I read Muse of Nightmares

 This week, I read Muse of Nightmares, the sequel to Strange the Dreamer, by Lani Taylor.

I can't talk about this one without spoiling the first one.  If you haven't read Strange the Dreamer, you should go read that instead of this blog post.

Lazlo and Minya are at an impasse, where she wants to use him to wreck vengence on all Weep, using her control over Sarai as a threat, and he wants to protect Weep and is pretty sure Minya won't kill her only bargaining chip.  They all realize how very damaged Minya is, both by the trauma of living through the carnage and by the weight her gift places on her, and Sarai sets out to charge her heart and mind.

The first big chunk of this book is very dismal.  There's just nothing anyone can do and no good solution.  They spend a lot of time replying how awful the situation is.  It made for a rough read.  I kept getting distracted, because the first chapter of each section is about a completely different group of people: a pair of sisters who dream of being chosen by the blue gods because their dormant amazing gifts are so amazing.  They dream of being taken away from their harsh ice village with their horrible step-mother and their horrible jobs butchering walrus-like creatures.  It was gripping and I had room to root for them.  The A-plot was such a downer that I started flipping ahead and just reading the B plot chapters.

I did like how all the pieces fall into place at the end, all the different story lines coming together.  A bunch of secondary characters get developed over the course of the book, so when they use their skills at the end in ways that help the main story, it feels earned, even though a lot of the resolution could have easily felt like a cop out.

I still love Strange the Dreamer, but this sequel was not as striking.

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Next week: To All the Boys I've Loved Before, YA contemporary romance by Jenny Han