Strange the Dreamer

I turned my nightmares into fireflies and caught them in a jar.

3.49/5 stars
I'm about to seemingly hate on this book but I also know I am wrong about everything and you should definitely ignore me and read this book. It's 100% worth the read.

Also I rewrote my review. Used to be a lot different. It's better now.

You see, I'm not really a fan of weird. I like things to be realistic with all its ducks in a row. I need a beginning and a end and some sort of explanation for how things work. This has an end at the beginning. Then it has a beginning. The lyrical writing distracts you from the fact that things just happen for no apparent reason. And this book is so fucking weird.

If we are gonna discuss its weirdness, let's have a break down of the plot. I'll spoiler tag it because I'm trying to do better

•Blue goddess fall from sky and everyone screams bc she blue. They don't really care if she's okay or not. Rude. •Now forget all about that and meet Lazlo. He's like the owl from Avatar the Last Airbender but like not creepy or mean. So nothing like that. •Lazlo was abandoned as a baby by war or something and lived with monks. Monks raised him and some grumpy old monk of a ***** told him stories about this really cool city with ~~~magic~~~•What is that city called? Guess what? no one knows. They did but now they don't because ~~~magic~~~ so now everyone calls it Weep •Lazlo grows up obsessed with this city like that one girl in your elementary school liked horses. •Stuff happens. He abandons the monk lifestyle to become a simple librarian. Which sounds like the life. Sign me the eff up. Why would Lazlo ever leave ?•He leaves. He gets the opportunity to go to Weep bc we need a plot. •Now this is like half of the book already. When we finally get to weep we learn there's like a floating palace above it where there were gods but now they are all dead•But surprise they aren't all dead•Enter Sarai•She's blue and can throw up moths and invade people's dreams. That's all that's really important about her. She does eventually fall out of the sky. See bullet point one. •And surprise Lazlo is ~~~different~~~ and when she invades his dream he can see her•They fall in love after like 5 minutes maybe less i wasn't timing it•The end

Other stuff happens obviously but I think I summed up all the important stuff.

The moths are weird. The magic is weird. Literally everything was weird. Sometimes, all the weirdness would blend together and I would start to wonder if it really is that weird or if it was just me. But no. It's not me.

Literally me the entire reread:



I think what bugs me the most is that the magic system is not built very well. I mean, this is only half of the series so this probably changes in the next book, so I know I am talking way too soon, but I don't feel like I got any sort of a start of an explanation about the magic. These blue people live above the sky and nobody knows how they got there. This girl can scream out moths and I'm just suppose to accept that? I need a sensical explanation okay.

I think my other problem was the characters. Now, this was probably totally just me. I remember loving the characters when I first read this book, but I just wasn't feeling them this time around. Let's discuss, shall we?

Lazlo. Lame. Doesn't do much besides think about Weep constantly.

Sarai. I literally can't think of anything to write about. Besides the whole moth dream thing, she was kinda forgettable.

Minya. One of the only characters with some depth even though she's a major bitch and I hate her

Ruby, Feral, and Sparrow. Literally, these three could have been removed from this book and it would be the exact same story

Thyon The absolute best character. Laini Taylor really shows us what drives him early in the book and sticks with it the entire story. Also, she opens the door to so much character building. He's so interesting. I could have read this entire story from his POV and it would have been so much better. 10/10 stars. Would recommend.

Godslayer I can't remember his name. I can't remember what he did in this book other than slaying some gods 15 years ago and trying to start a cult.

Okay so now let's talk about the worst part of this book. The romance between Sarai and Lazlo. These two bitches are straight from that new Love is Blind show on Netflix. They haven't even met each other face to face and they are proclaiming their everlasting love to one another. I think I ship a paper plate with rock more than I ship those two.



And literally like all three conversations they had sounded like some douche canoe sliding into someone's dms. I ended up skimming over most of their conversations because it was just too much for my forever single heart.

Example:

‘“That's good,” Lazlo breathed. “I was worried.” He blushed. “I may have thought about you a few times today.”“Only a few?” she teased, blushing too.“Maybe more,” he admitted.'