ARC Review: Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

Tuesday, August 18, 2015


Genres: Historical Fiction | Supernatural
Expected Publication Date: August 25th 2015
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
My rating: 
After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O'Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. Now that the world knows of her ability to "read" objects, and therefore, read the past, she has become a media darling, earning the title, "America's Sweetheart Seer." But not everyone is so accepting of the Diviners' abilities... Meanwhile, mysterious deaths have been turning up in the city, victims of an unknown sleeping sickness. Can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld and catch a killer?

(There is a review of the first book, The Diviners, here on my blog)

Lair of Dreams is just as wonderful as The Diviners, a strange mystery with more fantastic characters to immerse ourselves in.

The book revolves around the mysterious "sleeping sickness," where people go to sleep and never wake up again. Bodies have red welts and blisters appear before dying, and there are no traces of the sickness. The city is in panic. They are turning against each other. And strange disappearances in the dead of night are rising rapidly in numbers.

We have a much more diverse cast in Lair of Dreams, and a larger one too, with more subplots and side-stories thrown into the mix. Some might find it dizzying, jumping from perspective to perspective, but I enjoy it. Each thread of the plot contains little clues we need to piece together the story, and they all intertwine in interesting ways.

Each character that didn't get much of a showing in The Diviners definitely got a bigger chunk in this book. We got more of Henry, which I loved. I didn't really think much of him in the first book, but I just love his character now. He's funny and he's charming, and he's just so adorable.

Similar to The Diviners, the beginning is somewhat slow, taking some time to set up the setting and the story and to give us a good feel of the characters. Personally, I enjoy it. She slowly builds up the mystery, mounting up the suspense until the reveal.

There is more romance in here than in The Diviners, and more drama thrown into it. It's still amazing how real every character feels. Evie, Sam, Jericho, Theta, Mabel, Memphis - they all have distinct personalities and the way they react, talk and act feel incredibly real.

The romance, thank God, is not insta-love. It's slow and it develops properly. It's not even love. It's just the initial attraction you have to someone, growing and shaping into something more.

The ending was what I was waiting for in the first book, and I'm incredibly sad because now I have to wait for the next one. Augh.



descriptionABOUT CLAUDIA
A fourteen-year-old girl who loves to read and vastly prefers books over people. I'm big on doodling so if you ever visit my house, chances are you'll find paper everywhereAnd I mean everywhere.

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