Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)

by Laini Taylor

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.

Reviewed by leahrosereads on

4 of 5 stars

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I wish I had a way to review this book that is not completely biased and just filled with my gushing about it for sentences and paragraphs and chapters. But I can't.

Like other reviews who don't give a synopsis and recommend you read this with as little information as possible, I'm saying the same thing. It's a highly character driven story that's beautiful with a pretty slow building plot. But stick with it, and it will come together by the end!

Lazlo is easily one of my favorite characters because of how truly goodhearted he is. He's a scholar and a reader and a quiet natured man with big fantastical dreams. Literally, he's quite the dreamer.

Get it?

I do feel like Lazlo and the setting kind of outshine some of the other characters, but that's OK in my book. I like when the title character is the lead in the story. However, just because he outshines most others, that doesn't mean the other characters aren't developed. Their interactions and struggles and conversations are some of the best parts of this book.

Overall, I loved it, and I can't wait to continue on with Muse of Nightmares!

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  • Started reading
  • 24 September, 2017: Finished reading
  • 24 September, 2017: Reviewed
  • Started reading
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  • 24 September, 2017: Reviewed