Laini Taylor: Strange the Dreamer

Strange the Dreamer- Review

Laini Taylor

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 4.5/5

The short version: Strange is much more than just another fantasy novel- it creates breath-taking new worlds, asks thoughtful moral questions and introduces compelling new characters. 

This review will contain spoilers.

It took me a while to pick up Laini Taylor’s debut series, the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. Once I had read them, though, I loved them, and in fact they’re amongst the first books I picked up when I wanted to read my favourites again.

That actually meant that I was a bit apprehensive about Strange the Dreamer. I was scared in case the magic hadn’t carried over to a new setting, plot, and characters. It was a relief to find out that I really shouldn’t have worried! Strange is similar to DoSaB in its creation of incredibly detailed and fascinating mythologies, worlds to match them, and characters who seem demonic to the rest of the world. But it’s also entirely new in its themes and storyline.

Strange is about a young man named Laszlo who realises a life-long dream when he secures a place in a party travelling to a fabled city named Weep. He soon discovers that, like a lot of dreams, reality doesn’t quite match up. It is also about a girl called Sarai, who has a strange family of dead adults and living children, and even stranger powers.

I was impressed by the way Taylor develops her characters- Laszlo begins to change as a person even from the very beginning of the book. The scene where he decides to do something about making his dream reality was immensely powerful for me because I’m like Laszlo- it’s really common for me to daydream about something, but if I have the opportunity to do it, I’m scared in case reality isn’t as good as the daydream. Actually, that’s similar to why I was so hesitant about reading Strange in the first place! Anyway, his decision to do something to save Weep was cleverly written and utterly engaging.

One of my favourite things about Taylor’s writing style is that she is immensely skillful at misdirection. From the beginning of Strange, I thought that it would be about Lazlo’s quest just to find the city of Weep. I wasn’t sorry that he actually finds it halfway through the book, because it was fun to watch him discover the city and find the answers to questions he’d been wondering about for so long.

I did feel that the ending of the book was a little bit hurried compared to the pace of the rest of it, though. In my opinion, the storyline of Thyon Nero wasn’t really fulfilled, even though I know that it will probably be explored more in the next book. I also thought Drave deserved a little bit more character development- his large part in the finale of the tale didn’t match the way he had been set up, for me.

I guessed that Laszlo would eventually be revealed to be able to control adamant – for me, this was obvious from the emphasis Taylor places on the mystery surrounding his birth. But I was so unprepared for the revelation that he is godspawn, the same as Sarai. I can’t wait to see how that affects the characters, and it fits in well with the moral dilemmas explored throughout the book.

All that said, I feel like Strange deserves 4.5 just for the beautiful worlds it creates and how utterly compelling the characters are to read about. I definitely won’t be hesitating to read the next book!