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Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)

Laini Taylor

Start date: November 1, 2017

Finish date: November 30, 2017

Discussion: Book of the Month

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Mar 17, 2018 Tani rated it liked it

Shelves: female-author, sff-2018, 2018-novels, fantasy-romance, sff-ladies-2018, sff-explorer-2018

This was my first Laini Taylor book, and I have fairly mixed feelings about it. I liked certain things about it, but there were definitely aspects of it that I didn't enjoy much at all.

First, the positives. I liked the characters, especially Sarai. It seems like this is actually a fairly unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed her. Her power was interesting, and she felt like the most genuine character in the story to me. She'd faced hardship and been given reason to hate, but she came out on the othe This was my first Laini Taylor book, and I have fairly mixed feelings about it. I liked certain things about it, but there were definitely aspects of it that I didn't enjoy much at all.

First, the positives. I liked the characters, especially Sarai. It seems like this is actually a fairly unpopular opinion, but I enjoyed her. Her power was interesting, and she felt like the most genuine character in the story to me. She'd faced hardship and been given reason to hate, but she came out on the other side with forgiveness and understanding. The older I get, the more those qualities mean to me. I liked Lazlo as well, but to a lesser extent. This may be pure stubbornness on my part. With Lazlo, there was a clear sense that Taylor was pushing me to love him, and as a result he felt a bit unreal to me. I didn't hate him, but my attachment to him was definitely less. The side characters were also fun, although it might have been nice to see them play more of a role. Many of the characters had very little agency, I felt, which was a shame.

The setting and concept were also positives for me. I loved the imagination that went into the creation of Weep and the people who inhabited it. Taylor certainly does a nice job with helping you to envision the setting and create a world that feels real. I'm sure that there was a ton of world-building that never saw the light of day, and it definitely profited the novel.

On the other hand, the pacing was a definite detractor. Most of this book was incredibly slow, and although Taylor writes very nicely, that wasn't enough to make me feel like the length of time that passes with almost nothing happening was warranted. I think this book could have easily lost 100 pages, and not lost an iota of its impact. It might even have gained. I'll admit, by the time I reached the ending, I was pretty out of patience with the length of the story, and it had a big impact on how I felt about the book. I was too impatient by the end of the book to appreciate any of the dramatic events that finally happened.

I also kind of felt like the ending of the book was just too emotionally manipulative. The romance felt both forced and rushed to me, and I just felt too much of the authorial hand to really enjoy it. When I feel an author pushing me too hard in a direction, I tend to get disaffected, and that was the case here. I didn't hate the romance, but I felt fairly neutral toward it, and it was such a huge element that not caring about the romance kind of defeats enjoyment of the ending of the book. And let's not even mention how I feel about how the book actually ended. (view spoiler) Basically, I don't buy the premise that leads in to the next book, and I'm not sure I'll even finish the series. I'll have to think about that.

In short, some enjoyable elements, but some fairly major flaws. ...more

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