3 Reasons why Strange the Dreamer was worth the Hype

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Series: Strange the Dreamer #1
ISBN: 9780316341646
on March 28th 2017
Genres: Fantasy, Epic, Action & Adventure, Family, Friendship
Pages: 544
My rating:
Check it out in Goodreads
Synopsis

A new epic fantasy by National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Laini Taylor of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy.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.

One of THE books of the year, and I finally read it! For fans of Laini Taylor, it was the holy grail of books, since it’d been a while since Dreams of Gods and Monster. Man, does she have a way with book titles.

Anyway, I read it, and it took me almost a month to do it. Don’t worry, it wasn’t because it was boring. I truly couldn’t find the time to sit down and get to reading. I’m glad I kept returning to it though, because it was a true gem.

It had all the beauty and less non-essential stuff

Most people can agree that Taylor’s writing is beautiful. It just is. However, with lyrical prose the downside tends to be an overuse of it. Or, just… sometimes it just gets old. This happened to me at times with her previous series. It just made me skip pages sometimes, wanting to get to the ‘meaty’ stuff.

I was glad to see that her writing remained beautiful but had become cleaner too. It was a truly amazing thing to experience. It just… It made me remember why I fell in love with her stories those years ago.

 

It’s a story for the dreamers

Duh.

But seriously, I could connect with so much of what Lazlo experienced during the first half of the book. I don’t think I could ever be as humble as he is, but I definitely can relate to his daydreaming tendencies, and how he likes to believe in things, in spite of how impossible they are. There’s no point in believing in things that everyone’s certain they exist, is there?

So I took it like a special dedication for dreamers out there. And it’s wonderful.

 

omg that plot twist

Not that we haven’t seen anything like this before. I just have to applaud it because it was very well done. The foreshadowing and misdirection technique?

 

Really, well played Miss Taylor, well played.

Excuse the gifs but since I plan on giving absolutely nothing away, the only thing I can do is try to convey my reactions, which were a bit like these:

And then,

 

Do your dreamer self a favor and read this book!

 

Have you read a Laini Taylor book before? What did you think of them?

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