Book Review: STRANGE THE DREAMER (Book # 1)

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


"Beautiful and full of monsters. All the best stories are."

This is one of those books that make you want to shove it in the face of all your bookish acquaintances, frothing at the moth, shouting "READ THIS OR ELSE WE CAN'T BE FRIENDS!!"

I'm so glad I read this for Valentine's! It's not your typical romance, in fact, I'm loath to classify this book as a romance novel because it violates some of the commandments of romance novel-hood.

Don't get me wrong. I was (and am, and always will be) a romance novel lover, having been brought up on Judith McNaught and Susan Elizabeth Philipps. My sister and I have been reading them for so long, we experienced the genre change from bodice rippers to more feminist-friendly fare.

However, there are rules for it to qualify as a romance, and Laini Taylor breaks them. I'm pretty sure she breaks several other rules of different genres as well, but in the most thrillingly beautiful way.

For one, the Prologue gives away the ending. Except that, by the time you read it again in the end, you're weeping. I shan't say anymore about the ending, but romance novel readers will already be acknowledging the point, since HEA's and HFN's don't make people WEEP.

And speaking of Weep... that's the setting of this beyond awesome tale. It's a forgotten city, whose name has been lost to memory, because of traumatic events in its past.

It's a city with another one floating above it.

It's a city that has been liberated by men who rose up against Gods, but killed off their own humanity in the process.

It's a city where the hero meets the heroine only half-way through the book. So the first part is world-building, and character build-up, and Laini Taylor does an excellent job, to be sure.

But the second part is about falling in love with another's mind, another's soul... about searching for a way to save another's way of life... with heartpounding action and bone-melting descriptions of what it means to meet in dreams, and of how easily prejudice and ignorance can tear the loveliest dreams apart.

I thought nothing could make me "kilig" (the Filipino word for extreme excitement that makes one shiver with the most pleasurable frisson of joy), given that, well, I've read far more romance novels than I'd care to admit. Haha. But Laini Taylor writes so poetically, yet so simply... her kisses and touches and glances have redefined those actions for this fan!! And oh gosh, her dialogue is a rich treasure-trove for Valentine's Day cards.

"I think you're a fairy tale. I think you're magical, and brave, and exquisite. And I hope you'll let me be in your story."

She has other descriptions likening a kiss to a book ("It's like finding a book inside another book. A small treasure of a book hidden inside a big common one... That's what a kiss is like...no matter how brief: It's a tiny, magical story, and a miraculous interruption of the mundane."), and the fact that the hero is a librarian just makes me love this incredible book all the more.

I am counting down the days until I get Book 2 in my hands!!!

Until then, I shall re-read Book 1 and re-live the magic.

"The beauty he sees in the world, and in me. It can change things."

Recommended for everyone, guaranteed to touch even the most stone-cold of hearts. This will make you believe in Love.



View all my reviews