The first chapter of Strange the Dreamer is perfect. I do not use that word lightly. It introduces Lazlo Strange — a war orphan who grew up in a monastery library, became a junior librarian, and has spent his entire life obsessed with a city that may not exist — in language that is beautiful from the first sentence and establishes both character and world with a completeness that most novels don’t achieve in their first fifty pages.

Then the chapter ends, and the book that follows it is worthy of the opening. That is the more impressive achievement.

Weep was a great city that disappeared from human memory two hundred years ago — the name itself was taken, leaving only the word for the grief of its loss. A delegation has arrived in Lazlo’s city seeking fighters and specialists to travel to Weep, which has been found again. Lazlo attaches himself to the delegation by an act of semi-accidental bravery and finds himself, against all odds, going to the city he has dreamed of his whole life.

Lazlo

He is the most purely loveable protagonist Laini Taylor has written. A boy who grew up in a library and read his way into expertise about a city no one else believed in — who was told his dreams were foolish and believed them anyway — is the kind of protagonist who operates as an argument for reading itself, and Taylor writes him with enormous affection without making him saccharine.

His voice has the quality of someone who sees the world through the accumulation of everything he’s read, and the moments when that reading proves relevant are deeply satisfying.

Sarai

Sarai lives in the citadel above Weep — one of the godspawn left when the gods were killed, surviving in secret, with an ability to walk through human dreams. Her connection to Lazlo, established through the dreamspace, is one of the most original meet-cute scenarios in recent YA. Their dynamic is tender and strange and develops with the patience the setting demands.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who love books about readers — who find something almost physical in the sensation of a character who loves books the way they love books — Lazlo Strange is essential. He validates the instinct completely.

For readers who love Laini Taylor’s prose and want more of it in a new world: Strange the Dreamer is her most controlled and most beautiful work. Every sentence is doing something.

Muse of Nightmares follows and is equally good. This is a duology worth reading in a single long weekend.

Published: March 2017 · Genre: YA fantasy · Series: Strange the Dreamer, Book 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Strange the Dreamer about? Lazlo Strange, a junior librarian who has spent his life obsessed with a city called Weep that may not exist, attaches himself to a delegation seeking fighters and specialists to travel to Weep — which has been found again after disappearing from human memory two hundred years ago. In Weep he encounters Sarai, one of the godspawn living secretly in the citadel above the city, with the ability to walk through human dreams.

What makes the first chapter of Strange the Dreamer so exceptional? The review calls it ‘perfect’ — introducing Lazlo in ’language that is beautiful from the first sentence and establishing both character and world with a completeness that most novels don’t achieve in their first fifty pages.’ The more impressive achievement is described as the rest of the book being ‘worthy of the opening,’ since most novels with exceptional first chapters disappoint afterward.

What makes Lazlo Strange an unusually loveable protagonist? Lazlo is ‘a boy who grew up in a library and read his way into expertise about a city no one else believed in — who was told his dreams were foolish and believed them anyway.’ The review describes him as ’the kind of protagonist who operates as an argument for reading itself,’ with Taylor writing him ‘with enormous affection without making him saccharine.’ His voice has ’the quality of someone who sees the world through the accumulation of everything he’s read.’

How does Sarai’s connection with Lazlo develop in Strange the Dreamer? Sarai lives in the citadel above Weep, surviving in secret with the ability to walk through human dreams. Her connection to Lazlo, ’established through the dreamspace, is one of the most original meet-cute scenarios in recent YA.’ Their dynamic is described as ’tender and strange,’ developing ‘with the patience the setting demands.’

Who is the ideal reader for Strange the Dreamer? The review identifies two audiences: ‘readers who love books about readers — who find something almost physical in the sensation of a character who loves books the way they love books’ (for whom Lazlo Strange is ’essential’); and readers who love Laini Taylor’s prose in a new world, where this is described as ‘her most controlled and most beautiful work.’ Muse of Nightmares follows and is ’equally good.’

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Strange the Dreamer — Wikipedia’s Strange the Dreamer article provides publication details and series context that helps readers understand the novel’s place in the duology and its relationship to Taylor’s other work.
  • Laini Taylor — Wikipedia’s Laini Taylor article provides biographical and bibliographical context including Daughter of Smoke and Bone and other work, helping readers understand Strange the Dreamer within her broader writing career.