Title: Lair of Dreams
Author: Libba Bray
Series: The Diviners (#2)
Pages: 608
Format: e-book
Rating: 4.5/5
Blurb: (from Goodreads) 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?
*Disclaimer: I received a copy of Lair of Dreams from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.*
"Every city is a ghost."
Lair of Dreams was one of most anticipated books for 2015 and it decidedly did not disappoint. It is a huge book, but once I started reading I was lost to the world Libba Bray had written. From the first sentence I was invested, and I had forgotten just how truly in love with her writing style I was.
The descriptions of New York were so vibrant and realistic - the historical details, not only relating to the plot, but little side details added so much to my enjoyment and immersion in the story. I found myself highlighting whole passages of text (on my kindle - I would never highlight physical book!) just so I could later come back and relive the beauty of the imagery. I love books set in the 1920's, there is something about that decade that just makes it perfect for fiction but Libba Bray excels more than any author I have found at bringing it wholly to life for me.
There were a lot of characters to keep up with in Lair of Dreams and Evie almost got a little lost. But surprisingly, I didn't mind that she didn't have so much of the focus. What we did see of Evie was funny and interesting and heartbreaking by turns and I loved her chapters. But it was also great to see more of Henry who, with Ling, almost became the main focus of this story. There were certain things about Henry and Ling's story that I did figure out fairly early on, but that didn't really affect my enjoyment of their chapters.
One tiny problem I had was the introduction of a love triangle. I really dislike love triangles, they stress me out and somebody always winds up hurt. Which when you love the characters as much as I genuinely do love these characters is anxiety-inducing to think about. I already have a preference for one guy over the other and I hope that this love triangle is resolved (preferably the way I want it to be!) early in the next book so I don't have to worry about it again. But there was a lot of angst involved towards the end so I'm not holding out much hope.
The creepy element was one of my favourite parts of this book. Which is surprising because I generally do not enjoy scary books. But here I was glued to the page, I had a bit of trouble sleeping sometimes because I was just so desperate to know what was going to happen and if the characters I loved were safe. There were parts of this book that were genuinely scaring me (I do scare easy though) and there were some creatures that were so wonderfully described I could picture them in my head. And then promptly wished I hadn't as I realised they will now haunt my dreams.
Overall I would say that if you enjoyed The Diviners you will not be disappointed in the sequel. Although you may be frustrated at the anticipation for the third book! And if you haven't read The Diviners - I highly recommend it as well. Especially in the build up to Halloween it's a great creepy, beautifully written series with characters to die for. I posi-tute-ly love it.
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