Review: Strange the Dreamer // Lazlo Freaking Strange, Love of My Life

By Laini Taylor

Rating: 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

Goodreads Community Rating: 4.39

Genre: Fantasy

Publication Date: March 28th 2017

Format Read: Audiobook

Goodreads Summary: The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep.

Overview

I LOVE THIS BOOK! it had all the elements of my favorite book; semi-unpredictability, excitement, emotions, fantasy, mystery, books, romance… I could go on. Laini Taylor is a beautiful writer, and this story came together so well that I was already hoping for spinoff series before I even finished the first book in this one. And that’s saying a lot for me, since typically I don’t get obsessed with books / series that quickly. I mean sure I fall in love with a book, but the I WANT MORE OF THIS WORLD doesn’t normally come until I’m a few books into the series.

Moral of story: read this book.

Characters

Lazlo Strange is incredible for so many reasons. I’ll make a list.

1. He’s a bookworm
2. He’s 20 (yes, this is a bonus for me personally)
3. Sense of adventure
4. loyal af
5. smart

all of this is shown super well through his actions, and he literally makes me smile every single page. It’s remarkable.

The other MC in this book is Serai. She’s a half-god who lives in the sky with her fellow half-gods, and i love her. She’s so genuinely sweet and fun and excitable that it’s great. And very easy to ship. the love interests in this book come together so real-ly and naturally that it’s amazing.

the other gods and people around lazlo are well developed even when they only play minor roles. I want to see more of so many of them in future books.

Plot

To sum it up… there’s a secret world that’s been cut off for a long time and an expedition is gathered to go to the city. There, they must remove the giant god fortress (which the humans believe to be empty) that hangs above the city.

sounds bizarre, yeah?

it ended up being a really unique concept that I absolutely loved. The way everyone reacted to this task was so interesting and different, and I think the adventure with a purpose that’s not to save the world was a nice touch.

The villains in this book were interestingly portrayed, since none of them were the stereotypical villains that you would see in other books. I think their incongruousness, and the way which they hindered the protagonists, made me love the book even more.

 

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Writing Style

Did I mention already that Laini Taylor writes beautifully? Just in case, let me say it again: HER WRITING IS BEAUTIFUL. There manages to be so much detail and yet still have good pacing and it’s remarkable and beautiful and I want to steal all the words.

If some of y’all didn’t like this in Taylor’s previous books, don’t read Strange. but if you do (or if you were ambivalent) you must read it.

The point of view jumps between Lazlo and Serai, which works remarkably since they live in two completely different worlds. It also allows the reader to know way more than either of the main characters did, which KILLED ME and made me read way faster. I kid you not this book was at 2x speed by the end, and then I relistened slower because the words were so pretty.

Summary

I clearly loved this book. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys any type of fantasy, regardless of your age. I think there was some confusion about whether this was adult or ya, and I think as a result of that it can work for literally anyone and they will think that it’s meant for them.

Please read it so we can fangirl together.

Do you love Lazlo as much as I do? Do you want to be blue? Any idea when the next book is coming out?

 

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