February 9, 2020
Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray
The basics
Title: Lair of Dreams
Author: Libba Bray
Series: The Diviners #2
- The Diviners (2012) - Lair of Dreams (2015) - Before the Devil Breaks You (2017) - The King of Crows (2020)
Add it: Goodreads
Goodreads Summary:
After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O’Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people’s secrets, she’s become a media darling, earning the title “America’s Sweetheart Seer.” Everyone’s in love with the city’s newest It Girl…everyone except the other Diviners. Piano-playing Henry DuBois and Chinatown resident Ling Chan are two Diviners struggling to keep their powers a secret—for they can walk in dreams. And while Evie is living the high life, victims of a mysterious sleeping sickness are turning up across New York City.
As Henry searches for a lost love and Ling strives to succeed in a world that shuns her, a malevolent force infects their dreams. And at the edges of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans that extend farther than anyone can guess…As the sickness spreads, can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld to save the city?
Read a full summary of Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray below. If you can’t remember what happened in Lair of Dreams and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.
what happened in Lair of Dreams?
- A music box is found next to a skeleton by some men who are building the subway in New York City.
- The men hear crying in the wind, and that night they fall asleep and don’t wake up. This starts to spread through Chinatown, and people start calling it the sleeping sickness. The victims also develop blisters.
- We meet Ling, a Diviner who can speak to the dead in her sleep.
- Evie is now working in radio, and is called the Sweetheart Seer. At the beginning of the book, we see her being thrown out of another hotel for throwing noisy parties.
- Henry is looking for Louis is dreams when he comes across Ling. He seeks her out irl, and asks for her help finding Louis.
- George falls ill with the sleeping sickness and falls into a coma after the dream asks him to make a promise.
- Sam is struggling to keep the Museum open so he can search for his mother and for information on the Buffalo Project. Sam is being watched by two men.
- Will leaves NYC with Sister Walker in order to find more Diviners. Will wants to find more information on the man in the hat.
- Evie misses Jericho a lot.
- Bill is living with Memphis and Isiah. He hasn’t told Memphis that he made Isiah sick, and he is now hoping to take Memphis’ healing power.
- Henry finds Louis, as well as running into a creepy woman in a veil. Henry and Ling follow her underground onto a train that takes them to another dream world.
- Ling runs into another dream walker called Wai-Mae, who tells her that she is on a ship to the USA and she is going to get married there. Wing-Mae can alter dreams, and she promises to teach Ling how.
- Ms Proctor is performing magical rituals to keep the dead at bay.
- Sam tells a reporter that he and Evie are engaged, and Evie’s producer wants Evie to run with it.
- Sam asks for Evie’s help to research the Buffalo Project.
- Jericho gets upset about the fake engagement as he thinks it’s real.
- Sam and Jericho come across letters that were passed between Will and his dead lover. There’s also an envelope addressed to Miriam Lubovitch, Sam’s mother. It’s empty.
- Ling seeks out George in the dream world, who tells her to wake up. George then dies in his sleep.
- Henry speaks to Louis in the dream world and asks him to come to the city.
- Wai-Mae warns Ling and Henry about some ghosts in the dream world that are hiding in the tunnels.
- Jericho is doing some research and he discovers that Diviners disrupt EMFs by emitting radiation. Jericho finds an EMF meter (like in Supernatural!!).
- Jericho finds more letters from Will and they tell him that Will and his friend accepted donations from the Founders Club – a white supremacy group.
- Theta is struggling to hide her fire powers.
- Sam speaks to a friend of his mother, who tells him that the government found out about his mother’s powers and presumably Sam’s. She gives Sam some things that his mother asked her to hide.
- Bill steals Isiah’s powers and asks for the correct numbers. Isiah tells him 1, 4, 4. Isiah asks Bill about Guillaume, which Bill doesn’t take well.
- Ling looks into the underground railway that was built before the subway. It’s connected to the station in the dream world.
- People start to disappear, presumably due to the creatures that are appearing in the tunnels.
- Memphis heals a man who then sees the grey man. The man claims that an angel healed him.
- Henry is struggling to stay awake at rehearsals because he’s so busy in his dreams.
- Sam and Evie discover the US Department of Paranormal. They find a card that has a record of Subject #144. While they’re investigating, two men appear and Sam and Evie have to hide.
- Memphis enters the dream world after healing someone. The ghost lady tries to lure him in, but he escapes.
- Mabel and Jericho go on a date.
- Ms Proctor falls ill with a fever. She has bargained with the grey man to let her see Elijah in exchange for her services. Elijah is upset with this arrangement because he doesn’t want to be bound to Ms Proctor.
- The grey lady asks Henry to dream with her. Ling thinks the grey lady is connected with the subway tunnel somehow.
- Evie reads the photo of Sam and his mother. She sees Sam be tested, but he shows up blank. She sees the government try to recruit Sam’s mother for Project Buffalo.
- Evie dreams of her family. The grey lady appears in her dream and Evie wakes up.
- Jake Marlow arrives in NYC. He gives Ling tickets to his exhibition. We realise that Marlow is the guy who provides Jericho with serum, and he refuses to give the serum to Jericho unless he agrees to them studying him.
- Bill draws power from Isiah, who falls into a coma. Bill wants Memphis to heal Isiah so he can steal the power, but Isiah wakes up.
- Theta tells Evie about Henry’s dream walking abilities. They see a psychologist, who tells them that people have something called a shadow self.
- Ms Proctor provides Henry with information about the underground railway. He learns that a girl was murdered there, and it’s presumably the grey lady.
- Ling tries to warn Wai-Mae against her marriage in the USA, but Wai-Mae is having none of it. Ling learns that the company that is shipping Wai-Mae was disbanded a few decades ago, because the owner was murdered by a veiled woman from China.
- The man with the hat makes Ms Proctor break the bond between her and Elijah.
- A soldier tries to shoot Evie, but Sam confuses the soldier and stops him.
- Sam and Evie kiss.
- Henry and Ling dream walk in the tunnel again. The grey lady tries to attack them, and Ling is burned irl.
- The two men talk to Mr Hamilton about an Oracle. They’re looking for Diviners.
- Henry waits for Louis to arrive at the station, but he doesn’t show.
- Evie reads from a comb live on the radio. The comb used to belong to her brother, James. The person who brought her the comb said that two men in dark suits asked him to take it. Evie is quite upset.
- Ling asks her uncle about getting rid of ghosts. He tells her she has to put a pearl in the corpse’s mouth.
- Ling comes to the realisation that Wai-Mae is the grey lady (GASP TWIST).
- The grey lady, or, Wai-Mae, gets Henry to dream with her. Ling tries to warn Henry but he agrees too quickly.
- Memphis reveals that he’s a healer.
- The group realises that the creatures that have been chilling in the tunnels are people that Wai-Mae infected with the sleeping sickness, and they’re killing people for their energy.
- Ling enters the dream world to save Henry.
- The group tries to wake Ling and Henry up but they can’t manage it. Evie heads into the tunnels with Theta, Memphis, and Sam.
- The gang find a woman’s bones, which Evie is able to read. She finds out about Wai-Mae, and how she travelled to the USA via ship only to be sent to a brothel. She escaped after killing the owner, but was discovered in a subway car and then buried alive.
- The gang take the bones and plan to bury them. Theta uses her fire powers to escape the creatures.
- Louis recalls how Henry’s father had Louis beaten and killed, and Louis has actually been dead this whole time. He tells Henry that it’s time to wake up.
- Ling puts a pearl in Wai-Mae’s mouth, and the group bury her bones in a graveyard, putting her to rest.
- Sam and Evie tell everyone about the suspect files they found. We learn that the files are from the US Department of Paranormal, which was to investigate Diviners and supernatural events.
- Will and Sister Walker return.
- Jericho uses the last of his serum.
- Theta receives an ominous note.
- One of the creepy men is holding Miriam hostage. She is being tortured for information on the Diviners.
This is a full plot summary of what happened in Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!
