by Laini Taylor

“The library knows it’s own mind. When it steals a boy we let it keep him.”
-Page 19 (of the sample)

Title: Strange the Dreamer Sampler
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton 
Book: #1 of Strange the Dreamer
Genre: fantasy
Found: in my Illumicrate!

A breathtaking new novel by National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author Laini Taylor

Strange the Dreamer is the story of:

the aftermath of a war between gods and men.
a mysterious city stripped of its name.
a mythic hero with blood on his hands.
a young librarian with a singular dream.
a girl every bit as perilous as she is imperiled.
alchemy and blood candy, nightmares and godspawn, moths and monsters, friendship and treachery, love and carnage.

Welcome to Weep.

-Goodreads

Fans of Laini Taylor will be pleased to know that Strange the Dreamer has much in common with her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series with regards to set up and writing style. It all starts with a fantastically worded prologue to ensnare your curiosity and commit you to the plot and continues into different sections, presented with a quote or definition. Each  of the sections seems to be about a different person, but as I have only an excerpt of part one (Chapter 1 & 2) and part 2 (chapters 11 – 13) so I can’t really elaborate further, but I assume it will jump between two or more.

I originally thought not to read the extract of part two, I thought it odd to be given an extract of ‘the middle of the book’, however as it’s a different character it doesn’t matter at the gap as much as I was thinking it would. I’ve glanced at it to be honest, but knowing I felt so let down with her other series, I didn’t want to get too into this and be left with more questions than answers. Of course, if I were to ever read this one there’s no guarantee that I’d feel let down by it, for it was the character (And her idiotic thoughts and choices) that I disliked, not the writing. However, I was curious and the prologue was absolutely fantastic and I’ll be quizzing Ms4Tune in detail and perhaps one day borrowing her copy might be on the cards depending on what she tells me of the storyline.