Friday, 20 November 2015

Lair of Dreams | Book review

Title: Lair of Dreams (The Diviners #2)
Author: Libba Bray
Published: August 25th 2015 by Atom

Goodreads summary: The longing of dreams draws the dead, and this city holds many dreams.

After a supernatural showdown with a serial killer, Evie O’Neill has outed herself as a Diviner. With her uncanny ability to read people’s secrets, she’s become a media darling, earning the title “America’s Sweetheart Seer.” Everyone’s in love with the city’s newest It Girl…everyone except the other Diviners.

Piano-playing Henry DuBois and Chinatown resident Ling Chan are two Diviners struggling to keep their powers a secret—for they can walk in dreams. And while Evie is living the high life, victims of a mysterious sleeping sickness are turning up across New York City.

As Henry searches for a lost love and Ling strives to succeed in a world that shuns her, a malevolent force infects their dreams. And at the edges of it all lurks a man in a stovepipe hat who has plans that extend farther than anyone can guess…As the sickness spreads, can the Diviners descend into the dreamworld to save the city?

In this heart-stopping sequel to The Diviners, Printz Award-winning andNew York Times bestselling author Libba Bray takes readers deeper into the mystical underbelly of New York City.


REVIEW
Every city is a ghost.New Buildings rise upon the bones of the old so that each shiny steel beam, each tower of brick carries within it the memories of what has gone before, an architectural haunting. Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of these former incarnations in the awkward angle of a street or a filigreed gate, and old oak door peeking out from a new façade, the plaque commemorating the spot that was once a battleground, which became a saloon and is now a park.Underground, it is no different.

These beautiful sentences are the beginning of this book. It shows how Libba Bray has magical writing and you will love every bit of it. However, I found this book to be hard to read, because it was so long, and that this magical writing was a bit heavy. To be honest, it took me more than two weeks to read this book; I had to read other books in between. I’m pretty sure I’d have enjoyed it more if it was shorter.

This book is centred on a sleeping sickness that takes people as they dream. The plot was compelling and when everything was revealed, I was so surprised and loved every part of it. The epilogue felt like the biggest of cliff-hangers, because it showed there is much we still don’t know about the Diviners, and that what they loved was just the beginning. I’m intrigued but at the same time, I’m a little concerned: when will the next book be released? I’m afraid that when it’ll be, I’ll have forgotten everything about Lair of Dreams and will be less interested in the mystery surrounding the Diviners.
Even though the plot was interesting, having so many points of view made me forget it at some point in the story. Sure, some points of views were essential to this plot, but it wasn’t the case for all of them. A lot of different storylines were developed and it was really interesting, but I was losing my focus on the main plot, I regretted that. I have the feeling the characters were linked to the plot 60% in the story (and it wasn’t every of them)…

The cast of characters was diverse, just like in the first book. Evie O’Neill is now famous in New York and has her own radio show, which means she goes to parties instead of hanging out with her friends. Sam is still investigating Project Buffalo and flirting with Evie. Jericho is trying to save Will’s museum with Sam and Mabel’s help. Unfortunately, Mabel was pretty useless in this book in my opinion; she was just here as Jericho’s love interest. Theta wasn’t really a main character either but she’ll be in the next book, judging on the end of this book. However, she was Memphis’ love interest and it was really interesting, because they have so many obstacles to go through with their relationship because they’re not from the same world. Henry was truly in the middle of this book, because of his ability to sleep walk. I enjoyed learning about him; he is now one of my favourite characters. A new character came along, Ling, who is also a dream walker. It is mainly these two characters who had to deal with the sleeping sickness because of their abilities, even if the other characters helped a lot in the end.

The mystery around the Diviners thickened and I’m definitely intrigued now, because we know who was involved… I really hope it will be revealed in the next book, because I think there will still be two books in this series and I don’t want to wait years again. I know that when the next book comes, I’ll need a recap of Lair of Dreams

This book was highly enjoyable but a little too long; it made me lose focus on the main plot. Everyone’s point of view wasn’t necessary, like Mabel, she appeared rather late in the book anyway… However, I’m looking forward to see what Libba Bray has in store for us in the next books.



Have you read this book? What did you think of it?

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