Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor (Strange the Dreamer #1)
Published by Little Brown on March 28th, 2017
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Page Length: 533 pages
How I got my copy: Purchased
Amazon - IndieBound - Book Depository - Barnes & Noble - Goodreads
Purchases made support this blog
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 or 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?
Welcome to Weep.
Strengths:
- Beautiful writing is beautiful. As you would probably expect from Taylor, the prose is really what stands out in this book above all else, so if you like words that create worlds of magic and mayhem, this book will be a good one for you.
- Intriguing world. I love the idea of lost cities and far-off mysterious places so I was very excited about Weep and couldn’t wait to find out more. I was completely with Lazlo on researching every little thing and daydreaming about fairytales that might be real.
- All the magic. There are a lot of different magical and mysterious things going on in this book and each of them on their own is an interesting and unique spin on typical fantasy ideas. Gods that may not be gods, alchemy, dream magic, all awesome and worked together pretty well.
Weaknesses:
- Oh dear lord the pacing is horrible. The middle really drags and there are just so many moments when one interesting scene happens and then it repeats several times with small variations. I realize that’s how life works, but that’s not how life works in stories because it’s really boring. If the writing hadn’t been so lovely to read, I would have DNF’d sadly. As it was, I was looking forward to being done by 2/3 in.
- The ending annoyed me. It should have been sad, it should have made me cry, but I just didn’t care. This lack of emotional response is the best indicator I have that I didn’t like the characters anymore and wasn’t emotionally attached to them. I guess I just didn’t take some aspects seriously too, which turned out to be wise on my part but still annoys me greatly.
- I got the distinct impression that Taylor took a lot of inspiration from Hindu mythology and I just have an off feeling in my gut that she wasn’t all that respectful of the mythology in her reinterpretation. I’m not in anyway an expert, so if you see a review from a Hindi expert, please let me know and I’ll link it.
Have you read this one? What did you think? Are you excited for it if you haven’t gotten to it yet?
– Anya
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
© 2017, Anya. All rights reserved.