From the Bookshelf of the Howling Pack…

Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer, #1)

Laini Taylor

Start date: March 1, 2019

Finish date: April 30, 2019

Discussion: Strange the Dreamer - Mar & Apr

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 10 topics — 34 comments total

Strange the Dreamer - Mar & Apr

Strange the Dreamer - Chapters 1 - 13
By Sasha · 12 posts · 19 views

last updated Mar 21, 2019 04:25AM

Strange the Dreamer - Chapters 50 - 67
By Sasha · 4 posts · 7 views

last updated Mar 13, 2019 09:24AM

What Members Thought

Jun 29, 2019 Lara rated it it was ok

Shelves: fantasy, romance, high-fantasy, young-adult, fiction

My review

I'd like this book to give me back the time I spent reading it, but I don’t want to spend another five minutes thinking about the terrible time I had with it. You know the book is BAD when it starts throwing you into a slump – I was in such a mood for reading and then, next thing I remember I was forcing myself to get through every damn page of this cluster-fuckery of letters. Strange the Dreamer was an epic letdown, and, the thought of hating a book that everyone seems to love fills m My review

I'd like this book to give me back the time I spent reading it, but I don’t want to spend another five minutes thinking about the terrible time I had with it. You know the book is BAD when it starts throwing you into a slump – I was in such a mood for reading and then, next thing I remember I was forcing myself to get through every damn page of this cluster-fuckery of letters. Strange the Dreamer was an epic letdown, and, the thought of hating a book that everyone seems to love fills me with immense sadness.

This book was, first of all, very hard to read. I can usually get through an impressive amount of bad characters and nonexistent plot if I like the author’s style and writing – which was not the case with this book. Taylor’s writing seems interrupted and disorganized with nonsensical POV switches in the middle of the sentence (this was like, a real thing, at the beginning of the sentence she describes Lazlo watching at the stars and skips to Sarai sleeping after the comma). Not to mention the everlasting note of monotony and indifference that made me genuinely disinterested in any aspect of this book.

Taylor’s pacing was probably one of the worst things that had happened to this book. The tremendous amount of time that it takes to get to a point where things actually start happening made me realize how little fucks I give about characters and what is going to happen to them. It takes them almost 200 pages to actually get to Weep, and then they are practically doing nothing until the last chapter. When the action started happening and things got to the point where they were supposed to be interesting, I was so numb from wanting those terrible descriptions to be over that I couldn’t care less about the plot twists – which were actually good and ending that wasn’t so bad itself!

When I put aside my hate for the writing, I see that I quite liked the worldbuilding and magic system. Weep is a city on the east, where two hundred years ago, Seraphim - also known as mesarthim, came down on Earth. They are godlike creatures with immense power who lived in a citadel that floats above Weep. For centuries, they tormented and abused people of Weep, stealing their wives and turning them half mad after taking their children, half-human, and half-god, also known as godspawns. Fifteen years ago, Eril – Fane killed every god and murdered their children to free people of Weep, but he never managed to get rid of the giant floating angel that shadows his city.

Lazlo Strange is an orphan boy who likes nothing more than getting lost inside his own thoughts. He is a huge bookworm and has probably memorized every single fact about the mysterious city of Weep. The day when his craziest dreams come true is the day Eril-Fane asks him to come with him to an expedition to Weep. Lazlo is probably the most boring and personality-less character I’ve ever encountered. I mean, what does he do – he reads and dreams? Wow. Even that cool plot twist at the end couldn’t make his character less lame. Sarai has something more to her, even though I still found her pretty boring. She is whiny and lets herself be defined by others way too easily. Sarai is a daughter of Eril-Fane and goddess of despair – Isagol. Her gift is an ability to invade and control people’s dreams – but don’t worry, she doesn’t use it to do anything badass or useful, she’d rather spend some time in Lazlo’s head, creating the world’s lamest case of insta-love.

“Minya hadn’t given up. She never would. Somehow, by sheer force of will, the girl had frozen herself in time—not just her body but everything. Her fury, her vengeance, undiminished in all these years. You could never win against such a will.”

The only character worthy of my notice was Minya – a 21-year-old daughter of Skathis with ability to control ghosts, trapped in a child’s body until she fulfills her vengeance over Eril-Fane. She was the only interesting person in this book and I would like to thank her for making bearable to read.

Blog
Tumblr

...more

30 likes · Like · see review

Mar 01, 2019 Shar rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Rating: 4.5*

This book is the new love of my life. I might go as far to say this has potentially made it to be one of my most favourite books of all time.

The writing style is godspawn itself. It was so beautifully written and the imagery used in the book was just phenomenal.

...and don't get me started on the actual story and plot line. I drowned in this world and I was one hundred percent okay with it. The creativity involved in the world building was so refreshing and the characters were so sw ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Feb 16, 2019 Divine Collins rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-tbr, favorites

This book blew me away! The writing is so beautiful and flowery, which I thought I wouldn't like but I loved it. I loved how innocent and pure Lazlo was and he was honestly such a good character. The plot was amazing and I didn't mind how slow paced it was because I loved just learning about the characters. The dreams were so dreamy! which I know is not very helpful, but what I mean is that when we were in Lazlos first and second dream it just had the exact feel of a dream! Specifically the one ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 30, 2018 Kylie Agarand rated it really liked it

Worth the hype, but we could have gotten to the action a lil quicker. Also, super glad #2 is out soon because nothing is resolved at the end.

Like · see review

Jun 26, 2019 Logan (Pour Clara) :) rated it really liked it

Shelves: dnf-ed, young-adult, 2017-releases, series

4.5/5 Stars
I LOVED IT !!!!! It was abolutely beautiful !! I initially was a little afraid to be disappointed because of all the hype around Laini Taylor's writing style, plus I don't usually read high-fantasy (I do think it's high-fantasy, but I'm not sure), so I was out of my comfort zone, but this book literally blew me away... ...more

Like · see review