loving him was diminishing her. Each time she hoped, he shattered it. Showing his real self to her, time and time again, and she had just been refusing to see, blotting herself out in the process.
See me! See me! See me! she heard a little voice inside her shout." (345)
March 1, 2026
3.5 stars: a challenging novel to read in both style and theme. The poems that separate the large narrative are very artistic. They make sense in the scheme of the storytelling and continue to carry the plot, although I’m not a big fan of poetry. I love the characters Ariadne and Masha and cheered on Sarah to stand up for herself and see her own worth. Trevor, typically, thinks he is a “good guy” and exhibits the toxic masculinity present in today’s set of so-called good guys.
March 30, 2026
|| VARIATIONS ON A DREAM ||
#gifted @penguinrandomca
•
I loved Lalonde's Glorious Frazzled Beings so when I heard she had a novel coming out I was thrilled!
Variations of a Dream is a about a marriage falling apart. But its also about desire, sex and power. All themes that facinate. With surreal almost magical elements throughout, Lalonde's creativity flows and nothing is quite what it seems. This was a delight! Funny, whimsical and unforgettable.
#gifted @penguinrandomca
•
I loved Lalonde's Glorious Frazzled Beings so when I heard she had a novel coming out I was thrilled!
Variations of a Dream is a about a marriage falling apart. But its also about desire, sex and power. All themes that facinate. With surreal almost magical elements throughout, Lalonde's creativity flows and nothing is quite what it seems. This was a delight! Funny, whimsical and unforgettable.
February 26, 2026
Timely novel exposing toxic masculinity for how pervasive it is. What makes it even better is the main female character eventually trying to save herself. Some of the short stories or poems written from the perspective of the characters were a bit too artsy for me to understand, but overall an enjoyable read.
March 15, 2026
This book was such a pleasure to read and resonated with much of what I’m observing at this stage (mid) of life. This would make for an excellent book-club or literature course selection as it is rich with topics to discuss further.
February 23, 2026
Review to come
March 31, 2026
I struggled with this one at first. The tone is so strange and distancing. However, once I committed I was totally immersed in this strange dream-like narrative.
March 31, 2026
Wonderful, weird, alluring, painfully realistic but also imaginative, touching, infuriating. The list could go on.
Felt it all & loved it.
Felt it all & loved it.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews