Thyon's mind flashed before him an alternate history of his own life, in which he thanked the boy who brought him a fairy-tale book...
Muse of Nightmares
by Laini Taylor
Genre: YA Fantasy
About: Following on from the cliffhanger events of Strange the Dreamer, there's a city to save, ghosts to free and a new, even greater threat looming for the lovers in the form of a... pirate...god?
The Good
Laini Taylor is a dreamer to rival Lazlo and her prose is dreamy too. Probably not to everyone's taste and I did sometimes struggle with picturing the fantastical, but I love how magic works in her world. It's beautiful and weird and unique to each character.
In fact, two new characters showcase this perfectly and are introduced in the first chapter. I loved this introduction and wanted to stay with the sisters and learn so much more. We do of course get glimpses later on, but this was a strong start and not at all where I was expecting to be, given how the previous book ended.
Also the plot moves quickly. There's a lot of conflict and what feel like impossible choices and it's these that push the characters forward to new heights and, often, bigger problems.
The Bad
There's some repetitiveness. We revisit the trauma of the previous book and characters contemplate over these unresolved issues. With the introduction of the two sisters, I wish we could have seen more of their past instead of the past of characters who we've already come to know. After their inciting incident, Nova and Kora's life gets blitzed through (all two hundred years of it). Skathis gets a similar treatment. He's the antagonist for many of the characters, yet we don't get to see him much, even in the flashbacks, which feels odd given the immense shadow he cast over all the characters.
The Somewhat Iffy
Language is hard. I believe Lazlo would be able to communicate with Weep's citizens after seven years of study and a year-ish being immersed in it, even Calinxte speaking it is sort of believable as she's living in the city and has picked up a local lover. But Ruza and Tzara speaking so fluently in the language of a country they aren't living and breathing in needed some hint that they'd been learning it for longer than knowing Lazlo. Or at least the feel that it isn't as easy for the soldiers as switching from sword to bow and arrow. At one point Thyon (who'd been rightly insecure at not knowing Weep's language) suddenly speaks to Ruby in it and there isn't even acknowledgement of this.
Overall
This didn't quite get me the same way as the first book, but I still enjoyed it. The characters were fun to get to know, even if they did feel reminiscent of her characters from The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. I did also love the reveal that this world is in the same universe as that trilogy, especially the wink and the nod at the end that certain characters might, one day, end up in Karou's world...
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