Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

41 reviews

li_bbrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I’m honestly not sure how to write this review. No amount of my decently pretty words will describe how this book made me feel. It made me feel EVERYTHING. It feels like a part of my soul was laid bare by Laini Taylor’s writing. 

Reading Strange the Dreamer was a completely immersive experience. Over the few days it took me to read it, every page sucked me further into the Unseen City. Taylor’s writing was descriptive without being flowery, it was creative, it was SMART. Everything about it was thought out to the letter, to the comma. The characters’ voices were so clear it was like I could hear them in my head. Lazlo and Sarai were absolutely incredible. Their whirlwind, tragic romance was absolutely gut wrenching. 

This whole book was something I wish I could review and review well. But all I can say is that to understand, you need to read it. You need to read about the boy with his head in the clouds and the girl who lived in them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Genocide, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, and Slavery

maeverose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Things I liked:
The story was fun. The writing is super pretty and atmospheric. So many quotes i wanted to highlight. It was very easy for me to imagine what was being described, and i loved that. I like Lazlo a lot as a character. I like anything to do with dreams so I loved that that was a big part of the story.

Things I didn’t like:
Sarai’s chapters/the citadel chapters felt super repetitive, at least in the beginning. I was often pretty bored during those chapters. As much as I love the writing, it is overwritten at times. I think this book should’ve been about 100 pages shorter, the pacing is very slow for most of it. Also the reveals were pretty predictable but I guess that’s not super surprising for YA. It’s also very instalove. Very mild spoilers for this next part (it doesn’t have to do with the main romance, just side characters): I didn’t like the non consensual kiss played off as funny because it was a girl doing it to a guy. If the roles were reversed I don’t think it would’ve gone down the same… It’s still sexual assault no matter who’s doing it. And then when it happens again later it was still very dubious consent at first. Idk it made me feel gross.

I hate everything about that ending. I hate minya so much. Please tell me she dies a painful death in the next book. And that sparrow is able to bring sarai back to her body with her powers and then sarai and lazlo get to live happily ever after. If that doesn’t happen I’m suing. /j

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Blood, Child death, Death, Rape, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Gore, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

There was frequent mention of female fertility and ‘becoming a woman’ once you bleed. Personally it made me uncomfortable, as an afab non binary person with zero desire to ever get pregnant.

momo916's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

This book is beautifully imaginative and yet depicts such horribly strife and tragedy. Taylor sucks you in with a wonderful fantasy world that is as complex and torturous as our own. She hits the mark where I've felt Erin Morgenstern falls flat. There are so many echoes of the history of American colonialism and slavery in this narrative, but it very much has a life of its own. I'm eager to pick up the second book but also apprehensive because I'm fairly certain it's going to rip my heart in two.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, and Rape

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Genocide, Murder, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Pregnancy and Misogyny

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Slavery, and Violence

tinysierra's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

“I think you’re a fairy tale. I think you’re magical, and brave, and exquisite. And I hope you'll let me be in your story.”

Poetic, well strung together, and tragic.
Another reviewer mentioned that the lyrical writing almost made it hard to actually fall into the story.  I agree, which is why I don’t think this is a 5* read for me despite how beautiful it was. I was super interested in the characters, the plot, and the world, but there weren’t any of those moments where I forgot I was reading. I feel like that’s what I expected to happen, and maybe that might happen if I reread it now that I know all the events of the book, but I’m not sure. I think the prose is too purple lol

“Dream up something wild and improbable. Something beautiful and full of monsters.”
“Beautiful and full of monsters?”
“All the best stories are.”

—

“It’s a woeful species that’s all male.” :P

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Child death, and Murder

thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

this book doesnt totally click w/ me. idk if it's the plot--or lack thereof--or what, but there's something missing. so it's rly a testament to laini's vivid, seemingly boundless imagination; impeccable and wholly original worldbuilding; her ability to make the simple seem magical and extraordinary; thought-provoking and emotional exploration of hatred, love, survival, living, horrors and trauma of war; her writing that is pure poetry; and--though it's too sweet and toe-curling for my taste--the tenderness and longing and hope infused between sarai and lazlo, that strange the dreamer nevertheless gets 4 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Confinement, Murder, Violence, Sexual content, and War

Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

happilyeverengwis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Genocide, Rape, Child death, Gore, and Murder

kfergey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I really enjoyed the uniqueness of this story and the characters. My only gripe is that it took to long to get going. I felt like we spent too much time in backstory for the main character. That being said, once the main plot took off it was hard to put down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content