Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Overview:
Strange the Dreamer is a story about an orphan librarian named Lazlo Strange. As described in the title, Lazlo is quite the dreamer. He spends all of this days reading, writing, and dreaming about this magical land called Weep that no one seems to believe even exists. The story starts to pick up when one day a man allegedly from the land of Weep visits his city looking for scholars and volunteers to help solve a great problem their city suffers from. Now that there’s proof this place exists, Lazlo has to convince this man to take him along and fulfill his lifelong dream.
The Plot:
The plot of this story was actually quite unique. There were a few things that were predictable, but much of the story caught me by surprise. Laini Taylor has an interesting take on gods and aliens and dreams. There were a few points where I felt the story dragged a bit, and some spots where the pacing wasn’t very smooth, but nothing big enough to stop me from finishing the book. I was sucked in the entire time.
Writing Style:
Laini Taylor is an incredibly gifted writer. She has such a unique writing style that flows beautifully from sentence to sentence. It has such a poetic feel to it that I almost felt the need to read it aloud.
The Characters:
The best part of this book was definitely Lazlo. I LOVE Lazlo! Much of it is because I feel like I get him, as I myself spend most of my time dreaming with my nose in a book. However, even if he wasn’t basically me in that aspect, I would still love his character. He is such a rare kind of main character. He’s a Hufflepuff in a genre where most of the main characters are Gryffindors. The other characters were also very individual and three-dimensional. Their interactions with each other were realistic and telling. It was fun to get to know these characters throughout the story.
Overall:
I really enjoyed this book. I couldn’t give it 5 stars, because I’m not sure it’s one that I’m going to read over and over, but it was definitely worth reading to me. I’d recommend this book to someone who is looking for something unique in the fantasy genre.