Strange the Dreamer Duology | BOOK SERIES REVIEW

Book: Strange the Dreamer & Muse of Nightmares
Genre : Fantasy 
Pages : 532 and 522 
My Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐ ⭐

"This was a place where moths were magic and gods were real, and angels had burned demons on a pyre the size of moon. Here, death was not the end."

This duology is one of my favourite reads of this year. I read the first part 'Strange the Dreamer' in January and finished the second and final part 'Muse of Nightmares' last month. I would recommend this to all the readers out there. Its a much refreshing break from the usual fantasy books out there.

 This isn't a fast paced series and it's one where you can devour all the emotions it brings, along with the exceptional world building which takes place.

This was my first series by Laini Taylor and the author has weaved magic through her words. This book is written so beautifully. The whole concept of the two books revolves around dreams and powers (kind of like X-men), gods, godspawn(children having one god as parent) better known as demigods and much more. It's a multi layered story which spans across several millennia. 

At the core the story revolves around Lazo Strange and Sarai. These two characters along with many others are well portrayed and I just loved them for how they were shown. The characters were a mix bag showing different personalities but they weren't permanently portrayed as that, the beauty was how they were shown in a grey light and not just black and white. They were as flawed as anyone could be and the intriguing part for me was how where I would feel extreme rage at them at one point and then pity them once the story evolves. 

The book had certain parts where it became a little dark (trigger warning) where abuse was discussed, though it wasn't direct and was written in a superficial way. I liked how strong emotions were shown as the key driving force throughout the second book : Love, Hate, revenge, remorse. This is where the book differs from the usual fantasy books: they usually give more emphasis to the plot and the supernatural powers or abilities and not the emotions. This book had a healthy dose of it ( a big thumbs up for this👍) 

It wasn't a one dimensional story which only focussed on only one aspect, it had certain powerful lines about mental health which I loved and that just shows how Taylor's writing is and how her mind works.

“The mind is good at hiding things, but there’s something it cannot do: It can’t erase. It can only conceal, and concealed things are not gone. They rot. They fester, they leak poisons. They ache and stink. They hiss like serpents in tall grass.”  

There are many layers to the story and everything interconnects at the end, but the focus keeps shifting from the past events and characters to the present and that was confusing for me initially. So that's the only negative part I found. 

It's a great read and would not disappoint !!!

you can buys these two books from the link provided below :
https://www.amazon.in/Strange-Dreamer-Laini-Taylor/dp/1444788957/ref=sr_1_1?crid=35ZIUZAGV7GA6&keywords=strange+the+dreamer&qid=1574175297&sprefix=Strange+the+%2Caps%2C296&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.in/Muse-Nightmares-Book-Strange-Dreamer/dp/144478904X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PJHWXA392HFO&keywords=muse+of+nightmares&qid=1574175388&sprefix=muse+of+n%2Caps%2C-1&sr=8-1