Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

62 reviews

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

kathrynleereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

As a human, mysteries intrigue me. As a person who devoted years to the study of anthropology, mysteries of culture consume me. 

So a story about a city, mysterious from the beginning, but suddenly lost, disappeared from the world? It felt like magic to have stumbled upon it.

Right from the prologue, Strange the Dreamer grabbed my attention and refused to let go. 

The story, the characters, the settings, the dreams, they all just kept getting better and better. 

Watching the history of Weep unfold bit by bit in tiny little shards of knowledge was mesmerizing.

Other than the gods themselves, there were no characters that I didn’t like. 

The only two who came close were Minya and Thyon, but even the two of them weren’t evil, they just lacked compassion. 

And the dreams.

Laini Taylor’s writing truly encompasses and deserves the word “art.”

I have long wished that I could dive into the worlds I read about, and then there I was, reading about a world I wanted to dive into, and within that world they were doing the same thing.

The connection I felt to Lazlo and Sarai as they dove into dreams together and made their stories was one of the strongest I’ve ever felt with a character (or characters in this case). 

I’m both excited and terrified to learn where the story, and the unseen city of Weep itself, go from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, and Blood

Minor: Homophobia

djierie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing sad tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Kidnapping

grets_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Pregnancy

metaphorsandmisc's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, and War

kylemhaggerty's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Colonisation

stripedstone's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

This book gave me Miyazaki vibes and I say that as someone who strongly dislikes the comparison of almost any book to his movies because I rarely agree. I was specifically thinking about Laputa a lot, but also bits of Howl's and Spirited Away.

Just really beautiful writing, very descriptive imagery that built a very lush and intriguing world. I am very excited to read the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Rape, Slavery, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Pregnancy

rape/SA:

nothing descriptive or on page, but it is discussed as something that happened regularly in the past of this society under the gods