Strange the Dreamer spoilers ahead!
“There’s only one rule. You do everything I say, or I’ll let her soul go.”
Strange the Dreamer ended on kind of a downer. And by “downer” I mean I was screaming “OHMYGOD WHY LAINI, WHHHHYYYYY???” Sarai is dead, her ghost bound to the world only through the temperamental will of Minya. Using Sarai’s continued existence as leverage, Minya is blackmailing Lazlo, newly discovered to be a rather powerful godspawn himself, into helping her exact her revenge on the inhabitants of Weep. She has an army of ghosts, unwilling slaves to her will, that she plans to use to punish Weep for the massacre of the other godspawn children 15 years prior. If you need a refresher, the godspawn are the children of the foreign “gods” that came to Weep and systematically kidnapped, raped, and impregnated most of the city’s women. The gods were monstrous; their five remaining half-human spawn are isolated, wary, but otherwise generally innocent teenagers. Except Minya. She has…anger issues.
A Tiny, Dirty Goddess
“This was what Minya knew: Have an enemy, be an enemy. Hate those who hate you. Hate them better. Hate them worse. Be the monster they fear the most. And whenever you can, and however you can, make them suffer.”
Muse of Nightmares refers to Sarai, and the love story between her and Lazlo is all that is pure and incandescent in the universe, but this is primarily Minya’s story. It is horror, hate, and vengeance, and pain, suffering, and loss. But it is also healing and hope and redemption, all woven together and written with such beauty and magic that it makes you ache. The primary plot involves Sarai, Lazlo, and the other godspawn trying to prevent Minya from destroying Weep, without her making good on her threat to release Sarai’s soul. You learn a lot about Minya and the details of the Carnage that made her the creature she is, and the gradual revelations and insights are stunning. SO MANY FEELS.
“She hadn’t known she was crushed until she wasn’t, and she didn’t know she was fragmented until she became whole.”
The End (or is it?)
The secondary characters are similarly crafted with equal depth and feeling. Eril-Fane, the Godslayer, tormented by his past. His wife, Azareen, resigned to her husband’s fathomless guilt that leaves him unwilling to touch her. And Thyon, his haughty, standoffish superiority slowly giving way to loneliness and a desire to belong. New characters Kora and Nova are sisters, whose parallel story merges with the main narrative in a surprising and tragic way. It’s these little character driven arcs within the main narrative that make the story so immersive and captivating. And the ending! It’s like a beautiful sunset after a long and harrowing storm. Although the story is wrapped up pretty well, Taylor dangles tantalizing possibilities for more adventures for these characters down the road. Adventures that might even involve other worlds. And other characters. From other series. That we’ve met before. Maybe.
Best book of 2018? Definitely.
As always, the scope of Laini Taylor’s imagination is mind-boggling. Her stories are incredibly original, like nothing I’ve ever read before. It would take obscene amounts of illicit, hallucinogenic drugs to get me to whatever plane of creativity her brain functions at. Her prose is lyrical, beautiful but concisely expressive at the same time. You just…savor her writing. I’m usually a speed reader, but with her books I’m compelled to soak in every word. If books were food, then hers would be dark chocolate. Lush, bittersweet, but good for your heart.
“They had lived for night and dreaded sunrise, for it would wrench them apart. But it was daylight now, and they were together.”
Muse of Nightmares is available October 2nd! Pre-Order here.
*Feature Image-Source. All quotes are from an advanced copy and therefore subject to change.
