Long Lost Reviews is a monthly meme created by Ally over at Ally’s Appraisals which is posted on the second Thursday of every month. The aim is to start tackling your review backlog. Whether it’s an in-depth analysis of how it affected your life, one sentence stating that you only remember the ending, or that you have no recollection of reading the book at all.
Published: 28th March 2017 
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Pages: 532
Format: Paperback
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
★ ★ ★ ★ – 4 Stars
The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around – and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance to lose his dream forever.
What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?
The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries – including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?
I picked this up back in 2017 because someone I followed on Twitter was completely obsessed with book and her excitement got me to read it and I will admit it was quite good. It was interesting and I loved this new world I was exploring and how the rules worked. The story is beautifully written, it is eloquent and poetic at times, Taylor creating wonderful and vivid descriptions that bring the story to life in your mind.
Lazlo is a genuinely good person. His simple upbringing means he cherishes what he has got and when more is offered to him he still reveres it as a humble and restrained pleasure. I loved learning about things through his eyes and Taylor does a great job weaving his obsession with the story around him that helps drive the story as well as inform the reader.
It is a generous 500+ page book, but by the time you’ve gotten to that last page, every part of it is as important as the last. There is a sequel which I have yet to read. It’s curious because I was amazed by this world and this story so much, and yet I’ve yet to find the impulse to read the second book and see where it was all heading. Maybe soon when I have a spare moment I can revisit this world with another journey through the beautiful narrative Taylor has created.
You can purchase Strange the Dreamer via the following
QBD | Booktopia | Book Depository
Dymocks | Wordery | Angus and Robinson
Fishpond | Amazon | Amazon Aust | Audible
Lost in a Good Book 