Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

54 reviews

bethfern04's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0


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aksmith92's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

Muse of Nightmares is a typical Young Adult fantasy novel where love saves the day, and I ate it all up!

She's beauty, she's grace, she's Laini Taylor. Her writing is poetic, atmospheric, gorgeous, readable, and accessible. Yes, it's young adult, leading to some dramatics, but nothing over the top, and indeed a piece of art. I loved this so much, and even more than the first one, dare I say.

The setup: We left off on a BIG plot twist in Laini Taylor's first installment of this duology, Strange the Dreamer. With Sarai's fate in question, we are left with confusion and madness in Weep, where most citizens must run out of town because the Citadel is shifting and changing. Lazlo has a pretty big plot twist (although I could see that coming in the first novel). Either way, we are left with many questions about godlings, citizens of Weep, and the infamous dead gods that must've left more of a story than many thought.

Now, the story pivots to those godlings up in the sky in the Citadel, Minya's intense vengeance, and Sarai's adaptability into a new self in more ways than one. Eril-Fane and Azareen are still big components of the story and work to shift mindsets on the ground in Weep. In addition, we still hear from the wonderfully facetious Calixte and the learning and growing Thyon Nero. Lastly, we get an entirely new story about two sisters living in what seems to be a wholly different world made of ice. You know immediately that the stories will connect somehow, but the road to get there is beautiful and intriguing, yet devastating.

Laini Taylor creates an intricate world(s!) and develops the lovely characters from book one.

What I loved: My favorite part was the unique villain arcs - here we are, 15ish years after the fall of some of the more horrible villains I've read about, and we are reading about those impacts, leading to one of the most fantastic character development novels I've read. Because this story takes place years after the deaths of the villains (not a spoiler; it was also the same in the first book!), and we don't get the why for those villains other than the typical power-thirsty monsters, we now see excellent nuances in characters like Minya being stuck in the past constantly feeling like she has to save her family. Or, Nova, whose character was phenomenal, and I won't get into it because of spoiler reasons. It was pure art to have a story embedded in the after-effects of an awful fantastical regime. I loved the characters, even the ones who took a bit of a back burner in this novel, and the world-building was quite interesting. The world aspect may not necessarily be "original," but I found it unique nonetheless. PS: I must admit, the writing around eliliths - the tattoos girls get once their bleeding begins - was actually really cool. I've grown up learning to hate that, and in this fictional world, it seems powerful and beautiful. This part of the book is obviously not big, but I wanted to mention it anyway.

What would've made this a perfect read? I rated this five stars because of how it made me feel, the writing, and the story arcs. However, I will say that if I were being ultra critical, I would mention that I did feel there was a miss in relationship development between Thyon and Lazlo, the friendship that could've been, and just a better and more exciting wrap-up relationship between the godlings and those in Weep. A LOT was going on outside of that, which was critical for the story, so I let it slide. Lastly, Lazlo and Sarai are a little bit instant-love (as a reminder, the majority of this book truly takes place in one to two days!), but I don't think it overtook the story. Oh, as much as this is wonderful writing, Lazlo learned about his mesarthium control a littleeeee bit too quickly to be believable. It's implied their powers are meant to be ingrained, but I still thought it was a bit fast. Again, I let this slide because the other parts were just so good!

I am excited to read other books by Laini Taylor when I'm in a young adult and fantasy world mood. I really enjoyed my experience with Strange the Dreamer, and I'll be sad to see it go (or, as Laini Taylor puts it at the end of this book, Muse of Nightmares, is it really the end?). Bravo to this beautiful story!

"Many a choice is made this way: by pretending it makes itself. And many a fate is decided by those who cannot decide."

"But how do you stop someone from crying? How do you lead them out of fear? Can hate be reversed? Can revenge be defused?"

There comes a certain point with a hope or a dream, when you either give it up or give up everything else. And if you choose the dream, if you keep going, then you can never quit, because it's all you are."

"The ones who know can't tell us, and the ones who tell us don't know."

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tell_them_stories's review against another edition

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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

3.0


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kathrynleereads's review against another edition

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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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midnafae's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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belou's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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dcnarvaez's review against another edition

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

5.0


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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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

4.0

 
I’ve had this series on my TBR for so long and whilst I was on a treat yourself day, I picked up the first book in the series and loved it. So of course had to get the second one in the series. I really enjoyed this book but felt like this book went on a tangent at times, but still enjoyable.  

This book has several points of view. In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One is now a god, one is now a ghost. They struggled to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as the dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep. Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice – to save the woman he loves, or everyone else? Whilst Sarai feels more helpless than ever, but is she? Sometimes, only the direct need can teach them their own depth, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares has not yet discovered what she’s capable of. As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel’s near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: where are the gods from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened, and new words revealed: does the hero have to slay monsters or is it possible to save them instead?  

I think I can agree with everyone when I say that I loved Laini’s writing style and the way she describes things so beautiful and make you feel like you are lying on a soft pillow. I love the love story between the two MCs and was rooting for them throughout the book. I think it was so adorable and innocent. Lazlo being this monk but still wanting her and wanting to do things to her but doesn’t want to hurt her. Sarai just being equally confused and stressed and then scared. I just wanted to hug them both throughout the whole book. This story was so unique and it was so interested. I just wanted to stay and help them out.  

I was expecting Minya to be the bad guy throughout the whole book so when that was resolved pretty quickly and there was still a good chunk of books to go, I was confused and worried. I feel like the intro to these two sisters made it quite rushed and for a duology I felt like I was trying to play catch-up and learn new things that I didn’t know about. I felt like even though these two sisters were supposed to play a key part, they weren’t properly developed and that there need to be a third book to find out what was going on.  

This book jumped straight into action and had twists and turns throughout and I will definitely be reading more of Laini’s work in the future.

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grets_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0


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beemailley's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0


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