The highly anticipated, thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer, from National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy. Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old. She believed she knew every horror, and was beyond surprise. She was wrong. In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor … wrong.
In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.
Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice–save the woman he loves, or everyone else?–while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she’s capable of.
As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel’s near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?
Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.
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Oh. My. Wow!
Words fail me. Book 1 was beautiful. Book 2 knocked it out of the park … and into the universe! There is nothing in all the worlds that can begin to compare to this phenomenal book set Laini Taylor created. I am shaken up and blow away. Anguish. Tears. Shock. Horror. Love. So much love.
After everything the reader goes through with the characters, thank the stars for a glimmer of light at the end.
I am quite simply in awe.
-Nikki
(Listened to the audiobook narrated by Steve West.)
I want to live in this book series!
I loved this sequel. As beautifully written as the first, it opens up more questions and then answers everything by the end, as every good book should. The world building is breath-taking and the characters take on new depths, and when you finish, you feel as though you’ve lost a home and family.
With even more magic than the first book, it takes you into a dreamworld of possibilities, where death can be overcome and wars averted or started in the blink of an eye, a world you won’t want to leave.
I can’t wait to read more by this author. Highly recommend!
Quitting @20%- (audiobook) I just keep losing interest. I find myself ignoring the audio completely. Book one was just okay for me, maybe this is just not the series for me. I am putting it aside I may come back some day or not.
Oh my STARS, if I could give this ALL the stars, it still wouldn’t be enough! What a beauty. What a marvel. I knew from the very first page of Strange the Dreamer that this was a duology for my Forever Shelf, but little did I know back then just how much this would awe me! And I am in awe, friends and Sparrows. I don’t have the words to accurately tell you how much I love this book. I’m floored.
I feel like Laini Taylor and I share a lot of interests and have researched a lot of the same things, so this book is everything I want. It almost feels like it was written for me, I feel so seen by it! But, since Laini Taylor and I don’t know each other, that seems unlikely XD
It’s simple: if you love epic fantasy, you want to read this duology. Sorry for the lack of details; this story is best experienced for yourselves. Prepare to feel all the things.
I usually don’t read YA fantasies, but I checked this one out based on a recommendation. (This review covers the 2-book series, Strange the Dreamer, as a whole). I’m glad I did, as it’s one of the most memorable series I’ve read this year. Overall, I found it original, with great world building, and filled with tension and surprises throughout. Some of the YA romance bits and lengthy descriptions were a bit much, and I found myself skimming over parts, but those were just a handful of places. Other than that I enjoyed the series thoroughly. If you like that kind of stuff, it’s probably right up your alley, and even if you don’t, you’ll probably find a lot to like here.
When you fall in love with a story, it’s always a delight to know there’s a sequel. Muse of Nightmares is the sequel to Strange the Dreamer, a beautifully written fantasy that I gushed about.
There’s also a worry when it comes to sequels. If the first book was intended to be a standalone, then sequels never feel quite like they belong. The story conflicts tend to feel out of place or engineered. This isn’t so with Muse of Nightmares. If anything, my guess is that both books were originally intended to be a single volume, but the story was simply too big and had to be broken into two parts.
And it totally works.
Mind you, because this is a sequel I can’t help but divulge a few details from the end of the first book which gives clues to how it ends. Should you be the type that hates having the ends of books revealed – don’t read this review.
The Story
At the end of Strange the Dreamer, we left the charmingly awkward Lazlo as he makes a life-changing discovery. He is godspawn and has the rare magical gift that allows him to control mesarthium, the indestructible blue metal that makes up the citadel. His love, Sarai, has changed as well. Due to the events at the end of Strange the Dreamer, she is now a ghost held in the world by her sister Minya, a hateful, spiteful woman stuck in the body of a 6-year-old child.
Minya would destroy the world to save herself and the other blue-skinned godspawn and she’s holding Sarai as leverage to force obedience. Should anyone wish to move against her, she’ll release Sarai’s ghost and let her disappear forever.
Lazlo is torn. If he saves Sarai, he allows his world and friends to be destroyed. If he lets her go, he can prevent untold carnage. It’s an unwinnable situation.
But, there are other forces at work and other questions that need to be answered. The world of the Mesarthim is a mystery at best. These mysteries are slowly exposed as the past and present collide to create not only new problems, but present a new solution.
All the critical elements come together, love and hate, revenge and redemption, salvation and destruction, to create a fulfilling story with a satisfying ending.
My Review
I cannot say this enough, but Laini Taylor’s writing is glorious. Her use of poetic lyrical language is a delight and utterly delicious. More than that, she’s created a complete world with depth and history that’s unlike anything that exists on earth or seen in other fantasy universes. That, in itself, is incredible.
As a writer, I can see the sheer amount of work that’s gone into the development of this world and the characters, cultures, and history that makes it unique. Each element has been given loving attention so that it doesn’t only exist, it comes alive off of the page.
One of the challenges of any sequel that ends the story is tying up all the loose ends of ideas presented in the first book. Strange the Dreamer presents lots of ideas that we are given tantalizing glimpses of, but aren’t fleshed out enough to be well understood. In Muse of Nightmares we dive into those ideas and finally see the truth of Sarai’s past and why she and her siblings were abandoned. Like I said, it’s satisfying to finally see the truth of what had only been hinted at for so long.
So, yes. I love this two-book series. Everything about it makes my fantasy-loving heart sing.
My Recommendations
While this is a wonderful fantasy, it requires attention to detail and an appreciation for lyrical writing. With this in mind, I don’t recommend this for younger readers and believe it’s best meant for high school age and up (and those they let play). Compared to the first book, there’s less intimacy but more violence and graphic description.
That said, for those of you who like traditional fantasy with a twist, this one should definitely scratch that itch.
I give Muse of Nightmares 5/5 stars for bringing a wonderful ending to a fantastic story.
Gorgeous. A little slow paced but so beautiful you don’t mind. And everything wraps up so well, from such an impossible beginning. I love that redemption is found for everyone in their own ways. I really despaired of a happy ending several times, but she pulled it off! Thank you! I love happy endings. Oh, I wish I could write like this!
Since the time I wanted to read the Dream Maker’s sequel, here it is.
In the world of the dream maker there are many women and men who are born with a gift that is precious to them and only the most powerful have the right to use it in due time but in the name of the Empire. As for Nova sixteen years old and Kora seventeen years old, they dream only of the day when the envoys with the blue skin will come to seek them. And it is at this time that they will be able to achieve their destiny.
During this time there far from there in the mythical forgotten city, one finds there Lazlo Lestrange who can see again with his own eyes. Except that an explosion resounds and there all rocks even Sarai. Their future only holds on to a thread and it is manipulated by a cruel and bruised young girl.
Lazlo will have to make a choice, save the one he loves or all the inhabitants of the city.
Except that there is something even worse, a white bird that watches over the city has decided to finally take action.
Between the Gods, the monsters, the ghosts, the strange worlds and the total war, the muse of the nightmares will lead us with brilliance in a poetic and panting series.
I immediately hooked on the story, so captivating, addictive, full of suspense and twists and turns with characters who are still very endearing. I love the author’s writing.
Rarely does a sequel surpass the first, when Strange the Dreamer was already so good and left Muse of Nightmares with a lot of plot to finish. When we left off the last novel, just as Lazlo begins his ascent into godhood, his skin turning blue and realizing he has the most coveted of all godly gifts, the newfound love of his life, a goddess herself, falls from a city in the sky and dies in Weep below. Her adoptive sister Minya tethers her soul to the world with her own god powers, but in doing so leashes Lazlo to do her bidding: he obeys, or she lets Sarai’s soul go. There were so many unanswered questions that Strange the Dreamer left us off with: if it was possible for Minya to redeem herself, if Weep would ever get out of the shadow of their oppressors, the fate of Lazlo and Sarai’s romance, and what ever happened to the hundreds of other babies in the floating citadel? There was a lot set up in the first novel, and considering I wasn’t totally happy with the way the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy ended, I was worried that Laini Taylor wouldn’t quite stick this ending either. I’m so happy to be proven wrong.
Strange the Dreamer was about the trauma of imperialism and colonialism, the struggles that oppression places mainly on its people and how unforgettable it is, but also how these issues can persevere through generations and affect even the most unlikely of people. Muse of Nightmares is concerned more with what comes after: how can we heal, is it possible to atone for your mistakes, is the trauma done to these peoples too deep to ever heal? And the novel provides answers, but they’re not all happy, and they all might not be what the reader wants to see. Most of us ultimately want a happy ending for characters we love and sympathize with, and Muse of Nightmares is by no means a tragedy, but it also is very aware that these are issues that might not be neatly wrapped up with bows, might not be wrapped up ever.
This series really takes into account all the lives that are harmed in war, all the misery that imperialism dooms people to, the horrible power of the elite, but it also makes a strong case for the sympathetic villain. Minya makes her full detour into villainy in this novel, with Strange the Dreamer culminating in her essential betrayal of Sarai, choosing her own revenge over her family, but Muse of Nightmares is concerned, above all else, with compassion. Every character in this book is treated with the care they deserve. I see a lot of victim-blaming in books, a lot of villains who turn to evil because of trauma and are immediately written off as terrible, irredeemable people. And I see a lot of this attitude from other reviewers and bloggers: just because someone has been through trauma, it doesn’t give them the right to do bad things! After all, the hero of the novel has also been through bad things and they turned out fine! These people miss the point, but Muse of Nightmares doesn’t. People don’t react the same way to terrible events, and being a “good” survivor of abuse or trauma often means that the trauma is not dealt with or coping mechanisms have been developed to hide it. These characters are better, more psychologically realistic. Minya is allowed to be terrible. Thyon Nero is allowed to be terrible. One of the goddesses is given an expanded backstory, but that doesn’t make her actions any less terrible. Taylor treats all of her characters with kindness, as someone who believes the best of them, and she is not too concerned with whether or not these people deserve redemption, or whether or not people will forgive them, but that they work on making themselves better. It’s the best kind of redemption arc. I love all of the character work done here, I love the ugly trauma survivors, I love people choosing to be better. Lazlo and Sarai continue to be our sweet couple, but the villains really stole the show here.
The scope of this novel broadens, moving from the tightly focused narrative of Lazlo and Sarai to a whole cast of characters, our favorite god/goddess duo included, but also Thyon Nero, the Godslayer’s wife, and new faces we haven’t met yet. I liked the individual focus of the last book, as it let the reverberations of the themes be felt more personally, but this book needed to answer more sprawling questions and expanded itself accordingly. Our narration moves beyond Weep and the citadel in the sky, extending beyond the reaches of the universe in true Laini Taylor fashion. Daughter of Smoke and Bone spanned countless species and worlds, and while this series doesn’t go quite as far, it goes into places I didn’t expect. My issues with the final book of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy was that it seemed like too much lore and too much exposition was done in the last book, almost shoehorning in too much plot too late. It was a lot of worldbuilding done very suddenly. But even though Muse of Nightmares broadens the series’ horizons, most of the groundwork was laid down in the previous novel, and everything was revealed slowly and gradually. We love to see authors’ growth between books, and this just made it so clear that Taylor is getting better and better with every novel.
The novel also has some surprising connections to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which were hinted at in Strange the Dreamer and confirmed here. The way Taylor ties her novels together is brief, nothing that would require you to read the other books (despite my brief complaints about the third one, are overall very good!), but was actually quite lovely and gave me some surprise emotions. I’m ready for the LTEU (Laini Taylor Extended Universe). Muse of Nightmares was a perfect conclusion to the duology, building on and expanding themes from the previous book, giving us new character point of views that add to the story without distracting from our dreamer and muse, and led us to a satisfying ending.
review blog
There is so much I loved about this book – it was rich and lovely and full of impossible, wonderful things at every turn. We saw more of the blue-skinned gods, more of the dreamer with an endless, massive heart, and more of the search for redemption and forgiveness that so defined the fairy-tale-like arcs of book one. This sequel had a lot to stand up to in my mind as the first (Strange the Dreamer is my idea of a near-perfect fantasy, and it did fairly well in most regards. I think we lost some of the dream-like quality in this book that I so adored in book one, and things got more complicated than I wanted them to (there are some parallels drawn in this book that left the expanse of this book much bigger than I was thinking, and not necessarily in a way that felt true to the first half of the story). Still, I couldn’t put this one down and would absolutely recommend the duology to anyone who is as just as easily obsessed with a dream and a story as I am.
I want to read more by this author
What a powerful conclusion to this duology. It’s dense with action and characters and I had no idea how the intersecting threads would resolve, particularly for Sarai and Strange. All hope seemed lost at the end of Strange The Dreamer and yet Sarai has a chance thanks to Minya’s gift. But of course it comes with a mighty price.
While Strange was an ode to books and reading, Muse is more a story about what happens when we are lost to our grief and need for revenge. Grief can twist and distort us, as we see with Minya and Nova. Half the time, I wasn’t sure if I was rooting for them to be crushed or redeemed. They do awful things but they’re treated with compassion and we can clearly see why both became this way.
Laini Taylor’s world-building was amazing per usual. The ghost characters have different abilities compared to other ghost stories—a saving grace for Sarai—and the arc with the two Ellens had me rapt. All of her angel demon monster books are inventive but I was particularly impressed with how things came together in this one. I have no idea how she came up with the idea for this story but I’m so glad she did.
CW: past rape, child slavery, slavery, violence, murder, attempted murder, grief, domestic violence, toxic parents, child abuse
I love Laini Taylor’s writing. This was a strong conclusion to Strange, the Dreamer (which I liked best of the two, but this one was equally well done). Wonderful characters, action and adventure. Superb world building.
When you think you already know what will happen, think again.
The story starts where Strange the Dreamer ended. Sarai — now a ghost — is being used by Minya to threaten Lazlo to take her to Weep so she could finally fulfill her purpose: revenge. Before reading the book, I already had an idea in mind. Minya will threaten Lazlo, Lazlo will comply and people from Weep will think he betrayed them. In the end, they will find a way to stop Minya. But I was so, so far from the truth. (And I probably shouldn’t write a book if I think like this. Haha.)
If there is one author that starts a really good series and still manages to exceed expectations in the next book, it is Laini Taylor.
Everything about this book is perfect.
THE CHARACTERS
To me, the most amazing part of this book is how the characters are not black and white. No everyone is wholly good, no one is wholly evil. A character is different in the eyes of another, even their own. One moment you will feel sympathy for them, the next you will wish them dead.
“We’re all on the same side. Even her. You can be on the same side and have different ideas.”
THE PLOT
I am glad this book is not what I imagined it would be. The story had an obvious path but Laini Taylor took a different turn and created another. The villain is not who you think it will be. The conflict is not what you think it is.
The WORLD-BUILDING
If there is a world in a book I would love to visit, it is anything Laini Taylor creates. Weep, although it has its faults, is something that feels magical. I actually didn’t want to finish the book fast just so I could stay longer in it.
THE WRITING
Laini Taylor’s writing is like poetry in prose. It is simply beautiful.
“Once upon a time there was a silence that dreamed of becoming a song, and then I found you, and now everything is music.”
Is this the end of Strange the Dreamer? Maybe yes, maybe no. Either way, I am satisfied. I cannot wait to see what comes next from Laini. I would read anything she writes.
Blog: https://kookbookery.wordpress.com
God. What do I even say? I love this story so much. It’s the perfect sequel to Strange The Dreamer. In Muse of Nightmares, we pick up where the last book left off and it’s wild, heartwrenching, gut twisting ride until the very end. It’s peppered with moments of beauty and honesty and love. The characters are relatable and so well developed that you’ll question your feelings for them with each page. I want more of this world SO badly. Ms. Taylor is truly gifted!
Like its forerunner, Muse of Nightmares is similar to the rest of Laini Taylor’s books in one MAJOR way: its spellbinding!
I could almost say “I have no words”, but that would make me a crappy reviewer. Suffice to say, no amount of words could adequately express what Taylor’s books do to me: emotional havoc, inner turmoil. If only I could have telepathically turned pages before my fingers.
Because I’m a mom of littles, it took me at least a couple weeks to finish reading this. That’s fast for me these days. If I could have, I’d have taken a retreat to devour it in one day!
Laini Taylor’s arm must have the ability to extend through the pages – or screen for some of us – of her books, phase through my flesh and bones, and wrap her hand around my heart. When reading MON, I found my heart could only beat to the rhythm she deigned and sometimes…not beat. You can imagine her squeezing slowly during certain passages as I frantically turned pages. She downright flambéed that fickle muscle with the journey I took on Nova and Kora’s story. These, at first, seemingly minor characters were but the spider silk that make up the complex and entrancing web that is MON. Despite how much I fell in love with book one, Strange, the Dreamer, this one captivated me even more.
I’ve been a secret fan of Laini’s for years and never thought I would find something else to rival her Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I love how she tipped her hat in reference to Karou in Muse of Nightmares. Well played, Laini. Her lyrical prose, her attention to world building details, her unique and relatable characters, her ability to script-weave themes of abuse and trauma and it’s damage that manifests in the form of rage or prejudice…all are downright earth shattering.
I was literally waiting for this book for well over a year. And now, is as the norm for her work, I’m in the book hangover phase and must pass into the mourning period because this was a recent release, and I must wait until she’s published a new book. All I can do is beg and plead for her to write…RIGHT now! Laini will forever and for always be in my top three favorite authors of all time.
Can I just say how much I love Laini Taylor! I’ve read everything I can get my hands on by her and just *gushing. Her style of prose is so beautiful and poetic and her storytelling ability is amazing and yes I use the term storytelling because I feel like her books transcend just being a writer and really tell a story, both captivating and original. This is the second book in this series and I highly recommend reading the first.
This second book did not disappoint. It actually went above and beyond my expectations. It’s so hard not to say more without hinting at spoilers The ‘white bird’ (represented on the cover here as well as appearing in book one–I had so many ideas about what that was, and who/what that turns out to be is –WOW! The love story (love stories as there are so many–all so riveting–and even the resolution for villain just kind of blows your mind because, again, Laini Taylor makes you think you’re going in one direction and then BOOM you’re not going there at all. I love her creativity. Of course how Laslo deals with his new situation (again I can’t say because it spoils the end of book one) is amazing. His character his steadfast inate ‘goodness’ really stays true, and he’s such a great charcter to love. This book is not stand alone–it’s a continuous tale working off the first book. (The first book is Strange the Dreamer, and you really need to read that one first before reading this–that said, OMG it’s AMAZING, so just do it, read both of these books. I’m such a fan of this author.
Hands down one of my favorite authors for her intensely lyrical writing, superb imagination, and ability to create characters who weave their way into your heart and stay in your memory long after the last page. Be sure to read Strange the Dreamer first, as this is a series.