Muse of Nightmares (Strange the Dreamer Book 2)

I loved this book. Really. I mean, I won't give any spoilers, but it was so good. I only rated the first one 4 stars on goodreads, but this is definitely a 5 star book for me. It was new and exciting and surprising in ways I didn't know a sequel could be! I couldn't even guess the plot twists! And on top of that, it is beautifully written.One of the best-handled sequels I've ever seen. Good job Laini Taylor!

Wow! Just WOW! Muse of Nightmares is even better than Strange the Dreamer: deeper, darker, twistier… did I mention “deeper”? I’m just completely floored yet again by Laini Taylor’s imagination and lyrical prose. The lady can write! As in Strange the Dreamer, everything just pops. (If you haven’t read Strange the Dreamer, go buy it, read it, and then come back here, because Muse of Nightmares is not a standalone novel.) So many storylines intertwine in this tapestry of madness and redemption. It is incredibly satisfying to see how many characters twine their way through the story strengthening the whole vibrant tapestry.Muse of Nightmares starts with Kora and Nova, sisters writing their story separated by worlds and time from Sarai, Lazlo, and the others. They too, are like orphans, clinging to each other in a world of drudgery. They wait for the Mesarthim to return and test them, so they can be chosen to be Servants as their mother was. It’s the dream they’ve held onto all these years. They were meant for better than this. This is not their life. It couldn’t be. They were meant to be soldier-wizards. Then after an absence of many years, a starship comes. And everything changes.Sarai is dead. There’s no way around it. She’s the Muse of Nightmares, and yet her life – or death – has become a nightmare. She’s seventeen and she’s in kneeling beside her own body. Minya saved her, pulled her back from unraveling in death, keeps her from melting away, from evanescing. But even as Sarai hugs Minya, rejoicing that at least she still exists, if non-corporeally, she sees Lazlo Strange, her love. “She felt like a breath that had been inhaled into darkness, only to be exhaled again as song. She was dead, but she was music.” And then Minya speaks and the nightmare descends, because while Minya’s godspawn gift allows her to pull souls back from death’s grip, it also allows her to control them. What they do, what they say, all controlled. Minya has never grown past the six-year-old child that she was when Eril-Fane slew Skathis and the others. She’s the same size, she wears the same clothes, she feels the same hate that she did years ago as she fled the slaughter with the two babies and two small toddlers that were all she was able to save. She has never left the memory of the murdered babies in the nursery behind. She lives that memory and hates with every single breath.Now Sarai is Minya’s hostage to make Lazlo behave, to make Lazlo obey. She wants nothing more than to descend on Weep, the city below their floating home, and destroy every single human. While Sarai is rejoicing that they are free of their skyborn prison, Minya doesn’t want to be free; she wants to be a monster. Can Sarai ever be escape Minya’s plan? Can she still be the Muse of Nightmares even if she’s dead?Muse of Nightmares winds the story of Kora and Nova around the story of Eril-Fane, Lazlo Strange, Sarai, Minya, and the others. The novel shines with incredibly detailed and believable characters, blisteringly real world-building, and a story that echoes the human condition as two sisters reach across worlds toward each other, struggling to unite. It’s a story of heroes and monsters: heroes who become monsters and monsters who become heroes. Love, PTSD, shame, guilt, fear, horror… almost everything that anyone could ever feel is woven through a timeless tale. We live for love, we kill for love, we change for love… we hate when love is lost to us.The story feels as if every Greek myth infused a body, sat down by a bonfire, and mesmerized everyone else sitting there with a horror story as the night grew dark around them. But for every night, a dawn rises, and flickering through all the pain and darkness in Muse of Nightmares, shimmers of light touch a face, a hand, and gradually reveal the speaker and their audience. Frightened. Heartbroken. Hopeful. Changed.I’m trying not to include spoilers, so I’ll simply finish by saying Laini Taylor is a writer that will grab your attention and yank your heart around. Phrases will resonate with you long after you put the book down, as will many aspects of the story. I was sorry when the book was done and there wasn’t another to journey on with. Not that there were any cliffhangers, it was just like having your favorite people in the whole wide world walk out the door and you don’t know when or if you’ll see them again. But you wish they would take you with them on their next adventure.Highly recommended for those who love fantasy, lyrical yet unpretentious prose, and simply brilliant storytelling.

"It comes to a certain point with a hope or a dream, when you either give it up or give up everything else. And if you choose the dream, if you keep on going, then you can never quit, because it's all that you are."This is the sequel to "Strange the Dreamer", this picks immediately after Strange the Dreamer ends.Strange the Dreamer was a story about dreams coming true, and when one dream comes true another dream comes to replace it. Nightmares, as taken in the context of this book, are the opposite of dreams. So this book related to what happens when you look at one dream for too long and it does not come true; when a hope or a dream becomes an obsession. This book captured nightmares coming true, and the way ruined hopes can destroy people.I don't want to comment on the story line as this is a sequel. I will say, I loved Strange the Dreamer more. Lazlo Strange is EVERYTHING to me and I love him so completely. I will say this book is beautifully written and poetic. My biggest and only complaint is the pacing. This whole book took place within the span of the a few days. I loved the poetry and deeply insightful narrative between the spaces of action, but the book just took me so long to get through because the pacing was just so slow to me. I still really enjoyed it though which is why I still gave it a high rating.

Muse of Nightmares picks up pretty much right after the cliffhanger that was the ending of Strange the Dreamer and we are immediately thrown back into everything, which I appreciated because I was desperate to know how things would work out. I think my favorite things about this book is Taylor's balance of action and non-action scenes. This isn't really what I would consider a fast-paced, high-action story, yet I couldn't turn those pages fast enough. There are some more fast-paced scenes, but there's also much that focuses on other components and really adds a nice balance to the pacing. If you didn't like the slower pace as much in Strange the Dreamer, then you will probably like this one a bit more because there is not quite as much meandering as the first book had, but it still has Taylor's vivid writing that breathes life into each page.Although we spend plenty of time in Lazlo's head, this book does branch out a bit more and we seem to spend more time in Sara's head (which is why I assume this one is titled Muse of Nightmares), as well as some in Minya's and Thyon's, and a few others. Lazlo is still perfectly adorable and innocent, as well as passionate about what he knows he wants, and Sarai is still determined and as selfless as Lazlo. These two are beautiful together and I'm not sure the last time I rooted for two people are much as I did for these two.As much as I love the worldbuilding of this duology, the rest of the characters are easily one of my other favorite components. They are all such an eclectic, mixed variety of people that bring so much life and enjoyment to the story. Some of our favorite supporting cast return such as Eril-Fane, Tizerkane, Ruza, Thyon, Feral, Ruby, Sparrow, Calixte, and so many more. Thyon and Minya were two that had rather prominent roles in this installment, and I loved how Taylor portrayed their personalities and sentiments. Both undergo momentous changes throughout this book, some of which were initiated in the first book, and Taylor did this in an understandable and steady pace. She didn't make either character undergo unnecessary changes or have abnormally quick changes of heart, but she instead made it a gradual process that makes sense. I particularly liked that we got know more about Minya's backstory and why she is the way she is now, as it shed so much like on the general backdrop of the plot as well.In addition to our beloved returning characters, we also meet two new characters, Kova and Nova. I don't really want to tell you how we know these characters or why they are important, but they end up being pivotal to the events of Muse of Nightmares and I found they added a really interesting dynamic and storyline.I really can't go into detail about the major plot twist (?) direction this story took, but my god was I not expecting this book to go in the direction it did! As soon as I realized what might be happening, I was so blown away and impressed by what Taylor made this book. It's brilliant and truly momentous and I am still excited just thinking about it. I definitely plan to re-read Strange the Dreamer sometime in the semi-near future to see what I can pick up in that book that may have hinted at what happened in this book.I desperately need more from this world and these characters. I have so many new questions that I want to explore and I will sacrifice anything (and look, I'm willing to make my morals a little grey, so honestly, anything) needed in order to get more from Taylor. It's not that things aren't wrapped up, because they definitely are; Taylor answers all of the main plot questions and wraps up everything we've wondered, but because of what happens and how big this world gets, there's just so much more that my imagination wants to explore.I honestly can't put into words how much I have loved this duology. I just love these books.