A really lovely work, thematically similar to her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. Taylor has a lyrical style, which is well suited to this storytelling, and builds characters the reader quickly comes to care about. I appreciate the diverse characters and settings in her work as well. A pair of lovers drawn together by fate, to play a pivotal role in the resolution of the struggle of the city now known as Weep to finally free themselves of the vestige of the tyranny of the gods. The story touches on long held enmity beyond reason, and prejudices about class, race, beauty, and strength. A very strong work with the end being a giant cliffhanger which means I will be eagerly waiting for the sequel.

DNF just over 50%.
I found Strange the Dreamer extremely confusing and boring. I had no idea what was going on. I don't know who half the characters are as there's just so many and it flicks between the characters. I feel like I missed something. None of the characters are relatable (probably because I didn't know who was who).
I really liked the poetic writing style. There's plenty of worldbuilding, but it comes off a little info-dumpy. I think this book is for a certain type of reader, and unfortunately that's not me.

This book was unlike anything I've ever read. Which is saying a lot because I've read a lot of books. The idea of following your dreams and staying true to yourself shines through thanks to the books' true hero Lazlo. I won't say anymore than that because I want everyone who reads this book to have no idea where it's going, because not knowing what is coming next isn't a bad thing, especially not with this book.

WOW! Just Wow! This was brilliant, I haven't read anything like this before, I bloody well enjoyed the way it was written and the characters. I am blown away. I can not wait to re read it again, I am looking forward to reading other books from this author!

This story was amazing! I didn't know what to expect when I started and it didn't take me long to realise it was going to be an awesome story. The writing style engaged me immediately, kind of reminded me of Jaclyn Moriarty's 'Colours of Madeleine' series.... whimsical and dreamy and full of magic. 
Lazlo, known as the Librarian, was a fantastic character and it was so rewarding watching him grow and develop throughout the story, up until the end when he was so strong and brave and kind of broke my heart.
There were so many great characters in this story, good and evil..... and the mystery slowly revealed itself although I did have a sneaky suspicion half way through which turned out to be correct! 
The ending was not what I expected and it makes the wait for book two so much harder.

Wow, what can I say about Strange the Dreamer, except that I loved it from start to finish? I enjoyed this story even more than The Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Taylor has created an amazing mythology and a host of vibrant, delightful characters with whom I gloried to spend several hours of my time. I don't want to give away anything, but I can say that I adored the imagery and the lyrical prose, and I spent the whole book on tenterhooks, waiting to see what would happen. Naturally, this will be a series, so Taylor has left us on quite a cliffhanger. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long for the next instalment. If you enjoy YA fantasy with amazing world building and a suspenseful, intriguing plot, then Strange the Dreamer is the tale for you.

Tragedy, thy name is Weep. 

My god, what a story. Be warned, this is a really slow burn novel, but if you get through all the way to the end, I can guarantee you some really good feels! 

Lazlo is an orphan librarian who doesn't seem to belong anywhere at all until a delegation to Weep, the lost or Unseen City, comes his way. Only just managing to be a part of it, it seems like all of his dreams are about to come true. 

Sarai is one of five individuals stuck in a citadel, largely ruled by Minya, someone who is older than them all, but resides in the body of a six year old girl. Each person in the tower has some sort of power. Minya's is to hold ghosts and keep them from their own afterlife in death.

There is definitely a sense of two separate stories going on in this novel, which is possibly why it all takes so long to set up. And although Lazlo and Sarai do meet up and interact, their two stories remain very separate all the way through to the end. 

As well as two protagonists, there is a strong antagonist facing each of these two main characters. In Sarai's case, that person is Minya. In Lazlo the Strange, his antagonist (for no good reason I might add, since Lazlo constantly goes out of his way to help him) is Thyon Nero. Honestly, of the two, I found I liked Thyon a little bit more. He is passionate and strong but, ultimately ineffective. 

Minya, on the other hand, is just creepy! I will say, however, that Laini Taylor did a good job of almost redeeming her in the end. 

This book is the first part of a duology and ends in a cliffhanger.

Strange the Dreamer is without a doubt one of the most highly anticipated young adult books for 2017. The cover is incredibly dazzling, the plot is wondrously adventurous and relatable (for a lover of books) while the mystery of Weep just yearns to be told. I was really waiting for this book, crossing off the days in my mind and I was tremendously excited a few weeks ago when I received an advanced copy of this book. One thing I was surprised about was how large of a book it was. I suppose being a duology means there's more of a story to tell when you have to fit it into two books so I'm happy it's so big. 

Honestly, one thing I can complain about with this book (for the sake of being picky) is that I found the book confusing at times for the first 20% of the story. I had a good idea as to what the story was about but the layout wasn't great for establishing what time the chapters were happening (since a portion of the story was a flashback) and then it started switching to another character's perspective. It was easy to catch up to what was happening after a few sentences but I'd like to see a clear change in time/character in the final book and physical copy since it keeps the story progressing without pulling a reader out to think - whose mind am I in now or what time is this taking place? 

Strange the dreamer. Lazlo Strange is the fantastic main character of this book and was born an orphan of war with no true identity or past to mark his place in the world. I love that he was a junior librarian but I found it so quirky how librarians and books were treated in this world. I also found it very cool that he cared so much for the knowledge found in those places and worked extremely hard to produce his own books and learn to read on his own. He took an amazing journey throughout this book, made friends, discovered horrible but necessary truths and I'm so happy about who he ended up being at the end of it all.

You know what, Thyon Nero is a jerk. That's all I want to say but I will say more. I'm sure he's a little redeemable towards the end of the book but I just didn't want to acknowledge him because he was so rude to Lazlo! And to top it off, he bends Lazlo's books and throws them on the ground! That is just unacceptable and it shows his character as a person/book abuser! Yeah, he was pretty good with the chemicals and the mixing of substances but Lazlo was the key to his discoveries and he just treats him like dirt for most of the book. 

The godspawn: Minya, master of the dead. Ruby, kindler of flames. Sparrow, grower of nature. Feral, controller of weather. Then Sarai, the daughter of Isagol, goddess of despair. She's the most important one of them for the story because Sarai has the gift of entering people's dreams and controlling them. That comes in great use for her throughout the book but it's also her biggest weakness. Lazlo's story was interesting, but the mystery of the godspawn children was so much more fascinating once they were introduced.

It might sound wonderful at first, children of gods with powers and a citadel high above the ground but, in reality, they're prisoners living on scraps and reserved to a life waiting for the inevitable end. Their home is frozen in time ever since Skathi, the god who controlled the buildings and the floating city, died so they survive but without any hope of thriving. They don't think they'll ever experience anything from the ground or other people until the dreaded Godslayer Eril-Fane, that killed every god, goddess and godspawn but them fifteen years ago, returns to bring the Citadel down. I loved the chapters that featured these young gods and goddesses the most because they were such great characters and their world was so interesting! 

About halfway through the book, those two sides started to merge and it was all super exciting. I could talk about this book for a while but then this review would be way too long so I just want to focus on how awesome the whole book is, basically it's all great! The majority of the characters were fantastically built and either lovable or hated for me without an in between. I loved the idea of these children of terrible gods and goddesses being up above the city and one man finding his way to them and I also loved that this man was so much more than he seemed. I'm glad that things happened the way they did but the ending was really very surprising. Of course, it was clear that some of those things were definitely going to happen but I didn't see it all coming and that's always fantastic when a story can surprise you and make you feel an array of emotions.

Now I have so many questions, like what are behind those other rooms in the Citadel? Where are the others? Can he save her? And what will happen next?! I've never read a book by Laini Taylor before but I really enjoyed her writing style. The book was mostly set in third person while it juggled all of the characters but it was also a little like a story Lazlo wrote for us when little paragraphs spoke to the reader. I can't help but rate this book five stars because it completely ensnared me in the dream of it all. I'm totally a fan of her work now and I can't wait for the second book in this duology because it's titled The Muse of Nightmares! That is such an impressive title just like the first and I wonder if the cover will be a brilliant red for Sarai or something else totally gorgeous?

I have complaints about this book. I have many. Complaints. About. This. Beautiful bastard of a book. But most of them boil down to the same base elements; I wanted more. I wanted more of godslaying Eril-Fane and his tragic marriage, I wanted more of just begging to be redeemed Thyon, I wanted more of Feral and Ruby and there accidental foray into maybe love. I especially wanted more, like an entire book, of everyone's favourite assassin/acrobat scaling the cloudspire. I'm serious, if the author is reading this, I am serious. 

This is one of those books where it seems every single character, no matter how briefly they appear, is staring in their own amazing story that we could follow eagerly if we weren't stuck in Lazlo and Sarai's. I say stuck, as though it's a chore, as though Lazlo and Sarai's tale is a boring one, which it is certainly not but alas I lack Laini Taylor's effortless control of language so here we are. This is a novel that unfurls before you growing better and better and better again. There's something to love no matter where you look, from the stunning prose, to the characters, to the witty banter to the vivid worldbuilding and the heartbreakingly good plot. And then it has the audacity to go and end, and what am I supposed to do with myself now?

You'll notice I've not said anything particularly concrete about this book and what it's about, and that it's an absolute joy to discover for yourself. The plot unfurls perfectly, revealing new beauty and dark, incredibly dark, depths and it's wonderful and if I could send an army of moths into everyone's window with a copy of this book to read I would do it in a heartbeat.

I am eternally indebted to netgalley for giving me the chance to read this lovely book which I ultimately hated because, as I mentioned, it had the nerve to end.

If you loved Laini Taylor’s previous books, then you are going to love this one. She makes a world that is clever, interesting, full of people you’d love to meet and with interesting quirks. It has been a while since I read a YA fantasy book and it took me a bit to get into it at the beginning, despite the male lead being all kinds of wonderful and on top of that, a librarian. He is obsessed with finding out about the lost city of Weed, eventually he is offered the opportunity to travel there and discovers that there are good reasons why it is such a secret place. We also meet Sarai, one of the remaining few goddesses who have survived a terrible carnage which took place in Weed. There are ghosts, dream invaders in the form of beautiful moths, magic in many forms and flying machines made of plants. There is a lot going on, and it is beautifully described and very real sounding. The world within these pages is scary and gorgeous and I can see that it will have huge appeal to those who love a great YA fantasy.