Sinking into a new Laini Taylor book is kind of like reuniting with an old friend. There’s no one quite like them, so you have to readjust a little to their unique mannerisms and flair. But they unlock a part of you most people can’t and leave you feeling inspired.
Strange The Dreamer is Taylor’s first book after the end of her Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, and it introduces an original fantasy world full of lyricism, charm, and devastation that will captivate readers.
Sheltered librarian Lazlo Strange has always dreamed of the lost city known as “Weep,” despite the rest of society calling it a myth. That is, until the day a man named Eril-Fane, also known as Godslayer, comes to town to recruit locals that will help the people of this secret city save it from an an unbelievable threat. Lazlo finds himself joining a contingency of foreigners or “faranji” who enter Weep, only to discover that the city’s reason for hiding itself away was far wilder than even he could have dreamed up. Meanwhile, Sarai lives hidden away, a blue-skinned godspawn– the child of a human and a god. The safety of herself and her companions depends on her ability to watch over the people of Weep. She doesn’t interact with them, per se. What she does to them is much more sinister… until the day she is inexplicably discovered by Lazlo Strange and everything goes awry.
This book definitely focus on characters and settings more than a fast-paced plot. Where this is set in a fantasy world, there’s a hefty amount of set-up to get through. If you bore easily, the beginning might be hard for you. But the characters are so well-built that it makes the story even more powerful when the plot really begins. We’ll admit: reviewing this book is HARD because the plot has so many fantastical elements that we can’t really describe much without spoiling, and everyone should have the opportunity to see this book with fresh eyes.
Lazlo is the ultimate idealist, the purest reflection of a bookworm with a good heart and dash of socially awkward behavior, and we loved him for that. Sari has deliciously wicked powers that give her a fascinating edge and humanize her more than her godspawn counterparts. Her darker story makes her a little more intriguing than Lazlo, but together they are the perfect storm. The novel tells the story of two worlds within one that are quietly at war. Lazlo comes into the mythical city as an outsider, oblivious to the chilling history surrounding it. Connection with both worlds allows him an unique perspective and provides an important message: Some things, even major conflicts, aren’t as one-sided as most people would like to believe. It doesn’t take much to invest in the connection between these two characters.. or to fear for it.
Secondary characters are equally interesting. From Thyon Nero, a powerful alchemist whose whole career rests upon Lazlo keeping his secrets, to Eril-Fane, the legendary Godslayer with a chilling history that’s been glorified, to Minya, the leader of the Godspawn children with some serious scorn, there are plenty of characters you will love and love to hate. No one feels under-developed, everyone has a story.
This story weaves in a very careful unraveling of details leading up to big moments. There’s more than one twist in the story, but the main twist was fairly obvious by the time it came about. However, I still liked seeing how the discovery was made and the aftermath of its introduction to the story. It’s still a massive, important game-changer.
This is the first book in a duology and as such, the end of the story is meant to inflict maximum feels, most of which are straight-up painstaking agony. The idea of waiting a year for the next book is making me a little woozy, because I need answers and reassurance and HOW CAN THIS POSSIBLY WORK ITSELF OUT?!
Totally worth it, though!
RATING: 4.5 OUT OF 5 STARS
Since Strange The Dreamer focuses around dreams, we’re teamed up with NOVL to help you achieve the dream of owning this book for yourself!
One (1) winner receives:
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Just enter via the Rafflecopter widget below! Per the publisher, this contest is open to US residents only.
Strange The Dreamer is out now.
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around–and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance to lose his dream forever.
What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?
The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries–including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? and if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?
In this sweeping and breathtaking new novel by National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, the shadow of the past is as real as the ghosts who haunt the citadel of murdered gods. Fall into a mythical world of dread and wonder, moths and nightmares, love and carnage.
Welcome to Weep.