Review: Lair of Dreams – Libba Bray

Posted 12 October, 2015 by Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms in Reviews / 20 Comments

*I received a free copy of Lair of Dreams from Little Brown Books for Young Readers via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *

Review: Lair of Dreams – Libba BrayLair of Dreams by Libba Bray
Series: The Diviners #2
Published by Little Brown Books for Young Readers on 25 August 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 624
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
|
4 Stars

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?

The plot thickens in Lair of Dreams, with more players in the big game of Diviners, and several sub-plots to bring the main one to light. Well written with many characters who do their best to stay true to themselves, it was an exciting story.

My Lair of Dreams review:

There are even more things going on in the lives of the characters in Lair of Dreams than there was in The Diviners! Evie has her own radio show, but that plus the partying is more tiring than exciting to her as time goes on. Especially Henry and Ling are more present as they have to navigate the dreams of others to try to find out what is really going on in New York, with many people dying from being trapped inside their dreams.

Evie has her own radio show, and somehow ends up in a fake engagement to Sam, as the newspaper have been following her around, taking pictures, just like modern-day paparazzi. Lair of Dream also delves deeper into the lives of Memphis and Thema, and the intrigue following all of these diviners around as they both want to keep their secrets, but need to help each other and other citizens to stay safe, the intensity and excitement were up a notch.

Written in several different points of views, Lair of Dreams has many different voices, and it was never difficult to know which character was the one I was following in a chapter. The intricacy of both the story, the plot and the characters are simply mind-blowing! The writing is beautifully poetic, and the story so complex and well done it’s dizzying to try to write something about it that makes sense without spoiling anything.

The ending was kind of cliffhanger-ish, in that there are still many things to be resolved, and I’m sure these characters will still have a lot of work ahead of them to keep themselves, each other, and New York safe in the future.

Some of my favorite Lair of Dreams quotes:

From the corner of her eye, Evie could see that more people were taking notice of them. The room buzzed with an energy that made her feel as if she, herself, ran on electric current. She liked that feeling. She liked it very much. 

Could you will something into existence through your emotions? Should you?

Memphis wondered if these nightmares were the toll that  not using his gifts was taking on Isaiah – all that energy bottled up till it had to come out somewhere. 

Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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20 responses to “Review: Lair of Dreams – Libba Bray

  1. I just started reading The Diviners, figuring it would be the perfect spooky read with Halloween right around the corner, and I’m really enjoying it so far. Now I know that I have an equally intriguing and compelling second book to look forward to! (And I think I’m more excited than I should be about Sam making an appearance). Great review!

  2. You know you’re adding another series to my TBR, right? Poetic writing? Intricate plot, story, and characters? All so well done? Yeah, I’m going to need to read this series. I’m glad you enjoyed this follow-up so well, Lexxie. It does sound exciting. 🙂
    Happy Monday and **BIG HUGS**

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  3. I actually haven’t read the first book in this series yet, but I do own this one and I hope to get the first one soon! It seems like this one actually does have a bit more going on than the first book and that it made for quite a brilliant sequel! I also like the idea of the different point of views working well together.

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  4. Braine
    Twitter:

    Planning to read The Divinera this week. It’s a chunky book and I hope I love it just as much as you did especially as the sequel seems to be solid and not a filler sequel

    • You know, Lily, I thought it would be a difficult read in part due to the different voices, but it really, really works! And it makes the whole universe of the Diviners more realistic, too, like you get to know first one new person, then you are introduced to three of their friends 🙂

  5. I didn’t read through your entire review Lexxie, only because I haven’t read the first book yet. BUT, you got me even more excited than I already was to get into this series when you read The Diviners so I HAD to know how you made out with the sequel ; I’m so happy that you enjoyed it and that there was so much still going on here^^ You’ve made me even more excited for this series now LOL!

    Micheline @ Lunar Rainbows Reviews recently posted: Top Ten Tuesday #35
    • I know! I didn’t even know Lair of Dreams was the second book when I requested the e-galley, so I felt like I had to read the first one before this – which was definitely a good thing! While the books are very long, they are also filled with goodness, so definitely worth the time it took to read them, Lorna.

    • There were several characters and sub-plots in the first one, too, Nicole, but it really worked very well. This author is very good ad giving her characters very distinct voices, so it was no trouble knowing who was narrating the story.

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