Strange the Dreamer (Strange the Dreamer #1) by Laini Taylor

The past week Barnes & Noble has had this AMAZING sale. A whole bunch of bestsellers were 50% off and it stacked with the membership 10%. This was one of the titles on sale and the bookseller I really like and who has given me great recommendations before said she loved loved loved this one and was anxiously awaiting book 2 in October. So I grabbed it. And I read it. And I loved it. 

It's a fairytale, it's mythological, it's a romance, it's a tragedy, it's a mystery, it's an adventure. There are Gods and Humans and Monsters. Sometimes the monsters are the Gods sometimes the humans. 

Lazlo Strange grows up in a monastery where he learns to love books or learns he was born with a love of books inside him maybe. He was a sickly, gray baby in a cart full of babies who are somehow orphaned. He is curious and has a love of stories and one story in particular has burrowed deep inside him and stayed with him as he grew. It is the story of the lost city Weep. Weep had a name before it was called Weep and Lazlo knew it for a time but one day it just vanished from his mind. But that just made him more determined to solve the mystery of Weep. 

And then something happens, some strangers come riding in looking for help saving their city and Lazlo swear they remind him of the people from Weep. The city that has shunned outsiders for so many years has come looking for outsiders to help and Lazlo wants to go so badly. When he is selected to join the group even with his fantastic imagination and willingness to believe he couldn't have guessed what would become of his life once he starts this journey. 

Who is Lazlo? What makes a monster? Can a monster be reformed? Can a God be a man or a monster? Is there a point when holding on to anger and the desire for vengeance becomes too long and it is better to move on, and if so how? Those are some of the questions I felt like this story tackled. 

The start was a little slow, but I have said in the past, in stories where world building is needed and there will be at least one more book that can often be the case, but not far in the story grabs hold and doesn't let go until you hit the words "To Be Continued"

There are characters that are clearly good or clearly bad. But there are a few that fall into the good people who do bad things and those are often to me the most interesting. 

I didn't like Minya at all and after a time started to find it harder to feel bad for her and I began to wonder if she is just bad, like her father. She made me so angry at times I had to put the book down and take a breath. 

I loved Lazlo and Sarai. I had mixed feelings about Ruby but didn't find myself invested in her, Sparrow, or Feral. 

I found Eril-Fane an interesting character who I liked despite his past acts. It is an interesting thought exercise, is it ok to kill a few to save an entire city and end generations of torture and abuse? And even if it is, how does one then live with themselves?

(Finished September 3, 2018)