And that's how you go on. You lay laughter over the dark parts. The more dark parts, the more you have to laugh. With defiance, with abandon, with hysteria, any way you can.

I loved it. Laini Taylor never disappoints. The writing, world building, characters and even the plot were top tier

(although I did guess the twist, it was still very enjoyable. I’m not even sure if it was meant to be unguessable)

. Very much a readers book, too. 
One of my favorite things about Laini Taylor’s writing is that she has a remarkable ability to describe emotions in a very vivid way so that you understand exactly how the character is feeling, and might even have felt that way before. This book definitely has that and it made the overall emotions in it so much better. Only thing I wish we got more of were descriptions of the city, because for all of Lazlo’s fascination it mostly just describes it at the start when he gets there and then focuses on how the shadow impacts it, so we don’t really get much positive perception of the real Weep

(dream one is a different story.)

Whoever told me that the duology was like one big book split in half was definitely right and I’m glad that I have the sequel on hand. Very excited to read it, although I’m probably going to read this one contemporary book I was gifted first because it’s set in New York City, where I am currently, so it’s fitting.
All in all, definitely a new favorite and inspires me to prioritize finishing Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which was great but not as good as Strange the Dreamer.