Book Review: Strange the Dreamer
Book Title: Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1)
Author: Laini Taylor
Purchase: Amazon
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Description from Goodreads:
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.
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Strange the Dreamer is an utter masterpiece; a remarkable literary achievement. I suppose I should expect nothing less from Laini Taylor, whose Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time. Strange the Dreamer is a love letter to fairy tales and those who believe in them; those who dare to dream of the improbable; those who hope against hope for magic to sweep into their lives and call them to adventure.
Taylor describes protagonist and lifelong dreamer Lazlo Strange with such affection, despite his peers’ mocking and assertions that he couldn’t possibly be meant for anything special:
He believed in magic, like a child, and in ghosts, like a peasant. His nose was broken by a falling volume of fairy tales his first day on the job, and that, they said, told you everything you needed to know about strange Lazlo Strange: head in the clouds, world of his own, fairy tales and fancy.
I just know Lazlo and Sarai, the secondary protagonist, would get along amazingly well with my favorite couple Ryhsand and Feyre. That’s a crossover I didn’t even realize I needed until writing that sentence.
The crowning achievement of this luscious fantasy is the lyrical, evocative prose. Laini Taylor is an expert storyteller. Descriptions of color play an integral role throughout this story, used to draw the reader’s attention, foreshadow, and to subvert expectations. For example, Laini contrasts Lazlo and golden-boy Thyon Nero:
Nero looked like a prince from some saga told by firelight, all luster and gleam. Lazlo’s skin hadn’t been gray since he was a baby, but his librarian’s robes were, and his eyes, too, as though that color were his fate.
Nero’s golden good looks and born privilege set him up as the hero and even he falls prey to this mentality, believing himself the center of everything that unfolds, unable to imagine working with or relying on others. This makes it impossible for him to progress in his scientific experiments without the help of Lazlo’s own open mind. This contrast actually serves to foreshadow Lazlo’s rise as a hero.
The most alluring and predominant color throughout Strange is cornflower blue. The prologue opens with a blue girl falling from the sky and the story continues drawing attention to the exact same shade. At several points, Laini repeats the exact same motifs from the prologue, such as with this description of Ruby:
Ruby looked genuinely amazed, standing there fire-dried and beautiful, naked, at ease with herself, and blue. Blue as opals, pale blue. Blue as cornflowers, or dragonfly wings, or a spring—not summer—sky.
This painterly description is intentionally at odds with the reaction of the citizens of Weep’s disgust at seeing the same exact shade, their prejudice driving them to treat the teenage Mesarthium like Ruby and Sarai as poorly as humans were treated by the previous generation of adult Mesarthium.
The imagery isn’t the only success — the dialogue is hilarious, each voice distinct, allowing the characters’ personalities to leap off the page. I particularly enjoy Lazlo’s banter with the Tizerkane warriors and Calixte, thief and building-scaler extraordinaire. The witty back-and-forth exchanges are balanced with tender moments of quiet yet strong emotion. The characters explore deep-seated trauma alongside empathy and love, both the pure emotions of romantic first love and the more complex emotions of mature love.
There’s so much about this book that I love, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t touch on Lazlo’s dreams. Sarai has the ability to travel into dreams, where she initially meets and builds a relationship with Lazlo. At first, she simply joins his dreams to revel in them, much the same way we get to as readers. Lazlo’s dreams are full of mythical creatures, vibrant city markets, magic, glittering lapis lazuli, and lovers walking hand in hand.
As the two begin interacting more within the dream world, Lazlo transitions to more lucid dreaming to bring Sarai some joy and peace, culminating in a breathtakingly romantic dream toward the end of the book. In this dream, Lazlo gives Sarai her dream of flight:
They fell into the stars in a rush of air and ether. They breathed each other’s breath. They had never been this close. It was all velocity and dream physics—no more need to stand or lean or fly, but only fall. They were both already fallen. They would never finish falling. The universe was endless, and love had its own logic. Their bodies curved together, pressed and found their perfect fit.
If this book has any flaw, it’s that it builds slowly to start. And I only mention that because I remember picking it up once and putting it down after only a few chapters, before returning a year later to give it a fair chance. I’m so glad I did because this is an amazing world I can see myself returning to again and again. Perfect for fans of A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas, and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern.
