Muse of Nightmares book review

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor
Series: Strange the Dreamer #2
on October 2, 2018
Pages: 522
Goodreads

Sarai has lived and breathed nightmares since she was six years old.

She believed she knew every horror and was beyond surprise.

She was wrong.

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 astonishing and heart-stopping sequel to the New York Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

Muse of Nightmares is the sequel to one of my all-time favourite books, Strange the Dreamer. I will say, straight off the bat that I didn’t enjoy it as much as Strange the Dreamer, but it was still a great read and will probably get a place on my favourite books of the year. It was a great continuation of the story and I feel like we end up learning a lot more about the country and the mythology behind why everything happened in the first place. I think this book really explored the motivations of each of the characters and why they are the way they are.

This is a good segway into my favourite part of Muse of Nightmares. I loved learning about each of the characters past through Sarai and her ability. I would have loved to learn more about the Carnage and I think that this was a little vague and almost brushed over in the end. But I savoured every moment that we learnt about the past and what drives Minya to do the things she did. It offered a really good insight into the first book and it definitely changed my experience of reading Strange the Dreamer completely. The knowledge I gained in this book influenced my feelings towards different characters. Loved that.

Minya needs a special mention in this review. I don’t think the book would have been half as good if her arc hadn’t been a part of the plot. Her growth as a character throughout Muse of Nightmares was the best out of the entire character line up. We learnt so much about her as a character and why she was the way she is and I loved it. I empathised with her and the reason why she was such lunatic hell-bent on killing everyone! By the end of this book, I genuinely loved her more than everyone else, and I was way more interested in her ending.

I have to say the best bit about Muse of Nightmares was definitely the insight we got into the life of the Gods before “The Carnage”. I loved the history that was brought into the story and how much we actually learnt about the world and the mythology. Of course Minya is also my best bit, I think her arc and development in this book was phenomenal!

The reason Muse of Nightmares only got a 4-star review from me is purely because I felt there was a lot of filler content within the story, some of which I wasn’t massively concerned about. However, when it came to the climax and the big reveal I felt as though that was rushed and things ended up being left a little bit out on a limb. I just wanted there to have been a little more closure and to have more understanding about the characters and their growth.

I think this will be a series that I will suggest and recommend long into the future the story is so rich and diverse it truly is amazing. The characters are well thought out and developed and I really enjoyed Muse of Nightmares.

Have you read the Strange the Dreamer series? What did you think of Muse of Nightmares? Let me know.