About the Book
Title: Strange the Dreamer
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Strange the Dreamer #1
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 536
Edition Read: Paperback
Dates Read: March 1-31, 2024
Blurb: 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. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the form 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? And who is the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams?
In this sweeping and breathtaking 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.
The answers await in Weep.
Review
Here’s the thing. I love Laini Taylor. I loved the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. I actually really and truly liked this book. It just took me FOREVER to read.
Reading through the reviews on GoodReads, I’m not the only one with this issue. I will agree with most of them that the pacing is definitely an issue. The wording and world building is beautiful, but there is a LOT of the book where not much is happening. I’m not saying it’s boring, because it’s not, and when you do get to the good stuff, things start happening fast, but it does take a while to get there. I can see how it would be easy to just give up. I’m just really, really stubborn.
Lazlo is a really interesting protagonist. We know next to nothing about his origins, and neither does he, but we know that he’s something special. I particularly enjoyed how he used his brains and his dedication to learning in order to further his prospects. After all, he is really only a servant of the library, and yet he is able to rub shoulders with important people who value him for what he brings to the table. The world is also so interesting, with a city that is practically hidden from the world, it’s very name erased from existence, perpetually living under the shadow of (what looks like) a huge floating statue.
The other part of this story equation is Sarai, the “blue-skinned goddess” appearing in Lazlo’s dreams. She is the daughter of one of the gods that were killed, along with four others that live in the statue (the “Citadel”). I really liked this mythology and how the godspawn live above the city of Weep with no way to interact with it except for Sarai’s ability to enter people’s dreams. The others have abilities as well, such as the ability to control ghosts, the ability to make plants grow, control the weather, and create fire. They have a tenuous existence after being rescued by Minya (the ghost-controlling one) as babies and she rules over them with an iron fist. She’s not technically a villain, but she is terrifying.
I did enjoy reading this book, but I do think that this book is part of why I’m reading much shorter books now. I need stories that move along!
GoodReads rating: 4 stars
Categories: Books I've Read
Life With No Plot 
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