Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

4 reviews

kathrynleereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Picking up only minutes after Strange the Dreamer ended, Muse of Nightmares, by Laini Taylor, was everything that its predecessor wasn’t… in the most surprising ways.

With the Citadel now in Lazlo’s control but still looming over the city of Weep, Muse of Nightmares opens with a whole new level of chaos. Citizens are fleeing, Eril-Fane is trying to corral the Tizerkane warriors, and Lazlo is meeting the other Godspawn for the first time.

Before we find out how the night's events play out, however, we’re introduced to Kora and Nova, sisters living in a desolate village, who have an incredibly different view of the blue-skinned “gods” that the people of Weep have come to dread. 

As the story plays out for the sisters, Lazlo, the Godspawn, and the people of Weep, the book really lives up to its name. 

Where Strange the Dreamer was all dreams and imaginary worlds, Muse of Nightmares is all horror and unimaginable crimes. The books were like two sides of a coin. Readers fell in love with the picturesque and awe-filled version of Weep, then had that whole idea spun on its axis until it was an ugly truth. 

There are very few times when reading a book that I can honestly say I experienced gut-wrenching horror, and Muse of Nightmares was the reason for many of them. 

All of the questions presented in Strange the Dreamer were finally granted answers, but they were the answers of nightmares.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Trafficking, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Medical content, Mental illness, and Misogyny

Minor: Infidelity, Abandonment, Abortion, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia

vanesst's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Confinement, and Death

Minor: Suicide and Adult/minor relationship

oddduck's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

I have mixed feelings about this book. Like, I liked it, but there was a lot that was not at all where I expected this to go, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

Let's start with the things I unequivocally liked. I really appreciated that the pace in this book was faster than the previous one. It was still slower than I would have preferred, but more happened in the present and there were fewer interruptions (flashbacks, exposition). I also really appreciated that Minya got more page time and development. I was very interested in her in the first book, so learning more about her was appreciated. I really liked both of her dreams that Sarai went into, and it was delightful to see Minya choose Sarai over her army. In general, the character development in this book was very good and exactly what I was hoping for, especially for Minya and Thyon Nero (I was so happy with his development).

I also loved the new bit, about Nova and Kora. At one point I had to skip ahead because I had to know what happened in their test on the ship. It was so interesting and tense. It also demonstrated that Laini Taylor can write short, succinct backstory that's interesting and conveys all the information we need to not be confused later on. 

Now then. What I’ve got mixed feelings about. 

For starters, Sarai and Lazlo's relationship was cute, but I do wish the timeline on it had been longer. It was very instalove in the first book, and the way it's written in this one felt as if they'd known each other and been together for a lot longer than they really were. And I get why Laini Taylor did that, since almost the entirety of Lazlo's motivation for what he does after Sarai's death is to protect her ghost, but it still was a little hard for me. I would have preferred Lazlo have multiple motivations and not essentially just Sarai. Still, they're a cute couple, at least until I remember how long they've known each other.

I’m not sure how I feel about the multiverse being introduced. In hindsight the whole “not of this world”/alien metal and mesarthim in general do kind of hint at this, but because magic exists in this world, I was not expecting the multiverse to be the answer to “where did the mesarthim come from”. I do like the end, when they go off to explore and find the other godspawn. But otherwise, it was not at all what I was expecting. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be difficult to adjust expectations without enough warning.

I'm also not sure how I feel about the way the plot was executed. The Minya-villain arc was mostly resolved because a bigger threat was introduced, and then the last of it was cleared up when Minya had to make a choice. I really liked that Sarai was trying to help Minya through dreams, so it would have been cool to finish the plot that way. And that's kind of what happened, but it was with Nova instead, so it didn't feel quite as meaningful to me.

This duology was a little outside of my usual reading, which was nice, but it did remind me why I don't usually read this genre. They were certainly enjoyable and a good change of pace though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal death

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Grief, and Gore

Moderate: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Genocide, Trafficking, and Xenophobia