Hi ForeverBookers,
How are you all? I hope you’re well! Are you all excited for Christmas? I know I am!
I’ve just finished “Strange The Dreamer” by Laini Taylor and I really enjoyed it! I’ve been ill, so that’s why it’s taken me longer to read. No shade on the book, whatsoever!
“Strange The Dreamer” tells the story of firstly Lazlo Strange, a wonderer who works as a junior librarian in the Kingdom of Zosma. He thinks he’s just a normal, 20 year old human at the beginning of the novel. He learns through Weep, the fabled city that he’s a lot more! What other properties/abilities does he have? I’ll let you read for yourself, but some were shocking to me! Lazlo also falls in love with a blue angel like figure called Sarai. I’d say that she was the secondary character but that Lazlo is certainly the main character we follow throughout, which makes sense as the novel is called Strange the Dreamer, and Lazlo’s surname is Strange.
I read Strange The Dreamer for a few readathons. They were:
Reading Rivalry - Featuring a rivalry - there’s a rivalry between Lazlo and a character from his home, as well as Sarai with one of the other angels.
On The Cover Challenge - butterflies on the cover - I’m not sure if they’re just moths or butterflies as well - but I’ll count it! Moths play an important role in the book!
Spoilers Below…
“He was Strange the dreamer, and this was his dream.”
“I do want to help a great man do great things,” he told the librarian. “I want to help Eril-Fane. I want to help the Unseen City.”
“My boy,” said Master Hyrrokkin with deep and gentle sadness, “how could you help?”
And Lazlo didn’t know how, but he knew one thing. He couldn’t help if he stayed here.”
Lazlo is Strange the Dreamer. He doesn’t know what that name means at this point, early in the novel, but he knows that he’s meant to do something huge! What? I won’t spoil but it’s the main plot twist in the book! Just WHO is Lazlo, is what “Strange the Dreamer” really answers!
“Whatever happens now, it will be your fault.
She hadn’t meant to choose. In her hearts, she had never and could never make that choice—humans over her own kind. That wasn’t what she’d done. She wasn’t a traitor. She wasn’t a murderer, either. Pacing, she felt as though her life had chased her down a dead-end corridor and trapped her there to taunt her.
Trapped, trapped, trapped.
Perhaps she had always been in a prison, but not like this. The walls closed in around her. She wanted to know what was happening down in Weep, about what nature of uproar had greeted the news of her existence.”
This happens at over half way through the plot of “Strange The Dreamer.” Sarai, the main female character feels trapped because she and her sibling angels have been stuck in the citadel, where they’ve resided above the city of Weep all their lives. Why have they been trapped? I’ll let you read for yourself but it’s a good plot.
“If the Citadel is our prison,” Sarai replied, “it’s our sanctuary, too.”
Here, Sarai is talking to her siblings about the citadel, where they’ve been trapped. She’s trying to work out if it really is a prison there, or a home. Sarai can go out and see Weep and its people through her moths, which she literally pukes up every time. That’s how she finds Lazlo.
The romance is instalove, I’d say so if that annoys you or you can’t look past it, “Strange The Dreamer” might not be for you but I really enjoyed the romance. In my opinion, it had more romance to Taylor’s previous series, “A Daughter Of Smoke And Bone.”
“In the real room, her moth took stock of real Lazlo, relaxation of his face, and his long, easy limbs, loose in slumber. What she wouldn’t give for restful sleep like that, not to mention that degree of control he had within his dreams. She wondered at it. “How did you do that earlier?” She asked him. “The mahalath, the tea, all of it. How do you shape your dreams with such purpose?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s new to me. I mean, I had some lucidity in dreams before, but not predictability, and never like this. Only since you came.”
“Really?” Sarai was surprised. “I wonder why.”
This is how Sarai sees Lazlo. She’s watching him through her moths. They only physically meet at the end of the novel. What are the circumstances of their meeting I’ll let you read for yourself but it surprised me!
Overall then, I really enjoyed “Strange The Dreamer.” It had twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. The biggest twist was probably right at the end, where Sarai’s sister angel, becomes evil. Or does she? We’ll have to see in Muse Of Nightmares, book 2 in the duology.
I’ll read another Christmas book next so stand by for my review of it coming soon…
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