Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1) in Hype or Like Friday

Jun 20, 2017 Dani ❤️ Perspective of a Writer rated it liked it

Shelves: genre-romance-deliberately, imo-author-forced-story, imo-monsters-unique, 2017, reviewed, fiction-young-adult, g-t-another-world, series-book-1, genre-high-fantasy, g-r-mythology

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Lazlo Strange has been drawn to the mythic city of Weep since he felt the name of that lost city plucked from his brain. Good fortune brought him up from orphan to junior librarian where he could study all he wanted about his obsession. When a man called the Godslayer appears with a band of warriors he knows he must step forward or lose his dream forever. After a blue-skinned goddess invades his dreams everything changes for this strange dreamer ...more

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May 10, 2017 Danielle (Life of a Literary Nerd) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, favorites, cover-envy

"It was impossible of course. But when did that ever stop any dreamers from dreaming."

This is my first Laini Taylor book and it did not disappoint. I absolutely loved this book. The story and the characters are so captivating and lively. The story builds and grows and the characters exist and interact with each other organically. I can’t even convey how beautiful this story actually is. It’s really mesmerizing and whimsical in the best possible way.

Things I Liked :
This is a small thing but I ...more

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May 26, 2017 Larkin (Wonderfilled Reads) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series-not-completed, high-fantasy, reviewed-on-blog, own, romance, young-adult, multiple-pov, duology, cover-love, little-brown-books-for-young-reader

Well that certainly ended on a high note...

I enjoyed this book, I really did. I loved Lazlo and Taylor's writing and the story itself. However, the pacing was a tad slow and I felt like you probably could've cut 100 pages from this book and it would've been just as good, maybe even better. I'm really glad that Taylor decided to turn this one into a duology and I really hope that the sequel is much more action packed. I've got high hopes! ...more

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Jul 18, 2018 ❤ Aly ❤ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2018

I did take awhile to read this book, but it wasn't due to the book but due to life. I really enjoyed the world that was built by the author. I also enjoyed the characters.

(view spoiler) ...more

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Nov 09, 2018 lady h rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2018

I love stories about gods. They are so effortlessly epic, especially if the gods are diabolical and interfere in human lives, as they are in Strange the Dreamer. The epic fantasy feel is real here: cruel gods, legends of seraphim, mysteries of the universe...all these little hints of unknowable greatness that make shivers go down my spine. Just what I love in high fantasy! (and YES, this is HIGH FANTASY, why did I ever think this was urban fantasy??)

So anyway, in the midst of this delightful wo I love stories about gods. They are so effortlessly epic, especially if the gods are diabolical and interfere in human lives, as they are in Strange the Dreamer. The epic fantasy feel is real here: cruel gods, legends of seraphim, mysteries of the universe...all these little hints of unknowable greatness that make shivers go down my spine. Just what I love in high fantasy! (and YES, this is HIGH FANTASY, why did I ever think this was urban fantasy??)

So anyway, in the midst of this delightful worldbuilding we have Lazlo Strange, orphan, dreamer, and librarian (yay for librarian representation!), obsessed with the mystery of Weep, a city that was cut off from the world two centuries ago, and no one knows why. When Lazlo gets the opportunity to visit Weep, he leaps at the chance. I won't say anything more so as not to spoil the plot; this novel reveals things slowly, teasingly, giving the reader the chance to figure things out for themselves, which I appreciated.

I was very caught up in this story; unlike some other folks, I wasn't put off by the pacing at all. In fact there was a point where I walked off the bus with my Kindle still held up to my face because I literally could not put the book down! I quite enjoyed the characters; I love cinnamon-roll male characters like Lazlo, because they are so few and far between. The characters in combination with the teasingly-slow plot made things very engrossing for me!

Laini Taylor's writing is, of course, gorgeous, with a dreamlike, fairy-tale quality to it. While I enjoyed this, I did think it got to be a bit much sometimes, and this is coming from someone who generally doesn't mind purple prose. I think Taylor gets too deep in the weeds with her dreamy descriptions and metaphors sometimes, and I lose track of the threads of the story. And I have to say that, personally, there's nothing about the writing that struck me. Like, I could appreciate that it was good writing but I wasn't awed by its beauty in the way that I am when I go back and re-read sentences over and over again.

And that brings me to the other aspect of this novel that made me roll my eyes: the romance. I don't hate romance, but I am very particular about it. I don't like instalove and I don't like florid descriptions of romance/love/kissing. Strange the Dreamer has so much instalove...and so much florid description of said instalove. It was A Lot, and not in a good way. It's kind of like when you start eating cotton candy and it's delicious and sweet but then you eat too much and you feel like you want to throw up. It's sappy.

So basically, what really drew me to this book was the worldbuilding, and the musings on morality and hate and prejudice, and that's what's drawing me to the sequel!
...more

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Mar 09, 2018 Kirsty rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: owned-physical, reviewed

Content warning: mentions of rape, genocide, slavery, forced pregnancy. Scenes of emotional abuse, explosions, death.

Strange the Dreamer. Where do I even start?

This book is both weird and wonderful, but also really heavy and draining. If you're looking for something light and fun in a fantasy, maybe leave this one for another time.

Strange the Dreamer is haunting, it deals with topics such as slavery, genocide, and rape, but it also feels enchanting too. The idea of a city that has completely van ...more

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