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kaleebirmingham's review against another edition
4.0
4.5 stars. I don’t know whether to give this book a 1 or a 5. It was one of the most well crafted stories I’ve ever read. And then Laini Taylor crushed me. So we are settling on 4.5. I need time to process before I read muse of nightmares. I pray to Laini Taylor that she fixes my heart with that book.
bontae's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
love_your_shelf's review against another edition
3.0
Strange the Dreamer is a novel about Lazlo Strange, a junior librarian, war orphan and most importantly a dreamer who has been obsessed with the mythical city of Weep ever since he could pick up a book. He practically lived at the library (Pavillion of Thought) and even had his nose broken by a book.
But one day the mysterious and legendary hero, Godslayer, shows up with the Tizerkane warriors and offers a chance for a few delegates from Zosma to travel the Elmuthaleth to the Unseen City.
Many answers to the centuries-long mystery await but when he arrives he finds more questions than answers.
" Good people do all the things bad people do, Lazlo. It's just that when they do them, they call it justice."
" It was impossible of course. But when did that stop any dreamer from dreaming."
Now the ending! That ENDING!!
That's all I'm going to say on that front but...
I have Muse of Nightmares on my shelf and I am unsure as to whether I would continue on with the series. Still a debate til this day.
Overall, I'd give this book a 2.5 stars.
You can fine me here!
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But one day the mysterious and legendary hero, Godslayer, shows up with the Tizerkane warriors and offers a chance for a few delegates from Zosma to travel the Elmuthaleth to the Unseen City.
Many answers to the centuries-long mystery await but when he arrives he finds more questions than answers.
" Good people do all the things bad people do, Lazlo. It's just that when they do them, they call it justice."
Strange the Dreamer is a breathtakingly written novel with luscious and descriptive prose. It's amazing how she can weave these sentences and still have them make sense. With that being said, the writing is the only thing that kept me going. This novel is very character-driven, meaning that the plot is not very fast-moving which wouldn't mind if I enjoyed many of the characters.
" It was impossible of course. But when did that stop any dreamer from dreaming."
One of these novels greatest strengths was also it's downfall. The writing, while beautiful, was very very very descriptive. There would be blocks and blocks of text with so few dialogue in between. The novel definitely picked up more pace by the end but still started to stifle my enjoyment a little.
Now the ending! That ENDING!!
That's all I'm going to say on that front but...
I have Muse of Nightmares on my shelf and I am unsure as to whether I would continue on with the series. Still a debate til this day.
Overall, I'd give this book a 2.5 stars.
You can fine me here!
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literary_porcupine's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Songs: The Great War - Taylor Swift
Libraries & mystical lost cities
Libraries & mystical lost cities
cbleyer's review against another edition
3.0
“On the second Sabbat of Twelthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl from the sky… They would say she hadn’t shed blood but wept it.”
This was a great book, but it did draw on for a little long in my taste.
We are introduced to Lazlo Strange, an orphan who daydreams of a far away lost city, Weep.
“Lazlo was a dreamer in more profound a way than they knew. That is to say he had a dream- a guiding and abiding one, so much a part of him it was like a second souls inside his skin. The landscape of his mind was all given over to it. It was a deep and ravishing landscape, and a daring magnificent dream. Too daring, too magnificent for the likes of him. He knew that, but the dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around.”
Due to a storm 200 years ago and an arrival of gods, Weep is shadowed by a citadel.
We are introduced to five others, with powers, who live above Weep.
Feral- power of weather control
Ruby- power of fire
Sparrow- the power of growth of living things- the Orchid Witch
Minya- Harnessing and control of ghosts
Sarai- can travel inside and manipulate peoples dreams- Muse of Nightmares
They have one rule- they must betray no evidence of life
I hated Minya so much “She was a wild creature, by turns furtive and barging, even unwashed, and with the starting lack of empathy that belongs to murderers and small children.”
And then, the Godslayer, head of the Tizerkane warriors and former servant of Sarai’s goddess mother, who murdered all the gods and many children, turns out to be Sarai’s dad! And he thinks he killed her!
“Her father had saved his people and destroyed himself. As strong as he looked, inside he was a ruin, or perhaps a funeral pyre, like the Cusp- only instead of the melted bones of ijji, he was made up of the skeletons of babies and children, including, as he had always believed, his own child: her.”
“Hate was his triumph… It was who he became to save his wife and all his people. So much blood on his hands, so much hate in his hearts.”
Also, it is not know what happened to the thousands of children born half gods by the god and goddesses servants
Oh yeah, and then Sarai is dead?!!
Fun, Minya and Lazlo and siblings!!!!
And now Minya is blackmailing Lazlo
“The little girl held the threat of Sarai’s soul, and so she as good as hell the thread to his- and to his power, too.”
Quotes
“Because if Lazlo thought a dream could not be stolen, he underestimated Thyon Nero.”
“It was the first week of the Twelthmoon, on the far side of the Elmuthaleth, and Strange the dreamer- library stowaway and scholar of fairy tales- had never been thirstier, or more full of wonder.”
“Her consciousness had wings. She couldn’t fly, but it could. It was a kind of escape, but it mocked freedom. She was still a prisoner, a secret monster. But now she was a prisoner and secret monster who could spy on the life that she could never have.
“This is our city, that our foremothers and forefathers built on land consecrated by Thakra. We won’t forsake it. That is our sky, and we will have it back.”
“This young man whom they had found at a library in a distant land, whom they had taken into their hearts and into their homes, and whom they valued above any outsider that ever known, was also, impossibly, godspawn.”
Definitions-
Shrestha- When a dream comes true- but not for the dreamer.
Thakrar- The precise point on the spectrum of awe at which wonder turns to dread, or dread to wonder.
Muhal- A risk that will yield either tremendous reward or disastrous consequence.
Sathaz- The desire to possess that which can never be yours.
This was a great book, but it did draw on for a little long in my taste.
We are introduced to Lazlo Strange, an orphan who daydreams of a far away lost city, Weep.
“Lazlo was a dreamer in more profound a way than they knew. That is to say he had a dream- a guiding and abiding one, so much a part of him it was like a second souls inside his skin. The landscape of his mind was all given over to it. It was a deep and ravishing landscape, and a daring magnificent dream. Too daring, too magnificent for the likes of him. He knew that, but the dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around.”
Due to a storm 200 years ago and an arrival of gods, Weep is shadowed by a citadel.
We are introduced to five others, with powers, who live above Weep.
Feral- power of weather control
Ruby- power of fire
Sparrow- the power of growth of living things- the Orchid Witch
Minya- Harnessing and control of ghosts
Sarai- can travel inside and manipulate peoples dreams- Muse of Nightmares
They have one rule- they must betray no evidence of life
I hated Minya so much “She was a wild creature, by turns furtive and barging, even unwashed, and with the starting lack of empathy that belongs to murderers and small children.”
And then, the Godslayer, head of the Tizerkane warriors and former servant of Sarai’s goddess mother, who murdered all the gods and many children, turns out to be Sarai’s dad! And he thinks he killed her!
“Her father had saved his people and destroyed himself. As strong as he looked, inside he was a ruin, or perhaps a funeral pyre, like the Cusp- only instead of the melted bones of ijji, he was made up of the skeletons of babies and children, including, as he had always believed, his own child: her.”
“Hate was his triumph… It was who he became to save his wife and all his people. So much blood on his hands, so much hate in his hearts.”
Also, it is not know what happened to the thousands of children born half gods by the god and goddesses servants
Oh yeah, and then Sarai is dead?!!
Fun, Minya and Lazlo and siblings!!!!
And now Minya is blackmailing Lazlo
“The little girl held the threat of Sarai’s soul, and so she as good as hell the thread to his- and to his power, too.”
Quotes
“Because if Lazlo thought a dream could not be stolen, he underestimated Thyon Nero.”
“It was the first week of the Twelthmoon, on the far side of the Elmuthaleth, and Strange the dreamer- library stowaway and scholar of fairy tales- had never been thirstier, or more full of wonder.”
“Her consciousness had wings. She couldn’t fly, but it could. It was a kind of escape, but it mocked freedom. She was still a prisoner, a secret monster. But now she was a prisoner and secret monster who could spy on the life that she could never have.
“This is our city, that our foremothers and forefathers built on land consecrated by Thakra. We won’t forsake it. That is our sky, and we will have it back.”
“This young man whom they had found at a library in a distant land, whom they had taken into their hearts and into their homes, and whom they valued above any outsider that ever known, was also, impossibly, godspawn.”
Definitions-
Shrestha- When a dream comes true- but not for the dreamer.
Thakrar- The precise point on the spectrum of awe at which wonder turns to dread, or dread to wonder.
Muhal- A risk that will yield either tremendous reward or disastrous consequence.
Sathaz- The desire to possess that which can never be yours.
chrysalissa's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
sad
fast-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Rape
ruhi_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-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? Yes
4.5
pgraft84's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
mooca's review against another edition
5.0
It took a moment for me to “settle in” to this book. Introducing the main cast of characters was so over saturated with world building that it was intimidating because it felt like too much information too fast. I want to say that’s something I struggle with in adult high fantasy, but because this is YA I wasn’t expecting such depth in the world building.
Thankfully once past that hurdle of just understanding all the new names (both places, things, creatures, and people) and general world structure, the story flowed much easier. Was a refreshing take on magic and gods for me!
Thankfully once past that hurdle of just understanding all the new names (both places, things, creatures, and people) and general world structure, the story flowed much easier. Was a refreshing take on magic and gods for me!