Muse of Nightmares

 Book Title: Muse of Nightmares

Author: Laini Taylor

Series: Strange the Dreamer #2

Date Started: August 8th 2021

Date Completed: August 28th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I was unsatisfied with Strange the Dreamer a couple of years ago, with its stunningly told tale that suddenly stopped short at its cliffhanger (which only came across to me as unfinished) ending. I avoided reading this book for a while, scared I wouldn't fall in love with it like I had so many times with Laini Taylor's books in the past. Ultimately, I had similar problems with Muse of Nightmares, where the story being told changed about four-time, but I did also love reading it regardless.

The first half is pretty slow, taking off immediately after the last book and staying on that track of a while until it decides to twist and change the game. Once that happens, even though it threw me as a reader right out of the story for a moment, things start to speed up and Taylor finds her stride once again. The last 40% is amazing, while things finally falling into place, and I didn't want to put the book down.

Where Strange the Dreamer was about Lazlo and his story, Muse of Nightmares (as the title would suggest) is Sarai's. Perhaps the biggest shame for me was the fact that Lazlo and Sarai kind of mushed into soppy lovers and lost their own glares. Characters often so change when they become part of a couple, but it felt like these two weren't really present in the scenes the other person wasn't also in, which was absolutely not the case in the first book. I really like these two, and I liked the ide of them together, it just... didn't quite work as well as I was hoping.

While this review has a lot of my reservations about the book, I did still give it four stars. That's because Laini Taylor is such a clever, meticulous, confident writer. The thematic arcs and scene transitions, the imagery and symbols, the imagination, even the smallest details carried through half a book before becoming key to the story are all fragments of a storyteller in their prime. She's one of the best writers out there. The structure has been shaky for in this duology but seriously, I am repeatedly overwhelmed with wonder when reading her books.