Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

99 reviews

suhbreenah's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Trafficking

Minor: Rape

cruspp_29's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Sexual violence

shannonvonpesach's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Loved the writing style of Laini. But there were so many names I sometimes couldn't keep up. Hence the 4,5 instead of 5 stars. Also I didn't think Sparrow, Ruby and Feral had much role maybe in part 2 they do, but for now they just seemed...there?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

errie's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Violence, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Kidnapping

laurence19's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Violence

nclausel25's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, and War

Moderate: Body horror, Sexual content, and Blood

readrunhike's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

bethfern04's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

samnotwise's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Racism, Sexual assault, Blood, and Kidnapping

Minor: Rape and Murder

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer is a whimsical, creative and dark fantasy all at the same time. Dark in that it deals with really dark themes (see CW). Whimsical and creative in that the setting is surprising and magic takes many different forms.

We follow Lazlo Strange, an orphan raised in a library and destined to spend his life between books, attending to the needs of scholars without ever being recognised as one. Lazlo is slowly but surely gathering every morsel of information he can find about the city of Weep, whose true name escaped his tongue and his memory the first time he came across it. The secret behind this type of magic haunts him and he is desperate to learn more about it, when a unique opportunity arises and a delegation from Weep arrives in town.

Sarai is a godspawn, born from unspeakable pain and destined to live her life hidden from the rest of the world with her brothers and sisters, so close to the fabled city of Weep but so far away. Trapped in her citadel, she can only visit Weep through the moths that carry her power and make her infiltrate people’s dreams, invisible, unknown. Until the day a boy sees her.

I can see this book being so loved by its readers, and potentially breaking their heart. It’s filled with longing and rage, with love and betrayal, with shame and secrets. Unfortunately we got off on the wrong foot, since it ticked a few boxes that make me roll my eyes. That’s not against the author of the book, it’s a very personal taste. Then, I felt a little bit like when reading an Erin Morgenstern book, in that it was very imaginative and visual and since I have no visual imagination I had trouble getting a grasp on the universe. I could never feel the atmosphere of this book, and so I was having trouble with reading. I actually switched to the French translation halfway through (thank you libraries !) and that helped me finish it. I could have just abandoned, but it wasn’t a bad book so I felt frustrated at the thought of not getting through a novel that had been on my wishlist for so long.

I’d recommend this book if you enjoy The Night Circus and The Starless Sea (which I do want to reread) and if you’re ready to have your heart crushed, in part with the romance. Even though I didn’t feel like that, I could see the potential.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death

Moderate: Rape and Blood

Minor: Pregnancy