Lair of Dreams
Libba Bray
Isn’t it great to fall into bed after a long day and have a wonderful dream in which everything you ever wanted is right there at your finger tips? (I wouldn’t know cause I only remember the nightmares but I’m sure its nice.)
Welcome to Lair of Dreams which seems pretty nice save for the part where the dream turns into a nightmare and you can never, ever wake up from it.
Literally.
You’re going to die in there.
I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for absotootely ever darlings! (I’m trying 20’s talk here because there’s a lot of it!)
The sleeping sickness rages through New York and we join our Diviners (no names for spoiler purposes or no spoiler purposes) but they all pretty much have varying forms of PTSD from the events of the last book and for people with, essentially, super powers countless threats hang over them which is Libba Bray laying threads for the next two books.
I’m hoping.
The King of Crows comes up several times and that’s the name of book four so fingers crossed it wasn’t just a fluke 🙂
I liked Lair of Dreams because I like the characters which is absolutely jake (no idea but they used it for good things) because it takes forever for our crew to figure out what’s going on. Even the two dream walkers we get are super slow on the uptake. I liked the story as well also good because you will figure it out far sooner than the main characters will.
I also really enjoy all the relationships in this book save one. There’s representation and a fake engagement that seems to be bordering on if not hate-to-love, at least deep annoyance to hey, maybe this fella isn’t so ass after all.
Lair of Dreams doesn’t just deal with an outbreak but racism, homophobia, PTSD, drinking, sex slaves, government conspiracies, propaganda, supernatural child abuse. So yeah, there’s some hefty stuff in here and some truly creepy scenes of the “dream” world shifting over into real life and attacking people.
All in all I think this might have been deeper and more all consuming than the first book (The Diviners) but less violent especially if you don’t like the serial killer angle in anything.
The real moral of Lair of Dreams is commit to nothing in a  dream unless it involves Tom Hardy and Jon Bernthal because who would want to wake up then?
Recommend: Yes.
It’s a character piece as much as anything but I’m posit-toot-ly glad I picked it up and and I’ve already picked up the next two books!
I haven’t read a Libba Bray book since I was like 17, but I really should try this series out. I mean, a 20’s setting? Dreams and nightmares? Heavy topics handled well?? Yes and YES. 🙂
I wasn’t big on the Gemma Doyle series of hers but The Diviners is more up my alley! Hope you enjoy it 🙂