Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor starting December 27, 2022.

!!! I should try to join 😱

Aaaand it wasn't on shelf in the library 😒 It was borrowed out atm

Thank you Yanique! :)

Oh no, that's a shame Johanna!

Have it on kindle, catch it for 99p.

Haven't started this yet, been busy with seeing the fam :) Maybe in the next few days...

I'll catch up after New Year peeps... Fighting with cold at the moment.

Monika, get well soon! Hugs!

Thanks Choko :) slowly coming out of it, but our Xmas were mostly in bed this year. I hope to find some fast read for tomorrow to reach my 200 reading challenge target, I should be at work in one hour and honestly I would prefer stay at home.

Get well soon Monika!

Thank you Beena :)

Back to normality... making a start today!

Just a read the prologue and Chapter 1 and I have to say, wow, the writing is absolutely gorgeous! So many beautiful lines in the Prologue alone! Ah, this is looking promising! :D

Up to Chapter 5 (view spoiler)[ So Lazlo gave Thyon the secret to turning lead from gold! Ahh, bless him, he was so naïve! (hide spoiler)]

Just had to share this metaphor in Chapter 7; (view spoiler)[ And if the hourglass had been real, then in the bottom and the neck- the past and the present- the sands of Lazlo's life would be as gray as his robes, as gray as his eyes but the top- the future- would hold a brilliant storm of colour: azure and cinnamon, blinding white and yellow gold and the shell pink of svytagor blood. So he hoped,so he dreamed: that in the course of time, grain by grain, the gray would give way to the dream and the sands of his life would run bright. (hide spoiler)]

Absolutely love that.

Sounds so nice! I'll start it this week I hope.

Yay!

Chapter 8 (view spoiler)[ I can't believe Thyon is even stealing his life from him! Your city has been my fascination since I was five years old... What an asshole! Surely this pretence will unravel around him, once the warriors become familiar with him?! Poor Lazlo :( (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 11 (view spoiler)[Yes! Go Lazlo! Very brave of him! I was wondering how he was going to get their attention, the fact that he held a conversation with them in their own language was awesome. (hide spoiler)]

Loving reading all y'all's comments--I read this this summer with some folk--was my first Liani Taylor and I loved the language, and Lazlo. So nice to get a trip down memory lane with the parts y'all're highlighting!

Aw, thanks Nirkatze! :) I'm really enjoying it so far!

Chapter 13 (view spoiler)[ The humans in Weep killed their gods?? I thought they were trying to protect them.... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 14 (view spoiler)[ Ah, could the task be to kill the remaining gods? But how would Eril Fayne know they're still alive? Hmm... (hide spoiler)]

Loved this in Chapter 18, if this isn't something that all book lovers/readers feel; (view spoiler)[ He had loved the library, and had felt, as a boy, as though it had a kind of sentience, and perhaps loved him back. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 20 (view spoiler)[ Oh shit! Eril Fane is Sarai's father?! Meaning he killed her mother and the other gods! :o (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 24 (view spoiler)[But why are they there? Where did they come from? Do they even know? (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 26 (view spoiler)[Did Isagol take Eril Fane captive to be her lover? What did she put him through? Does his shame and despair derive solely from killing them all or more? Intriguing... (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 27- A few parts in particular stood out to me...
(view spoiler)[ If the weaver of the world itself had kept the snipped ends of every thread she'd ever used, her basket might look something like this. Love, love, love that.

This was the second time tonight she had been surprised by the stark dissonance between a face and a mind. Such an astute observation.

And I loved the description of Lazlo in Sarai's eyes, that the pureness of his character shows through his rough exterior:
She saw this his eyes were gray, and that his smile wore the same hint of shyness as his voice. And yes, there was the broken line of his nose. And yes, the cut of his cheeks to his jaw was harsh. But, to her surprise, his face, awake and animate, conveyed none of the brutality that had been her first impression. On the contrary. It was as sweet as the air in his dream. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter 45 (view spoiler)[Lazlo's spirit worked! I wonder why it's only him that's reactive to the Mesarthium..... is it a quality that only he possesses? And why he alone can see Sarai, is it because his imagination and dreams have always been active imagining the fairy tales and legends he loves so much? (hide spoiler)]

Up to Chapter 53 (view spoiler)[ I loved how sweet the build-up and romance between Sarai and Lazlo was. So pure and innocent. This is definitely the type of romance I like more, where it delves further into their emotions and is nuanced, rather than physical focused or shallow.

How Sarai will stop Minya or Lazlo will stop the humans from killing them all, I've no idea! It seems impossible. (hide spoiler)]

I've finished! Really enjoyed this, there's so much to love!

(view spoiler)[I can't believe Sarai fell, I really thought for a moment it was Sparrow, cos she said it was the sweetest of them that fell...

I knew Lazlo should've just let her soul go, and I know she didn't want to die either but she already knew that the ghosts existence was no happy fate...

I never even guessed Lazlo was godspawn! And the fact that he could control Mesarthium and so achieved his wish of saving Weep. Clever. I like the way Taylor fit all the pieces together.

I'd still like to know what happened to the rest of the babies. It appears that the Gods had been sending them out into the world.... for what? So they could take over? And I'd still like to know where they came from and why... (hide spoiler)]

6 chapters behind me. So beautifully written story. I'll read some more later, time for cooking and then going to work.

Starting chapter 12. Lazlo is travelling, we are meeting Sarai for first time.

22 chapters behind me. I really like this book, the way is written... Wow.... Never read anything like this before...

45% read so far, time to hit the hay here. So beautiful, so different from anything I read so far. So good I'm in this group, without you guys I would never read it.

Glad you're enjoying it too Monika!

Almost reach 70%. I love it! This talk between Lazlo and Sarah is... I don't have enough English words in my head to explain. She has so much empathy in herself, all this against hate and fear she is surrounded by since she remember and he.. Trying to understand what happened there and how to help her...

Book finished! So absolutely beautiful!