September 17, 2018

Review: Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

Muse of Nightmares (Strange The Dreamer #2)
Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown BYR
Publication Date: October 2, 2018
Pages: 528
Format: ARC/From Publisher

In the wake of tragedy, neither Lazlo nor Sarai are who they were before. One a god, the other a ghost, they struggle to grasp the new boundaries of their selves as dark-minded Minya holds them hostage, intent on vengeance against Weep.

Lazlo faces an unthinkable choice—save the woman he loves, or everyone else?—while Sarai feels more helpless than ever. But is she? Sometimes, only the direst need can teach us our own depths, and Sarai, the muse of nightmares, has not yet discovered what she's capable of.

As humans and godspawn reel in the aftermath of the citadel's near fall, a new foe shatters their fragile hopes, and the mysteries of the Mesarthim are resurrected: Where did the gods come from, and why? What was done with thousands of children born in the citadel nursery? And most important of all, as forgotten doors are opened and new worlds revealed: Must heroes always slay monsters, or is it possible to save them instead?

Love and hate, revenge and redemption, destruction and salvation all clash in this gorgeous sequel to the New York Timesbestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

*Spoilers for Dreams of Gods & Monsters (yes, there's connections to the other series)*

Review: This book is absolutely amazing. It completely outdid Strange, and Strange was pretty amazing. There were new twists, new people, connections to other books. Just so many things going on. So besides the connections to the DOSAB series, I've tried my hardest not to spoil anything but still thoroughly talk about the book! We build even more on the world established in Strange, fill in missing pieces of the the back story. Uncover new information regarding weep. This book was just 100% amazing with the plot and the emotions it provokes.

As always I loved Lazlo and Sarai. They have such a pure, beautiful connection. I love them as a couple. They fit together so well. They genuinely love each other but both also will stand up for the greater good even if it risks their lives. They have nothing but love in their hearts, not only for each other, but for everyone they care about. Their love and caring is really what held them and everyone else together in this book. They are the happiness in a dark time. They are the ones leading the change between human and godspawn when it might not have been possible before. These two together are pure gold!

So we get the introduction of a new story that goes back hundreds of years in Muse. The story of Kora (known as Korako to the godspawn) and Nova. We see the emergence of how Korako was found and chosen by Skathis himself when Skathis was just a nobody. We learn how he used her and how he became the high and powerful god we learned about in Strange. I was surprised at how the feared Korako was not in the citadel because she wanted to be. She wanted to be with Nova, her sister, who Skathis discarded and left behind because she had a gift he considered incredibly bad. Nova, the left behind sister, is actually the one who brings the backstory and Lazlo and Sarai's stories all together by bridging the gap of hundreds of years searching for Kora, which also brings us a lot of answers we seek in the process.

I also thought it was interesting how we had 2 villains. We start off with Minya with her wanting to kill everyone in Weep and threatening to let go of Sarai's soul if Lazlo doesn't cooperate. She pretty much uses pure terror of losing Sarai and controlling her to get her way until Ruby and Sparrow come up with a plan to temporarily stop her. Sarai goes into her dreams to try and reason with her, only to find the reason she's become so dark is because she's reliving the killing of the gods/godspawn, and the ghost feed into her anger over it. That's a hard thing to even try to begin helping fix. Then Nova comes through a portal and makes Minya look like the 6 year old she is in comparison to her. Nova was way too lost to grief and anger over her search for Kora that she was no longer thinking straight and wasn't putting together solid coherent thoughts. She couldn't see Lazlo and company were kids, not the gods that took Kora hundreds of years ago, and tried to punish them as if they were. And she refused to believe the truth about what happened to Kora despite her companions confirming it until Sarai helped her get closure from Kora's Astral messenger.

I really liked that our core group started standing up for each other. We see Ruby, Sparrow, and Feral taking a stand against Minya, actively standing with Sarai and Lazlo because they can tell Minya is just going off the deep end and her plans and intentions are not the right ones. We also get to see all of them really using their powers in their fullest to fight for and protect the others. We even see Sarai and Sparrows powers change and grow. On the other side of the core group, we see Eril-Fane and everyone dealing with the fallout of learning there are still godspawn alive in the citadel. But we also see Eril-Fane, Azareen, Suheyla and some of the others who came to weep decide to try and give the godspawn a chance and not just immediately condemn them. I thought this was such a huge turning point in the book and really made me proud of all the characters. Plus I liked that we got to go more into Eril-Fane's & Azareen's past to see how the events of them being taken to the citadel went down.

So I have to admit, I was wrong with my prediction of what happened to all the babies in the nursery. And to be honest, I was absolutely shocked with the truth of what actually happened to them. But we do get to see a few of the now grown babies that were taken show up and tell the truth of what happened. It just makes me so angry but yet not even shocked because it seems like something Skathis would definitely do. I was also pretty surprised regarding the truth around Lazlo, how he survived and what would have happened to him had Skathis had his way.

So I found it interesting we had a focus on Thyon. We see him building friendships instead of acting like everyone should like him already. He reexamines his views regarding the godspawn and himself after all the events. But we also still see the old Thyon who constantly mentions how the story should have been about him and his alchemy and achievements instead of on Lazlo and the godspawn. He's changing for the better most definitely, but still really having a hard time letting go of the fact he wanted things to be about him. But I thought this was a fantastic change for him!

Guys, so many things happened in the end. I absolutely loved Suheyla. She full on took over her grandmother role with Sarai and all the godspawn. It is beautiful and she is definitely a favorite character overall now. Can I nominate her for best grandma after that ending?? The revelations about other godspawn. Certain members of the weep delegation joining the godspawn on their journey. Eril-Fane and Azareen!!! Ahhhh. Yay for them! I was so pleased with their ending! After all their heartache and pain they deserved some good! And Minya. Gosh, so much happened to her during this book. I started out despising her but by the end I really feel for her and like her. It's amazing how one simple act could literally completely change that girl. I think her story line really goes to show how great of a writing Laini Taylor is. To make you dislike a character and her actions so much but write her story arc so well that you come to like her and have a complete understanding of why she was the way she was. Perfection. Also, we find out Weep's true name finally! It's so beautiful!

So one of the things I loved was that we establish a connection to the Daughter of Smoke & Bone series in this. We see the different seraph worlds discussed and the Faerers that were sent out to the different worlds. We even see Eretz mentioned by name and a little snippet talking about how the Chimera and Seraphim in Eretz are training to defeat the darkness. And that lines right up with the ending of Dreams of Gods & Monsters. What I wanna know, is that if we now have two story-lines set in two of the different Seraph worlds, are we going to get more?? Also, was I right with my idea at the end of DOG&M? I said it easily left it open for a spin-off based on fighting the darkness, and then in Muse after talking about Eretz and the training, it literally says "But that's another story." I'm hoping this means we will either get more stories of the other worlds or the story of fighting the darkness. And another potential connections with the DOSAB world... The idea of finding someone who could potentially make Sarai a body. Uh. Hello. *Cough* Karou *Cough* That's literally what she does. Minya is pretty much acting in place of a thurible with Sarai. If this little idea doesn't scream that it's hinting at a potential cross over between both worlds, I really don't know what does.