Muse of Nightmares went by quickly and amazingly… until the second half of the book. But that didn’t stop me from liking it!
All of my reviews are as spoiler-free as possible. However, this is a sequel book! There may be general plot spoilers, only from the synopsis.
Synopsis:
From Goodreads:
My Thoughts:
When I started this book, I absolutely loved it.
While Strange the Dreamer seemed a bit slow until the second half, I would say the opposite about its sequel. Muse of Nightmares went by quickly and amazingly… until the second half of the book.
I loved getting to know the characters more, and seeing their lives after the events of the first book. I especially loved Lazlo and Sarai together! I understand that their relationship may have been a bit rushed, but I would like to think that they spent a lot of “dream time” together. Other than that, I also loved seeing more about Thyon! After his long introduction in Strange the Dreamer (which was just about as long as Lazlo’s), I was glad to finally see more about him.
However, as I said, Muse of Nightmares seemed to drag after the first 300 pages. At that point, the story’s climax clicked into gear, and then… it just kept on going and going. It was 200 pages of suspense, most of which I got bored of. I mean, yes, I wanted to see what happened to the characters in the end, but while I zoomed through the first 300 pages in a few hours, the last 200 took me almost two weeks to complete.
Also, I did not care very much for the new characters, Kora and Nova. I did like that they existed and were part of the story, but their side-plot chapters were sometimes boring or unnecessary. I was very confused about why they were getting so much page time. I think these scenes could have been cut down or condensed in some other way, without taking away from their purpose. I enjoyed how this side-plot played in with the other characters we already knew, but I felt like the book spent way too much time getting me acquainted them, and not enough time letting me know why they were actually there.
In the end, my eyes did cry a bit. There is an epilogue, and I enjoyed it.
Sorry this review is so short! I’m trying to not give anything away, especially to those who haven’t read the first book yet.
Thoughts about characters:
Lazlo: Ah yes, I still love Lazlo so much. I feel like this book captured his personality a little bit more than the first one, even though Strange the Dreamer was supposed to be about him.
Sarai: Sarai is so great! I loved learning more about her inner fears and emotions.
Thyon: I will support him whenever he appears on the page.
Minya: I also apologize to Minya for some of the very harsh things I said about her in my first review. I didn’t mean all of it.
My Rating:
While I rated Strange the Dreamer with 4.25 stars, I give this one 4 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed it most of the time, but it dragged on so much for that I didn’t absolutely love it enough.
This was a worthy end to the duology!
Have you read this book or series? What did you think?
Which characters were your favorite?
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Happy reading, everyone! 😀
I was actually pretty hooked by Kora and Nova lol! I did adore Lazlo and Sarai but my favorite ship here is Thyon and Ruza…I loved their banter hah 😉 (because I’m developing a weakness toward hate-to-love ships)
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Good, I’m glad someone enjoyed Kora and Nova (even if I didn’t)! I liked their story, but I think there was perhaps a bit too much of it? I don’t know. Maybe that’s just me! And Thyon and Ruza were so good and I wish we saw more of them!
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Minya wound up one of my all-time favorite characters. Glad you liked it 🙂
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I really liked Minya, too! I’m glad she got a better ending than before. 🙂
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I felt really similarly about Kora and Nova! I kept scratching my head in confusion a little about why were getting ANOTHER chapter in their POV. Perhaps if we’d been given more upfront about why they were there, that might not have happened, but I just felt like it kept detracting from the tension that was going on elsewhere.
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I understand the point of Kora and Nova’s POV chapters, but I think they could have been condensed so that there weren’t so confusing/boring sometimes! I agree!
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Oh, dear. The length of this one is VERY intimidating, especially now that you mentioned the last half being draggy. It took me ages to finish Strange the Dreamer, and while it was definitely fascinating, I’ve forgotten most of it and that will probably make me take even longer to finish this one. 😅 I still hope to find the time to read it, though! I did love Lazlo and Sarai in book one.
❤ Aimee @ Aimee, Always
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If you really want to read Muse of Nightmares, I think you should give it a try! I always feel bad when I don’t finish a series, but I’m glad I finished this one! I hope you enjoy it if you choose to pick it up 🙂
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Sounds like my experience with Daughter of Smoke and Bone! I *may* have kinda DNFed that book and just skimmed the rest because of how the second half dragged. Also I’ve heard this is the case with some of Laini Taylor’s books, so I’m not too surprised. Still will be giving this series a go! Great review! 😉
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Honestly? I should probably just skim the books I don’t like and get everything done. That sounds better than just suffering through every word. 😂 Despite my problems with Muse of Nightmares, I still really liked it! But I hope you enjoy the series if you do give it a try!
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Really glad you liked this overall- great review!
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Thank you so much! I really enjoyed this series. 🙂
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