The title sounds Shakespearean, but it is simply the name of the main character. Strange is a dreamer. And so, in Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer, that is what he is called.
Publisher’s Summary: Twelve years ago, there was a war between gods and mortals…and the mortals won. The gods are gone–driven away–but they left something precious behind.
They left their children.
In the savagery of the war and its aftermath, the humans rounded up the half-caste bastard children of the gods, and put them to death.
But they missed a few.
Teenagers now, Sarai, Minya, Feral, Sparrow, and Ruby live in the gods’ citadel–full of power and with nothing to do, but survive.
Until one day…their life in hiding is threatened.
I loved Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Days of Blood & Starlight,and Dreams of Gods and Monsters) so, when I heard she had something new in the works, I was very excited. I waited patiently and the wait was worth it.
She creates a new world, but one that feels familiar. Not like the worlds she created in her other books. Like them though, there is enough that is familiar to our world to make the story feel mythic. This is the first book in a duology, so I will have to wait to find out what ultimately happens.
The story unfolds slowly and it does drag in a few places, but the 544 pages were a pleasure to read. The book is shelved in YA and is one that I probably won’t put in my classroom library. Some themes are mature. My school library has the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, so, I suspect they will eventually have this one and I hope to talk about it with some of my mature readers next year. Or previous students I see carrying it in the hallway.
booksandbassets 