By: Laini Taylor
Strange the Dreamer #1 | 544 Pages | Pub. 2017
Strange the Dreamer at a Glance
- Overall Rating: ★★★★★
- Heroine: She’s your BEST nightmare
- Hero: New Book Boyfriend
- Emotional: Izzy crying on the bathroom floor after Denny dies
- Brutality: Baby murders
Pairs Well With:
Nightmares
- 1.5 oz gin
- ½ oz cherry brandy
- ½ madeira
- 1 tsp orange juice
Our Thoughts
CW: rape, murder
We loved Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone series so we knew that we would like this book. What we didn’t know is what we were missing out on this past year since Strange the Dreamer came out. It’s gorgeous. The worldbuilding is intricate and flawless; the characters have heart and soul and dreams; and the language truly brings everything to life. This world is brutal but full of love and potential for goodness.
The only legitimate complaint we have about this book is that it is a long one. We wish we could have read it over a week or two, but sometimes we are not great at planning so we did it in three days. If you aren’t into long books then maybe walk away from this one, but realize you are missing out on literary gold. We also aren’t okay that we have to wait until freaking October for Muse of Nightmares but let’s blame the publisher not our queen Laini.
Beware, Spoilers are coming…
What We Liked
- Lazlo – Got ourselves a new book boyfriend. Lazlo is big and burly, but soft on the inside with the heart of Belle. He broke his nose on a fairytale book you guys. This man is #readinggoals for life. And his need to save Sarai, omg. Our hearts just can’t take all of the love and feelings. We truly enjoyed his character progression from a boy who is walked all over to a man who stands up for what he wants. Plus…Pink Striped Socks make him happy. #dead
“He read while he walked. He read while he ate. The other librarians suspected he somehow read while he slept, or perhaps didn’t sleep at all.”
- Sarai – All Sarai wants is to be loved. Can’t we make this happen people? She is smart and caring and actually concerns herself with people other than her. Even after ruining people’s’ lives through nightmares for years, she feels guilt and it haunts her. We just want poor Sarai to get a good night’s sleep and be a normal girl.
- The Ending – This is what we wanted. Maybe not fully, but the ending reaching into our chests and ripped our hearts out. Jess legit was clutching her book and walking around with it like things would change. But that is the result of the brilliance that Taylor puts into her novels.
What We Didn’t Like
- The Gods – From stealing and raping children to ignoring their own, these gods needed to be killed. Dropping an angel on a city and setting up shop to rape and impregnate that many people get’s a big Hell No from us.
- Minya – Yes, she saved them and is a minor hero, but this girl went into The Ring creepy/crazy level. Her army of ghosts gave us nightmares, not Sarai. Minya is a little Maeve wanna be and we are not having it.
- Baby Killing – We fully understand that people get scared and destroy what they don’t know, but babies slaughtered in the nursery is almost too dark for even us.
“Good people do all the things bad people do, Lazlo. It’s just that when they do them, they call it justice.”
We are counting down the days until Muse of Nightmares and for all you lucky humans that have obtained Muse of Nightmares ARCs please consider yourself #blessed because we are so jealous.
Let us know what you thought of Strange the Dreamer in the comments!
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I love long books and I seriously need to get my hands on this one soon
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You need to get it. We can’t fangirl enough about this one.
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Soon 🙈🙈🙈
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The cover of this book is gorgeous 😻😻
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I know!!! Muse of Nightmares is just as gorgeous and neeeeeds to be on everyone’s bookshelf!
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I have been super excite to read this book and omg “Izzy crying on the bathroom floor after Denny dies” THAT’S THE BEST AND MOST WORRISOME DESCRIPTION
Fab review ❤
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It’s the only way to put that emotion into perspective. Thank You!
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Ooh, this cover has caught my eye so many times! Thanks for listing the CW. That’s really useful information.
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Hope you like it!
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Amazing review! This book was amazing but when you start to realize how dark it actually is…😳I’m super interested to see how Laini Taylor will wrap everything up!
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Thank you! I’m so nervous about the rest.
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Okay! I picked it up from the Library today. Thanks for throwing my TBR out the window!
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Haha we do what we can 😉
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As someone above said lol “Izzy crying on the bathroom floor after Denny dies” wow okay now I know I have to emotionally prepare before I read this book lol because omg that episode packed a punch haha
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Haha I wish I had been better prepared. Just doing our public duty 🙂
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I love your review. And yes, Lazlo is a book boyfiend material, and OMG Minya is the worst, the whole blue Gods are the worst!
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He is sooo adorable. And man, I haven’t met such an evil little girl in forever!
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Great review! I really loved this book!
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Thanks! It’s soo good!
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I adore this book!!!!! So glad to hear you liked it too 😀 😀 fingers crossed the next one will be just as good!
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Yes!!! We can’t wait for Muse of Nightmares!
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🙂 Amazing review and I’m glad for spoilers. This book has been on my TBR for ages but I want to wait for book 2.
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Smart! I wish I had done that and didn’t have to wait!!
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Hehe. 🙂
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[…] Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer # 1) – Laini Taylor […]
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Literary gold is the perfect way to describe this novel–I can’t wait to reread it before Muse of Nightmares comes out. And Minya was so creepy and kind of evilish which part of me actually liked but mostly freaked me out. And I love Lazlo so much he’s so precious ❤ ❤
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Minya is the perfect villain – creepy, but likable in the way that you’re like if I was a villain I’d be you.
Lazlo is too good for this world. We don’t deserve him but I refuse to give him back!
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[…] knowing little, other than Jess & Teagan’s love for this book (check out their review here) motivated me to pick it up. If I could recco anything, the less you know the better before reading […]
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[…] – Strange the Dreamer. I could not stop thinking about this book for over a […]
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