This cements it – Laini Taylor is now an auto-buy (well, auto-read) author for me. I loved the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, and now I love Strange the Dreamer. My fondness for the author comes from both the stories she crafts and how beautiful her writing is. Something somewhat gruesome happens on the very first page of Strange the Dreamer, but even that is written poetically. Here are some of the descriptions in which her prose really stood out to me:
- “The old [mystery] opened his mind, but it was the new one that climbed inside, turned several circles, and settled in with a grunt.”
- “To get away from . . . the life that pinched like tight shoes.”
- “. . . his voice low and masculine and not at all smooth, as though it had been left out in the weather.”
- And this excellent insult: “Dear girl, your credulity is as vast as this desert. One might get lost in it and never again encounter fact or reason.”
This lovely writing draws us into the world of Lazlo Strange, an orphan raised by monks, who at age 13 leaves to become a librarian. He is obsessed with the city of Weep, which once had a different name, but magic took the name away and no one can remember what it was previously called, and no one has heard news of Weep for many years. Then one day a delegation from Weep arrives seeking help for a problem they won’t yet disclose until everyone arrives back at Weep, and Lazlo gets the opportunity to visit this city that he has been thinking and fantasizing about for years. Part two then introduces the POV of a new character who lives in Weep and whose story intersects with Lazlo’s.
Part of what I appreciate about Taylor’s work is that she writes believable, nuanced characters who aren’t all good or all bad (mostly), though I would say that Lazlo might be an exception to that. He’s just such a good person, but still believable and real, such as when pettiness occasionally gets the better of him. In one memorable instance, this results in his pretending not to understand the insult of an unlikable character, which was entertaining to read.
There was nothing I disliked about this book. While there is a romantic relationship that develops more quickly than I would have preferred, I can also see how some particular factors might have contributed to the quick development and intensity of those feelings. In general, I found myself engaged throughout the book, which ends on a cliffhanger, but I already have book 2 from the library and have dived right in! If you’re already a fan of Laini Taylor or you enjoy lush writing in a fantasy setting, I highly recommend reading Strange the Dreamer.