A review by herdarklibrary
Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

When I tell you I loved Strange the Dreamer, I’m saying it with my whole chest. It was a beautiful book that I devoured. So naturally I was very excited to pick up Muse of Nightmares and dig straight back in.

I enjoyed it.

Laini Taylor’s writing is so good that of course I enjoyed it. I still loved the world, the characters, the description. But this book just didn’t hit the same way the first one did for me and that’s mainly down to personal preference I think.

The first book gave me wonder and beauty, a world filled with mystery. The second book filled all the gaps I had about the world, it quite literally answered a lot of my questions but I think that wasn’t what I wanted. Not fully at least. Muse the Nightmare was filled with action and answers, it was fast paced and busy. Which is the total opposite of what I felt in the first book and unfortunately I didn’t want lots of action after the first book. I felt like I’d gone from being in a serene garden to a battle field. 

That’s not to say this is bad, I still really enjoyed it. Out of the characters Lazlo was probably my favourite in Strange the Dreamer whereas Sarai was my favourite in Muse of Nightmares, which makes perfect sense since each book is named for that character. I think Taylor did an excellent job with their love story. 

But overall Muse the Nightmare was just missing the same beauty and wonder that its predecessor had built and that for me made this book just a good book that wrapped things up. 

I would still really recommend this duology to everyone as I think it’s very very good. But we all have a favourite book in a series, don’t we? Mine just doesn’t happen to be this one.

3.5/5⭐️