Another day, another book review –
and this time, something a little bit out of my contemporary/young
adult/thriller comfort zone. Last year, I booked to go to an event at
Waterstones Liverpool to meet Laini Taylor, the other of the esteemed novel Strange the Dreamer and listen to her speak. Unfortunately, I was
at work and couldn’t get out for the meet and greet so a lovely fellow blogger
got my copy of the book signed for me. However, I am me, and I have about 50
books on my TBR pile at home so the book was pushed to the sidelines and left
to wallow.
Prior to buying the book, I had
heard a lot about the story and was intrigued – there was quite a buzz about
the book blogging community and rightly so. The story of Lazlo Strange, an
orphan brought up by Monks is a fantastical and exciting one- the Monks limit
Lazlo’s life, prohibited from doing all the things he had previously. He
becomes obsessed with the mythical city of Weep, a city that has become lost
and detached from the rest of the world that he lives in. Everyone else appears
to have forgotten all about it, but Lazlo Strange is different and unfortunately,
this is the start of where his problems lie. When Lazlo realises that the city
he has been dreaming of for all these years actually DOES exist, and the name
of it had just been stolen from everyone’s minds, he spends his teenage years
researching the city further and trying with all his might to find out as much
about it as humanely possible. It is then that he decides to go on a journey to
find it and fulfil his own dream.
On the other side of all this
rests Sarai, a blue skinned Goddess (granted, she’s a half goddess, but her
human blood means nothing). She lives in Weep, hiding in the citadel where the
Gods live. She is the one responsible for giving the city of Weep nightmares. Naturally,
a love story develops but arguably one of the most true and beautiful ones that
I’ve read in a long time. It is definitely essential to the plot progression
and they help each other to grow in a way that other characters wouldn’t have
allowed them.
The language used throughout the
story is beautiful and I was often reminded of Philip Pullman’s His Dark
Materials, a series we all know is my
favourite book series of all time. It baffles me that an actual real-life
human being could come up with a story as beautifully magical as this one and
the language really is a tier above anything I’ve read recently. Lazlo and
Serai, the two main characters, are beautiful characters – full of hope – and they
are backed by a whole range of mystical characters, ranging from gods,
goddesses to ghosts and moths. Yes, moths.
This year will be the year of the
release of Laini’s sequel to Strange the
Dreamer, The Muse of Nightmares and it’s fair to say that I am absolutely
bouncing in my seat at the thought of getting my hands on it in the coming
months.
If I could give the book more
than 5 out of 5 stars, I would.
An absolute dream (see what I did
there?)
