Hey all, Dani here.
Wow, so I had to re-write the intro to this post. I had plans to just post backlog reviews every day in November while I focused on NaNoWriMo, but then I didn’t get enough posts prepped up, and then the month got super-stressful, and so I ended up not really doing a lot of blogging at all. It was not a good time for me. But 2020 is already off to a pretty decent start, so I’m going to write the review now.
Why didn’t I review this book shortly after I read it? I don’t know; I think I was reading this during a big reading binge time so I had a lot of reviews to post. And another thing, why haven’t I read the sequel/conclusion to this book? Again, I have no idea. That should probably happen sometime soon.
Anyway, let’s get started.
Summary
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.
What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?
The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?
My Thoughts
Rating: 4.5 stars
So it’s not really a secret that I did not like Daughter of Smoke and Bone when I read it a number of years ago. I have been telling myself that I just might not have been in the right mental space to enjoy the book and so I should give it another chance because it is so beloved, but I have come to the realization that I just don’t want to read it again. It wasn’t the writing that threw me off; it was the characters.
But I’m glad I gave Laini Taylor another try, because this book just drew me in and kept me hooked. The writing is so beautiful and descriptive and flowy, and it really helped to transport me to this world, with these characters.
I was with Lazlo with wanting to know more about Weep, and I understood his desire to go to this place that he has pretty much been obsessed with his whole life. And while I figured out tiny bits and pieces about why that was before it was properly revealed, I don’t think it ruined anything for me.
This was a fun enigma of a story, and I’m still upset that I haven’t picked up the sequel/conclusion yet. Maybe I need to put that high on my 2020 priority list. It would be nice to finish the story before I need to go back and read the first one just to remember what’s going on.
Where to Get a Copy
You can get your own copy of this book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-million, Book Depository, IndieBound, or your local independent bookstore.
You can also check with your local library.
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