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A review by annbutnotanne
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
It's been years since I read a Laini Taylor novel, and years since I had put this on my TBR. All in all, I was pleasantly surprised, but I became a little disappointed with the way Taylor executed some things.
I've heard a lot of people rave about the writing style in this book, and honestly while I didn't dislike it, I'm unsure as to why everyone really loved it. It's not bad, not by any means, but it's a lot of similes and metaphors, which doesn't necessarily wow me the way it probably did when I was younger. It honestly felt like a lot for some scenes that simply weren't important enough to use flowery language like that.
One of the things that got me very invested in the story was of course Lazlo. I love a good underdog, and Lazlo is such an underdog it hurts. Second thing that got me interested was the world of Weep, once we get there, and all that's happened since it disappeared 200 years ago. It was interesting, and allows for a difficult moral quandary to be explored throughout the novel.
However, this book also disappointed me in the execution of said moral quandary. By making one character likeable and the other decidedly not, it doesn't allow me to feel the full tug-of-war that this situation should make me feel. There's nothing wrong with having a villain also be a victim of something horrible, and having a friendly side character be both a victim as well as the perpetrator of said horrible thing, but I want to at least sympathize with the victim turned villain, and this book just doesn't allow that to occur, which was so disappointing.
And then the romance got introduced and I got uninvested very quickly. Didn't care about it, didn't care for it, just wasn't my cup of tea. And the way it took over the story was very irritating. By the end I didn't really care what happened, I just wanted to know how it would all end up. And you know what, Laini Taylor made a great pathway for her next book with plenty of interesting set-ups. And to be frank, I will only pick up the final book just to see how it all ends up.
Not a bad book by any means, but I hate that it could clearly be so much stronger of an entry.
I've heard a lot of people rave about the writing style in this book, and honestly while I didn't dislike it, I'm unsure as to why everyone really loved it. It's not bad, not by any means, but it's a lot of similes and metaphors, which doesn't necessarily wow me the way it probably did when I was younger. It honestly felt like a lot for some scenes that simply weren't important enough to use flowery language like that.
One of the things that got me very invested in the story was of course Lazlo. I love a good underdog, and Lazlo is such an underdog it hurts. Second thing that got me interested was the world of Weep, once we get there, and all that's happened since it disappeared 200 years ago. It was interesting, and allows for a difficult moral quandary to be explored throughout the novel.
However, this book also disappointed me in the execution of said moral quandary. By making one character likeable and the other decidedly not, it doesn't allow me to feel the full tug-of-war that this situation should make me feel. There's nothing wrong with having a villain also be a victim of something horrible, and having a friendly side character be both a victim as well as the perpetrator of said horrible thing, but I want to at least sympathize with the victim turned villain, and this book just doesn't allow that to occur, which was so disappointing.
And then the romance got introduced and I got uninvested very quickly. Didn't care about it, didn't care for it, just wasn't my cup of tea. And the way it took over the story was very irritating. By the end I didn't really care what happened, I just wanted to know how it would all end up. And you know what, Laini Taylor made a great pathway for her next book with plenty of interesting set-ups. And to be frank, I will only pick up the final book just to see how it all ends up.
Not a bad book by any means, but I hate that it could clearly be so much stronger of an entry.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape and Slavery