We can’t stop thinking about Laini Taylor’s latest release, so we wanted to share some of our favourite things about STRANGE THE DREAMER.

SPOILERS AHOY!

1.    Suheyla, the Godslayer’s mother, has fantastic taste in food!

The Date a Book team are definitely fans of a good feast and Suheyla knows how to put on a feast! We want honey covered pastries and bread bigger than tables.

2.    All the feels!

There’s a scene where Sarai is observing Eril-Fane and Azareen as they both sit alone, but share the same grief. Sarai makes a comment about how life would be so much easier if they were to just comfort each other. It was such a powerful and heartbreaking scene, trying to watch two people who loved each other not be together. Laini brings out all the emotions in this book.

3.    The Moths.

We’re normally not big fans of moths, but Laini has changed our tune – at least where Sarai is concerned. The moths are an epic way of being in 100 places at once. Even if the descriptions were a bit icky with the way she describes the hairy feelers and wings beating against skin and mouths.

4.    Love at first (not) sight.

We totally fell for the way our protagonists meet, or rather, do not meet. Lazlo and Sarai spend so much time getting to know each other without ever actually meeting. It was an interesting twist to the way couples usually meet in YA.

5.    So many badass women!

Calixte’s crafty thinking and crazy climbing skills. Azareen and Tzara proving warriors aren’t only found in men. Soulzeren, a mechanic who (with her husband) helped build a flying machine. Not to mention Sarai and Minya, who show that strength is sometimes mental as much as physical.

6.    The epic set-up of Weep.

The idea of knowing you have forgotten a word and that another is masquerading in its place. Does the thing still exist, if you no longer know the word? Mind blown, so clever and otherworldly.

7.    It’s no secret that Laini Taylor has a way with words.

She writes prose with an almost fairytale or fable-like quality. You will be swept away for 500 odd pages – and it’s worth every page! And when she creates the Dreams, you have an epic journey ahead! Lazlo’s mind is like the pages of a favourite book, so vivid and exciting. But it’s Laini who brings to life the smell of pie cooling on a window sill, dream markets full of colourful people and products; and waves crashing over a sleepy village.

8.    Lazlo Strange.

You can’t help falling for the main character. He starts as a curious orphan and grows into a knowledge loving librarian. And we adore that his dreams and book loving resulted in his crooked nose when a rogue book fell on his head.