From National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor comes an epic fantasy about a mythic lost city and its dark past.

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around--and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared his dream chose poorly. Since he was just 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 form of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? And who is the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo's dreams?

In this sweeping and breathtaking novel by National Book Award finalist Laini Taylor, author of the New York Times bestselling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, the shadow of the past is as real as the ghosts who haunt the citadel of murdered gods. Fall into a mythical world of dread and wonder, moths and nightmares, love and carnage.

The answers await in Weep.

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up—Lazlo Strange is a foundling who has grown up alone and unloved, sustained only by his fantasies and stories of a city known as Weep. As an adult, Lazlo finds his way to the Great Library of Zosma and becomes a librarian, tasked with supporting scholars in their work. His fixation with Weep continues, and he searches for scraps of information about it and its inhabitants and even teaches himself its language from books in the library. Then Eril Fane, the liberator of Weep, pays a surprise visit to Zosma. Lazlo seizes the chance to join an expedition to the city he has dreamed of for so long, and he is caught up in an old conflict between Weep's mortal residents and blue godlike beings who had terrorized the city until Eril Fane slew them. Unbeknownst to the inhabitants of Weep, five children of these magical beings have survived and live in the giant seraph that hovers over the city, blocking the light. When Sarai, one of these Godspawn, visits Lazlo in his dreams, their growing relationship leads to the revelation of long-hidden secrets and opposition from other Godspawn, who desire revenge on mortals. This is the first in a pair of planned companion novels by the "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" author, and it has all the rich, evocative imagery and complex world-building typical of Taylor's best work. There is a mythological resonance to her tale of gods and mortals in conflict, as well as in Lazlo's character arc from unassuming, obsessed librarian to something much more. VERDICT This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ

Review

A NPR Best Book

A Goodreads Best YA Fantasy and Science Fiction Nominee
A Boston Globe Best YA Book
A Popcrush Best Young Adult Book

A Popsugar Best Book for Women

A Booklist Editors' Choice

An A.V. Club Favorite Book

A Tor Top Young Adult SFF Book

A Christian Science Monitor Best Book

A B &N Teen Blog Best Young Adult Book

A Forever Young Adult Best Book

"Laini Taylor is so damn good and like no other."―Leigh Bardugo, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom

"Laini Taylor set my imagination on fire so hard that it spontaneously combusted...This is the kind of story that paves dreams."―p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Times}Roshani Chokshi, author of The Star Touched Queen

"[A] must-read YA!"―p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Times}USA Today

"Part adventure novel, part romance and part exercise in epic myth-building, it's gorgeously written and full of surprises."―NPR

"[One of] our favorite books of the year!"―p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Times}Popsugar

"An epic world of gods, moths and nightmares; a world where the dream chooses the dreamer."―p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Times}Justine Magazine

"Weighty as a nightmare and as transportive as the finest of fantasy, Laini Taylor's new novel will leave readers with miracles on their minds."―p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 13.0px Times}Hypable

• "Gorgeously written in language simultaneously dark, lush, and enchanting, the book will leave readers eager for the next."―Publishers Weekly, starred review
• "...Characters are carefully, exquisitely crafted, the writing is achingly lovely, and the world is utterly real...This is a thing to be savored."―Booklist, starred review
• "[ Strange the Dreamer ] has all the rich, evocative imagery and complex world-building typical of Taylor's best work. This outstanding fantasy is a must-purchase for all YA collections."―School Library Journal, starred review
• "The luxurious prose and complex world building invites and rewards slow reading....Here readers will find characters to love and ones to hate and, ultimately, a world to be willingly lost in."―Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
• [Readers] will dive into Taylor's gorgeous prose and brilliant imagery and relish this story about dreams, love, monsters, gods, ghosts, war, and alchemy. Told from alternating points of view, this is complex but satisfying, a story about cultures meeting and clashing."―VOYA, starred review

"[Laini Taylor] has spun another mesmerizing tale with captivating twists and turns, an array of intriguing characters, strange and beautiful language, and baroque flourishes of the imagination."―Horn Book

"Lovers of intricate worldbuilding and feverish romance will find this enthralling."―Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Laini Taylor is the New York Times bestselling author of the Printz Honor Book Strange the Dreamer and its sequel, Muse of Nightmares. Taylor is also the author of the global sensation the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy and the companion novella Night of Cake & Puppets. Taylor's other works include the Dreamdark books: Blackbringer and Silksinger , and the National Book Award finalist Lips Touch: Three Times. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, illustrator Jim Di Bartolo, and their daughter, Clementine. Her website is lainitaylor.com.