Book Love: “Strange the Dreamer” by Laini Taylor

You know how some books mark your soul for life? Or perhaps how others break your heart open, pour stardust inside, and stitch it back together with golden threads of beauty and magic and wonder? For me, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor is the latter.

It’s a book that makes me feel—not just through its story, but through the sheer magic of the sentences themselves. Laini Taylor’s style of writing is lovely and poetic and utter magic. I want to craft sentences like her so bad. Her words don’t just sit quietly on the page; they freaking sing. They shimmer and sparkle. They spin intricate webs of longing and curiosity, wrapping me in a dream so vivid I never quite want to wake up.

Laini Taylor’s prose is the kind I aspire to craft—lush, lyrical, and utterly immersive. Every sentence feels like it was sculpted with care, as if each word was chosen not just for its meaning, but for its magical music.

A Few Reasons Why I Love Strange the Dreamer

1. Lazlo Strange – The quiet, bookish dreamer, the orphaned librarian who dares to believe in a lost city no one else remembers. I adore a protagonist who feels deeply, who lets his imagination guide him, who isn’t afraid to dream even when reality tries to crush him. He’s a complete cinnamon roll and the opposite of what most romantasy lover’s want in a main male lead, but in every wonderful way! Please, please read this book and fall in love with Lazlo Strange, the dreamer!

2. The Writing & Worldbuilding – Laini Taylor doesn’t just create worlds—she freaking breathes life into them. The lovely, ruined city of Weep, the blue gods and their terrible past, the mysteries that unfold like petals of flower—every detail feels real, yet impossibly magical. What’s even better is that Sarai, the female main lead, can go into people’s dreams, so the possibilities are literally endless when she is inside of one! Some of my favorite passages that exemplify Taylor’s lovely writing abilities include:

“All his life, time had been passing in the only way he knew time to pass: uncrushed and uncrushable, as sands running through an hourglass grain by grain. And if the hourglass had been real, then in the bottom and neck-the past and the present-the sands of Lazlo's life would be as gray as his robes, as gray as his eyes, but the top-the future-would hold a brilliant storm of color: azure and cinnamon, blinding white and yellow gold and the shell pink of svytagor blood. So he hoped, so he dreamed: that, in the course of time, grain by grain, the gray would give way to the dream and the sands of his life would run bright.”
― Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

3. The Prologue – I recommend every writer read this prologue. It is such a magical and mysterious way of introducing the story. It’s so poetic and short. I remember when I had read it for the first time, I was already in awe by the story and had to keep reading to figure out what in the heck happened to get to that scene! I don’t know what else to say besides it is perfection, and every writer should read it if they want a beautiful example of a prologue that just makes sense to include.

Crafting My Own Magic

Whenever I look for inspiration in writing, Strange the Dreamer is always a frontrunner. Not just the story, but the way the words dance. I want to create that same sense of wonder, that same feeling of being swept away into something vast and beautiful just like Laini Taylor does for me every single time I read one of her books.

Will I ever write sentences as breathtaking as Laini Taylor’s? Who knows. But I’ll keep dreaming—just like Lazlo.

Anyway, I hope I’ve convinced you to read this magical fantasy romance novel. Have you read it? What books have you read that evoke the same feelings? Drop some comments and let’s chat!

I’ll leave you with a final quote from Strange the Dreamer that I’ll carry with me as I venture into my fantasy romance writing realm!

“Dream up something wild and improbable. Something beautiful and full of monsters.

”Beautiful and full of monsters?

"All the best stories are.”

💙 What book has left you spellbound? Let’s chat in the comments!