Title: Strange the Dreamer
(Strange the Dreamer #1)
Author: Laini Taylor
Genre: YA Fantasy
Format: Audiobook
Narrated By: Steve West
Length: 18 hours, 20 mins
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: March 28, 2017
Death, Ghosts, Rape (off screen),
Forced Childbirth (off screen), Self-Harm
I FINALLY FINISHED THIS AUDIOBOOK! Thank the hell. I mean yay! It wasn’t like it was bad or anything, but I just felt like it took forever. Honestly I think this is going to be the second to last audiobook I listen to for a while unfortunately. I need a break after these really long ones.
- I don’t get the title.
- Ohhhhhhh….. Lazlo Strange, the Dreamer. That was hard.
- This is super damn long omg.
- So many people are talking about this so I guess I gotta read it.
- Wait, what is it about again?
Lazlo Strange is supposed to be an orphan that grew up in a library, and he ends up teaching himself how to read and research enough that they promoted him to a Junior Librarian rather than just an orphan. Something made him look up the city of “Weep”, which is not its real name, but is the only name that comes to people’s mouths when they try to remember the old name. He convinces a group of people from Weep to bring him with them to Weep because he taught himself the language and was just somehow worth taking.
Sarai and her… “siblings”, well the other kids that were saved by Minya during the massacre of the Godspawn and the Gods… live up in the Citadel that is shaped like a seraph that is blocking the sun above Weep. They each have their own powers as well since they all come from different Gods… and all the of the Godspawn seem to have different powers anyway. Well, they call them gifts. Sarai is the “Muse of Nightmares” because she can go into people’s dreams, witness what is going on, and manipulate it to cause them nightmares. Oh… their names are Sparrow, Ruby, and Feral? Yep, Feral.
So Lazlo and some people from the place he’s from get chosen by Eril-Fane, the leader of the group from Weep that came to search for smart people to help them with their problem that they had for like over 2000 years because of the “Gods” that practically made the people of Weep their slaves and baby incubators. It also is about Sarai and the other four Godspawn children that survived the massacre and how they were able to hide themselves and their existence from the people of Weep for 15 years.
And Lazlo and Sarai end up getting to know each other somehow and fall in love? Despite not ever meeting each other in person?
It’s a long story and shit happens and then it ends in a major cliffhanger and I was livid.
Uhh…. I think I liked the second half of the book, when Lazlo and the gang finally got to Weep. I liked that Lazlo got like buff and stuff during his journey because it took like six months to travel there, and apparently he got super hot? I don’t know. That’s the vibe I’m getting. I like how Sarai fought against her “nature” to be bad, even though Minya would try to persuade her to be bad and cause vengeance on the humans that took away their kind.
Wow, I have been trying to figure out if I’ve been paying attention to this book to figure out what I liked about it but at least I got through it.
Just the prose I guess. Sometimes it was really great, and other times I kept getting lost or bored because it would take too long to get to the point. That’s more of a personal thing though rather than a critique to the novel.
Other than that, there wasn’t really anything that I didn’t like.
Uhhh…. I mean. I kind of need to figure out what happens in the second one because that ending was freaking crap. I’m glad that Taylor didn’t end up making this into a standalone because it would have been way too freaking long, or if she just ended it like this then I would have been hella irritated.
But I don’t know if I’m totally for this book or totally against it. Well, I know I’m not totally against it but I don’t know if I love it enough… I suck. I’m sorry.
Sometimes Leelynn Reads 
I enjoyed the sequel more than the first book so hopefully you do too.
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I still haven’t read Laini yet. I think I’m terrified I won’t like her books or something and then I’ll lose my YA community card LOL The love for this book is so intense. I do need to give it a try at some point though. Great review!
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Yeah, those long audio books can wear you out sometimes – even when the book is decent.
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I enjoyed the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Laini Taylor, but I also wasn’t as impressed by that as everyone else was. I haven’t read this yet, but I’m scared the same thing would happen, especially because this also has insta-love, I believe? Either way, this was a great review – hopefully, the second book will leave you more satisfied. 🙂
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“Ohhhhhhh….. Lazlo Strange, the Dreamer. That was hard.”
It took me so long to get this, too!!! I felt so smart once I understood it.
I also felt betrayed by the cliffhanger, to the point that I don’t want to read the sequel. The first one was stressful enough!
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Oh my gosh, Leelynn, your progression of impressions made me laugh so hard. xD I actually had no idea what this was about. I just wanted to read it because everyone said it was good. But now that I’ve read a description of it, I’m all the more excited about reading it. xD Funny how that works.
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I feel like this is a completely accurate review. It’s such a complicated book, and it was so damn long! I almost fell off my bed when I saw how long the audiobook was – and it took me two full days to read this book, while it would usually take me half the time to finish a book of this length.
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