All the Answers You Could Want -- A Muse of Nightmares Review

ABOUT

Title: Muse of Nightmares

Author: Laini Taylor

Series: Strange the Dreamer #2 

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Release Date: October 2nd 2018 

Goodreads Page

Synopsis:

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 Times bestseller, Strange the Dreamer.

I received an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

(Thank you so much to Shelly @ Read.Sleep.Repeat for getting me a signed (!!!!!) copy of the arc omfg) 

Hold onto your hats y'all.

There's a Laini Taylor Cinematic Literary Universe.

Muse of Nightmares picks up right where Strange the Dreamer left off. Sarai is dead and is at the mercy of the wrathful Minya. Lazlo is !!!! a godspawn and has the ability to manipulate the strange blue metal that the angel-shaped citadel is made of. What are they going to do with Minya being so hellbent on revenge and with Sarai's soul in her grasp as leverage???

This book gives you literally all the answers that you could want that were brought up in Strange the Dreamer. We learn the origin story of the Mesarthium and the reason that Lazlo turned blue himself. We learn the truth of what happened on the Liberation/Carnage day when the gods were slain. We learn why the gods were impregnating the human women in Weep. We finally learn Weep's true name. SO many answers and it was such a spectacular and revelatory journey in finding them.

Laini Taylor's writing is all-consuming. It devours your awareness so that you're only focusing on the story and the world that she's unfolding before you. And this was the reason that I found the beginning so laborious and tough to get through. She writes in a sort of omniscient style where we are constantly switching between the points of view of the various characters in the book. There is so much Minya in the beginning with all her hatred and anger and vengeance that it was just tough, as a person who doesn't get angry very often, to get through. And yet, at the same time, I could sympathize with the antagonistic Minya who seeks to return what was wrought on her family.

Another point of note, if you're really uncomfortable with reading sex and scenes like that, there are pages you might want to skip through (LOL). There was a weird amount of nipple mentioning in this one. Like it was something I couldn't help but notice and it just kept popping up and i was like ???. It's mostly in the first half of the book though.

One of the overall themes of the book is a kind of pacifism. There was so much violence done to the characters on all sides and were perpetrated by them, whether it be the godspawn who were slaughtered in their crib or the citizens of Weep who endured two centuries of oppression from the Mesarthim. And other characters who are introduced in this book also endured and perpetrated violence. And so the way that problems ended up being solved, the way that they figured out how to fix things was to learn how to solve it without violence and perhaps the solution may be helping them to heal from their trauma.

We learn later in the book that in a way, and perhaps a very significant way, this story and duology is connected to the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. Laini Taylor is such a magnificent story teller and I am so excited at the prospect of what this could mean for her future stories as the ending of this book concludes this story but leaves the door wide open for so much more.

Overall, this is a spectacular conclusion to an incredible series. It's stunning and heartwrtenching. It runs a whole gamut of emotions and it was almost draining to read but I am so grateful at having read such a story.