I quite enjoy reading

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★★★★☆

In middle school, I remember reading and really liking Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. That, and a friend's recommendation, inspired me to pick up Strange the Dreamer, and I'm so glad I did.

What is this book about? It's so creative and wonderful that it's hard to describe, but in short: Lazlo is an orphan obsessed with the lost city of Weep. Sarai is a half-goddess who lives in a giant floating citadel above the city. Lazlo accompanies other experts to Weep in order to help discover the secret of the citadel, and discovers the twisted history of the old murdered gods of Weep.

If that summary doesn't sound enticing, don't worry, because it doesn't do the book justice at all. On a more fundamental level, Strange the Dreamer is about love, both the power it gives us and has over us. It's about prejudice. It's about judging people for their parents' mistakes, and it's about what makes a hero or a villain.. (Let me just say, the themes in this book were presented excellently.)

So, as always, I will start with the things I liked.

High on the list is characterization, because holy smokes, Taylor knows how to write a protagonist. The scene where Lazlo first came to the library almost made me cry because it reminded me so much of why I fell in love with stories in the first place. He's a very genuine character, and something that really struck me was what a good person he is. I mean, lots of books have "good person" main characters, but we were never told that Lazlo is good. It's shown through his actions, and that makes all the difference. He's always willing to lend a helping hand, but he also knows when to back off, and understands that people have to star in their own stories.

And our other protagonist, Sarai, was also great. Her gift of entering and altering other people's dreams is explored deeply, and so is her relationship with Minya, who manipulated her into using her powers to bring nightmares to the citizens of Weep. A lot of Sarai's perspective dwells on her guilt and turmoil and longing to be considered a normal girl, but it never feels repetitive or annoying. When Sarai is sad, so is the reader, and when she's happy the reader rejoices.

Speaking of which, the romance also deserves a shout out. I'm not usually a fan of lovey-dovey books, but Sarai and Lazlo were so sweet together that I couldn't help but enjoy this one. They tell each other their deepest secrets and support each other's most difficult decisions. Maybe it's just me, but I also loved how slow they took their relationship. And, I think my favorite part was that, even though Sarai was raised to despise humans and Lazlo was told horrendous stories about the blue gods of Weep, they came to understand each other's people as well as love each other. And the ending completely broke my heart, but anyway

However, as wonderful as the characterization is, it pales in comparison to my favorite aspect of Strange the Dreamer, which is the sheer creativity. I think Laini Taylor must be a genius or something. I don't want to spoil the story, but let's just say the dilemma Weep is facing, the creatures that used to live there, the fact that everyone in the book has two hearts (one that pumps blood and one that pumps spirit), the tattoos the women of Weep receive, and of course the writing style... Reading this book really does feel like stepping into a dream.

★★★★★

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR STRANGE THE DREAMER

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Synopsis

Review:

An amazing YA Fantasy book about an Arthurian legend with a much needed dose of diversity and race!

Bisexual rep. Appreciate the use of pronouns (“they”/“their”).

I loved the vastness of the world in which the Legendborn reside, even the creatures and how the Merlin are created and their battle against the Shadowborn.

As a writer, I also loved Tracy Deonn’s writing style. There were moments when I enjoyed the descriptions she wrote. They were unique and vivid.

Bree is a truly gem in this book. She’s one of those characters who felt so real. Every emotion she expresses, whether it be fear, anger, or grief, felt so genuine. As expected in a questionably white society of Legendborn, Bree goes through a lot, especially racism of all things.

I loved how Bree’s power developed and how each person’s use of aether emitted a different scent for her. That was pretty neat. It was refreshing to see the difference in power dynamic, between the Order who seize the power for themselves, rather than the black community who ask permission for it.

I loved Nick and how he was pretty much by Bree’s side from the beginning. I was a bit worried when Sel spoke about how Nick was in the past (the privilege that comes with being the heir of King Arthur), but Nick didn’t disappoint!

Sel. The kingsmage with quite the temper. While he’s been an interesting character from the beginning, he started to annoy me when he kept getting suspicious about Bree. But thankfully, he mellows down and actually becomes very likeable, at least for me lol.

The unraveling of the mystery about her mother and the Order was so well done. You think you have an idea what’s going on, but you start to realise how wrong you are lol.

One after another, the twists just kept on coming, and man, were they so good!!

The ending was simply badass, especially for Bree who finally got some clarity. I cannot wait to read the sequel!

If you love badass black heroines, a much needed discussion about race and grief and a rich fantasy world, this book is for you!

If you enjoyed this review, please consider buying me a coffee ☕️

this isn't really organized

but I'm a chronic bookworm

also, I am the first two. I strongly prefer physical copies, but when I can't find the book in my small library near me, I will read online.

please reblog so that it's not just a couple of my mutuals who answer this 😅

The short stories from standardized tests that you only had a few minutes to read, but those minutes will last a lifetime.

The books on the library display shelf you used to occupy time until your mom could come pick you up from school.

The graphic novel you picked up when you were first getting into comics and could never find again.

The single lines or themes from stories you otherwise don't remember, save for the one thing that you saw and internalized as a new part of your personality.

Writers control the story of the show, there is so much detail and fine tuning done in the scripts. Everything an actor or a director adds, is adapted from the script. There is no show without the script, but still screenwriters are horrendously underappreciated and underpaid.

Director, actors and producers usually end up with most of the credit.

Some will come back but lose their momentum and you'll wish they'd been cancelled.

This isn't the fault of writers. This is the fault of the studios.

The Writers' Guild has made a list of demands that will cost $500 million a year across the ENTIRE industry. Every studio, every streaming service, every film, every show, every writer: total cost $500 million. One streaming alone could foot the entire bill and still be in comfortable profit. Its half of what Amazon spent on Rings of Power alone. A little more than what Netflix spent on The Gray Man.

The studios can easily afford this. They're just being assholes about it.

I'm definitely not going to booktok for recommendations 😂