Scan barcode
A review by rubeusbeaky
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
1.0
I am LIVID with the back cover summary of this book, because it is a LIE! This book is not a fantastical adventure, and it's barely a YA Fantasy Romance (one filled with MANY many problems). Mostly, this book is 100 pages of fun, fairytale-inspired intrigue to lure you in, followed by 432 pages of TRIGGERSSSSS and Repulichristian propaganda. It was ignorant, and hurtful, and at times repetitive and mind-numbing. Whatever this book set out to say, it said it without finesse or insight. No one needs this book.
WARNING WARNING WARNING!!! Spoilers and triggers below.
Propaganda: The bulk of this book is about a population which, for generations, saw its citizens randomly abducted and raped by outsiders; they were enslaved to procreate. When one citizen is finally able to rebel, he slaughters an entire nursery of babies conceived by rape. The book chooses to focus HEAVILY on the slaughter of these children. A few survived the massacre, grew to be teens, and are mostly shown to be witty, spirited, compassionate, hard-working... There are entire chapters where these children imagine what it would be like to be wanted by society, to find the mother/father (a victim of rape!) who didn't want to raise them, or what it could have been like for the unlucky babies in the nursery had they been adopted instead of cut down...
This is obviously a Pro-Life lecture. It minimizes the trauma and guilt endured by the parent, and focuses on the potential of the baby. I am immeasurably grief-stricken to see this argument crop up in a /YOUNG ADULT FANTASY/, and to see the argument's stance rely on misguided, age-old, hyperbolic rhetoric. Nobody needed this guilt-trip.
This book has outdated and religiously hyperbolic things to say about relationships, too. There is a reverence for sexual love, as if it is A) The destiny of all people to find true bliss in sexual congress with a soulmate, B) You will recognize your soulmate on sight/touch, and physical love will increase romantic love, C) Your fulfillment as a person will be determined by whether or not you can lock yourself into a relationship with another person, have sex, and produce a family. The book even uses holy imagery when talking about sexual desire:
- Two people making out and wanting to twine closer are referred to as a "crucible".
- Someone whose undergarments got wet is referred to as a "baptism".
- The holy trinity is now, apparently, the heart, the lips, and the navel, where our characters feel arousal strongest.
etc.
The book even minimizes its most staggering emotional blow - that the entire fairytale town of Weep has been systematically raped for over six generations - by having outsiders comment (internally) on the victims who are grieving alone, siting that their grief would evaporate if they would only embrace/have sex with one another.... NO! No, Taylor! No, I imagine someone who was abducted and raped for years, and had their family and loved ones abducted and raped for years, would not find shelter or solace in having sex. I imagine sex would be difficult, painful, or undesirable, even.
Sex is not the answer. It does not prove that a relationship is worthy, or a person is worthy. It does not heal all wounds, transcend all hate and fear. It is not a divine amplifier of all that is good and holy in the cosmos. How can that even be suggested when it is used as one of the book's greatest conflicts? This book is tone-deaf.
Again, I am angry that this conversation is appearing in a YA book. Sex, like a lot of activities, can be used to harm OR to celebrate. But also like a lot of activities, it shouldn't be the totality of a person's identity or emotional fulfillment. And yey for sex-positivity, but be more than your hobby. And /not/ doing this activity IS a valid choice. A person is not lesser just because they don't pursue sex.
Story: There is none! The first 100 pages promise that Lazlo Strange - who loves reading about myths - is going to go on an adventure to discover that, wowwee gee willickers, the myths are true! But instead, once he makes it to the mythical kingdom of Weep, he just...lays in bed...and dreams...for 400 pages... That's it! He dreams of a better version of Weep, and gets horny for a blue-skinned girl. NOTHING happens! He doesn't use any of his knowledge, wit, or compassion to do ANYTHING! And his "romance" with Sarai completely derails the story every time it sparks up. (See my notes above about this book's false equivalency between sexual desire and emotional fulfillment.) Everything between them happens within the safe bubble of a dreamscape, it doesn't effect the reality around them. And the minute they become lovers, they see the entire outside world as threats to their relationship, and they become hostile towards their friends and family. Had theirs been a friendship which transcended race, the story could have been about how what they saw of each other on the inside (kindness, creativity, an innocent desire to be helpful, etc.) inspired them to do good deeds /outside/, and make their dreams into reality; and by so-doing inspire their friends and family to discard their fears and prejudices, and copy Lazlo and Sarai's example. Friendship is contagious, romance is exclusive.
This book would have had a tighter story with two fundamental changes, the first being the aforementioned focus shift from Sexual Awakening to Anti-Racism. The second big change: Lazlo and Thyon should have been the same person. Their rivalry is pointless, and ultimately peters out and goes nowhere the minute they arrive in Weep. But imagine if Lazlon (Thylo?) had been a presumed muggle orphan dedicated to a love of study, who loved myths but /believed/ in science and strove to prove that magic was real AND explainable. He was granted permission to pursue alchemy by a king's college, both because of his reputation as a know-it-all AND because the kingdom is going broke so they're desperate for ANY scientist who can crack the whole lead-into-gold equation. Before he can, he is approached by a group of ambassadors from Weep. The college (and the King) permit Strange to travel, hoping there will be some knowledge (or raw materials) worth stealing from the famous hidden city. He travels, meets a blue-skinned goddess in his dreams and has to reconcile his idea of reality with /hers/. Initially, prejudice makes them wary, but they talk every night, and begin to craft a better Weep in their sleep. THEN, they follow-through by day, and use a combination of alchemy and magic to create a bridge between the ground and the sky. Their friends are inspired by /their/ friendship to create, invent, and reimagine the kingdom too. (These inventions are what would save the economy, not lead-gold, but that's a minor B plot XD). Everybody learns that they are better working together than they are apart, Friendship is Magic, THE END!
No self-indulgent littles hints that this duology is going to join up with Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
Oh, I forgot to mention, this book is part of a wider series where "angels" are aliens tasked with colonizing new planets and fornicating with the locals in order to produce babies i.e. living memory banks of holy travel logs. YUP, the bad guys AND the good guys are rapists!
These books are not just connected... they are many times identical. Lazlo and Sarai, and Karou and Akiva, go through so many of the same character, relationship, or plot beats, that I honestly believe Laini Taylor doesn't have any other stories to tell, she's stuck on just the one. A girl with erotic blue hair/skin is mislabeled a monster, but she's actually a sweetheart, and she falls instantly in love with a boy who was the product of institutionalized rape (his father, the rapist, being a magical alien of seemingly Biblical proportions). The erotic blue girl wishes she could fly, and the magical mixed-race boy CAN fly, so they do, and they smush all their erogenous zones together in midair, become a shooting star, and realize they are destined for one another. However, Romeo and Juliet stylez, they are from warring races who cannot seem to reconcile their differences, and so the lovers will mope about for 500+too+many+pages lamenting the cruelty and unfairness of the world. Their friends will hook up, adding absolutely nothing to the story. And then the book will end, with the promise that they will one day go into space.
... I can't believe I got tricked into reading the same bad story TWICE!
Promises, promises... Go read a better book. Bury this one in the desert.
WARNING WARNING WARNING!!! Spoilers and triggers below.
Propaganda: The bulk of this book is about a population which, for generations, saw its citizens randomly abducted and raped by outsiders; they were enslaved to procreate. When one citizen is finally able to rebel, he slaughters an entire nursery of babies conceived by rape. The book chooses to focus HEAVILY on the slaughter of these children. A few survived the massacre, grew to be teens, and are mostly shown to be witty, spirited, compassionate, hard-working... There are entire chapters where these children imagine what it would be like to be wanted by society, to find the mother/father (a victim of rape!) who didn't want to raise them, or what it could have been like for the unlucky babies in the nursery had they been adopted instead of cut down...
This is obviously a Pro-Life lecture. It minimizes the trauma and guilt endured by the parent, and focuses on the potential of the baby. I am immeasurably grief-stricken to see this argument crop up in a /YOUNG ADULT FANTASY/, and to see the argument's stance rely on misguided, age-old, hyperbolic rhetoric. Nobody needed this guilt-trip.
This book has outdated and religiously hyperbolic things to say about relationships, too. There is a reverence for sexual love, as if it is A) The destiny of all people to find true bliss in sexual congress with a soulmate, B) You will recognize your soulmate on sight/touch, and physical love will increase romantic love, C) Your fulfillment as a person will be determined by whether or not you can lock yourself into a relationship with another person, have sex, and produce a family. The book even uses holy imagery when talking about sexual desire:
- Two people making out and wanting to twine closer are referred to as a "crucible".
- Someone whose undergarments got wet is referred to as a "baptism".
- The holy trinity is now, apparently, the heart, the lips, and the navel, where our characters feel arousal strongest.
etc.
The book even minimizes its most staggering emotional blow - that the entire fairytale town of Weep has been systematically raped for over six generations - by having outsiders comment (internally) on the victims who are grieving alone, siting that their grief would evaporate if they would only embrace/have sex with one another.... NO! No, Taylor! No, I imagine someone who was abducted and raped for years, and had their family and loved ones abducted and raped for years, would not find shelter or solace in having sex. I imagine sex would be difficult, painful, or undesirable, even.
Sex is not the answer. It does not prove that a relationship is worthy, or a person is worthy. It does not heal all wounds, transcend all hate and fear. It is not a divine amplifier of all that is good and holy in the cosmos. How can that even be suggested when it is used as one of the book's greatest conflicts? This book is tone-deaf.
Again, I am angry that this conversation is appearing in a YA book. Sex, like a lot of activities, can be used to harm OR to celebrate. But also like a lot of activities, it shouldn't be the totality of a person's identity or emotional fulfillment. And yey for sex-positivity, but be more than your hobby. And /not/ doing this activity IS a valid choice. A person is not lesser just because they don't pursue sex.
Story: There is none! The first 100 pages promise that Lazlo Strange - who loves reading about myths - is going to go on an adventure to discover that, wowwee gee willickers, the myths are true! But instead, once he makes it to the mythical kingdom of Weep, he just...lays in bed...and dreams...for 400 pages... That's it! He dreams of a better version of Weep, and gets horny for a blue-skinned girl. NOTHING happens! He doesn't use any of his knowledge, wit, or compassion to do ANYTHING! And his "romance" with Sarai completely derails the story every time it sparks up. (See my notes above about this book's false equivalency between sexual desire and emotional fulfillment.) Everything between them happens within the safe bubble of a dreamscape, it doesn't effect the reality around them. And the minute they become lovers, they see the entire outside world as threats to their relationship, and they become hostile towards their friends and family. Had theirs been a friendship which transcended race, the story could have been about how what they saw of each other on the inside (kindness, creativity, an innocent desire to be helpful, etc.) inspired them to do good deeds /outside/, and make their dreams into reality; and by so-doing inspire their friends and family to discard their fears and prejudices, and copy Lazlo and Sarai's example. Friendship is contagious, romance is exclusive.
This book would have had a tighter story with two fundamental changes, the first being the aforementioned focus shift from Sexual Awakening to Anti-Racism. The second big change: Lazlo and Thyon should have been the same person. Their rivalry is pointless, and ultimately peters out and goes nowhere the minute they arrive in Weep. But imagine if Lazlon (Thylo?) had been a presumed muggle orphan dedicated to a love of study, who loved myths but /believed/ in science and strove to prove that magic was real AND explainable. He was granted permission to pursue alchemy by a king's college, both because of his reputation as a know-it-all AND because the kingdom is going broke so they're desperate for ANY scientist who can crack the whole lead-into-gold equation. Before he can, he is approached by a group of ambassadors from Weep. The college (and the King) permit Strange to travel, hoping there will be some knowledge (or raw materials) worth stealing from the famous hidden city. He travels, meets a blue-skinned goddess in his dreams and has to reconcile his idea of reality with /hers/. Initially, prejudice makes them wary, but they talk every night, and begin to craft a better Weep in their sleep. THEN, they follow-through by day, and use a combination of alchemy and magic to create a bridge between the ground and the sky. Their friends are inspired by /their/ friendship to create, invent, and reimagine the kingdom too. (These inventions are what would save the economy, not lead-gold, but that's a minor B plot XD). Everybody learns that they are better working together than they are apart, Friendship is Magic, THE END!
No self-indulgent littles hints that this duology is going to join up with Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
Oh, I forgot to mention, this book is part of a wider series where "angels" are aliens tasked with colonizing new planets and fornicating with the locals in order to produce babies i.e. living memory banks of holy travel logs. YUP, the bad guys AND the good guys are rapists!
These books are not just connected... they are many times identical. Lazlo and Sarai, and Karou and Akiva, go through so many of the same character, relationship, or plot beats, that I honestly believe Laini Taylor doesn't have any other stories to tell, she's stuck on just the one. A girl with erotic blue hair/skin is mislabeled a monster, but she's actually a sweetheart, and she falls instantly in love with a boy who was the product of institutionalized rape (his father, the rapist, being a magical alien of seemingly Biblical proportions). The erotic blue girl wishes she could fly, and the magical mixed-race boy CAN fly, so they do, and they smush all their erogenous zones together in midair, become a shooting star, and realize they are destined for one another. However, Romeo and Juliet stylez, they are from warring races who cannot seem to reconcile their differences, and so the lovers will mope about for 500+too+many+pages lamenting the cruelty and unfairness of the world. Their friends will hook up, adding absolutely nothing to the story. And then the book will end, with the promise that they will one day go into space.
... I can't believe I got tricked into reading the same bad story TWICE!
Promises, promises... Go read a better book. Bury this one in the desert.