Lazlo Strange is Strange the Dreamer. His origins are mysterious, as is his passion for the city of Weep. There are not a lot of records of the this city, and even the name "Weep" is a placeholder because its real name has been lost - stolen. Lazlo spends every moment - waking and sleeping - thinking about the city, dreaming of finding it. When a man called the Godslayer comes to Lazlo's homeland of Zosma, he presents Lazlo with the opportunity of a lifetime: to come to Weep, because it needs to be saved.
Immediately, Laini Taylor draws readers into this amazing world, starting with the harrowing image of an unfortunate girl's public death. No, the witnesses don't try to save the girl, but instead scream because of her color: she's blue. But then we transition to Lazlo Strange and the importance of names and forget, for a time, about the dead girl in the foreign city. Like the city of Weep, Lazlo had "had another name first, but it died like a song with no one left to sing it" (Taylor 1). As a war orphan, Lazlo's name had been one of many given to other nameless children. Laini Taylor is able to elegantly weave themes of identity throughout her Michael L. Printz Honor Award Book starting on the very first page. If you don't look closely, you could miss it, but it's all there. Conversations about color, the importance of identity in a divided world, and even love are all themes that make an appearance by the end of the novel.
Identity in relation to color plays a significant role throughout the novel itself. When someone is blue, it signals god status, either half ("godspawn") or full. The gods were not well loved in the city of Weep, and hence all those that were blue were rejected as evil. But some of those that are blue have better hearts than those that are not, and complexity is born out of how the color of one's skin plays an important role in the life experiences of those that live in the same city.
Laini Taylor has a unique way of creating meaning with her distinct set of characters. She made me think differently about hot topics without actually implying that she was trying to make a statement. Such a skill to be able to write something so well-defined that doubled as being universal.
I can't expand much on these topics without giving parts of the story away. So much of the story depends on the events building upon each other, and giving one of the events away would be like knocking dominoes down, all the way until I might reveal the ending. I don't want to spoil the story. I want more people to read it, and to recognize the specific magic that Laini Taylor swirls into her words. I want people to flock to bookstores for a copy like moths fluttering eagerly to light.
This story is magic. It's special and extremely well written. Not that those books are hard to find recently, but reading a book as well written as this one makes readers appreciate the craftiness authors go to when writing books. It's like always eating cakes made from cake mixes and then every once in a while getting a decadent taste of sugary, delicious homemade cake made from an ages-old recipe.
The most wonderful thing about Strange the Dreamer is that it has a sequel, Muse of Nightmares. I didn't want the story to end, and was glad to find the sequel, like it was a treasure chest. I'm already halfway through it, and can't imagine finishing it, because stories like this are the ones that you don't ever want to leave behind.
If you like fantasy, Strange the Dreamer falls into that category. But even if you don't, I firmly believe it should be on any reader's shelf. It's too special a story to pass up. It's too life-changing to skip over. It's the escape anyone who's anyone has ever dreamed of - just within the pages of a book. Not only is it "gorgeously written and full of surprises" (NPR), but it's a read that ever reader deserves. It's a good book that fulfills and surpasses the expectations of reading and of storytelling.
So maybe for your winter break read, you pick up a copy of Laini Taylor's masterpiece. And if you do, let me know how it feels to be transported to the mysteriously thrilling city of Weep.
*This review is also published on the MHS Writer's Block's website and my Goodreads page*
Comments
Post a Comment