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me at anything and everything Minya does

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Ruza: He’s like a new linen napkin that you’re afraid to wipe your mouth on.

Thyon: I’ll thank you to keep your mouth away from me.

Ruza: You don’t have to worry about that.

Tzara: I think you protest too much, my friend.

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Thyon: Why do you talk to me like this?

Calixte: Because you’ve never had a sister and you need one. 

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minya: [stubs her toe]

me, under my breath: hasn’t she been through fucking enough

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getting to meet laini taylor today! quickly cleaned up some pencil sketches so i can give her something. and maybe soon i’ll clean up some more sketches, especially now that muse of nightmares is out!

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“not all men”

You’re absolutely right, Lazlo Strange, librarian and dreamer, would never treat me like this

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Let’s talk about why everyone should love Lazlo Strange

(Just look at his precious little face. Oh my god I love him so much.)

In the interest of being 100% honest I didn’t love him at first, he actually kinda bothered me. But that’s just because the book itself was kinda bugging me at the very beginning. Also, every book is about orphans nowadays so when they were describing his childhood I was just kinda like “that’s rough kid. Get over it cus you’re gonna grow up and go on a life-changing adventure.” but once I got into it I realized HOW PRECIOUS HE IS.

Reasons I love Lazlo Strange:

He’s 20, so that gave him a more sophisticated and mature voice and feel than the usual protagonists I read about. (also since he’s a grown-a** man his count of ridiculously stupid decisions made by the end of the book was a refreshing 0)

His response to having the monks cut his hair his whole life was to never cut it again, something I feel on a spiritual level

Junior librarian (in my mind there’s the ref desk and right next to it there’s the Weenie Hut Jr’s ref desk and that’s where he sits)

He loves his books and walks into walls because he’s reading (relatable)

A collection of FAIRY TALES fell on his face and broke his nose on DAY ONE and he never lived it down (but still affectionately refers to it as ‘villain’ cus he’s the sweetest and can’t even be mad at the thing that broke his nose)

He’s a giant NERD (see above for proof)

He saved all his money for gold flakes to decorate his books with

Calligraphy   

He helps people for no reason other than they need it and he wants to be a good person

He says the darndest things

I wouldn’t call these next ones spoilers at all but this is getting long and I also wanna give people the chance to read these on their own if they haven’t already soooo…

Keep reading

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Eril-Fane the Godslayer

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor.

I need more Fane and Aza in my life.

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One of the (many, many) beautiful things about the Strange the Dreamer duology that I haven’t really seen anyone talking about is how Laini Taylor weaved several different narratives together through the themes of conflict and redemption, and how she treated the characters involved in those storylines.

Each of the four main groups (Tizerkane, faranji, godspawn, Mesarthim) had a character who had caused or was causing conflict because they’d had unkindness inflicted on them at a young age (Eril-Fane, Thyon, Minya and Nova). ALL the major conflicts in the duology stem from adults inflicting unkindness on children. Eril-Fane was kidnapped and raped by Isagol when he was just a teenager, Thyon was brainwashed into putting on airs and beaten by his father, Minya was forced to witness and do horrific things during the Carnage, Nova was torn away from her sister and brought, sold and raped.

And rather than present them as lost causes or just as monstrous as Skathis, Taylor makes us root for them to grow and change.  Anger and hatred holds all of them back and stops them from growing and healing (literally, in Minya’s case) but each of them is able to find closure and begin the process of healing when they come into contact with someone who shows them kindness and forgiveness with no ulterior motives - those people, in most instances, being Lazlo and Sarai. And I just love that even though Lazlo and Sarai were the main characters of the duology, they probably wouldn’t see themselves as protagonists - their main role was to be good, empathetic people who helped others find closure in their own stories.

tl:dr: the Strange the Dreamer duology is full of complex, dynamic characters who do awful things at a young age because they’ve been exposed to awful people, but learn to grow and change when exposed to kind people and that’s just… excellent characterisation and such an important message for young readers, especially in today’s political climate.

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Lazlo and Calixte, BFFs! 

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

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Eril-Fane The Godslayer

NOVL released an excerpt of three chapters from Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. So by now you all have read it and know who this is =)  I have so many feelings about this character.

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I recently read Strange The Dreamer by Laini Taylor and absolutely fell in love with everything about it. And now all I want to do is make art inspired by it, because it’s so gorgeous. Here’s my take on Sarai, my fave blue gal!!!

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Sparrow from Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

I loved the part where Sparrow says this. It made me cheer for her and want the second book, to find out what happens!

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Evening sketch of Lazlo Strange from the book Strange the dreamer. Can’t wait to get reading Muse of Nightmares. A great book and the characters are amazing!

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“Chains of the Past”

This was done for @LitJoyCrate before I read the second book. Minya from Strange the Dreamer by @lainitaylor was a very complicated character. She infuriated me, as she made me sympathize with her, but it wasn’t until Muse of Nightmares that she became one of my fav characters.

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I recently finished Muse of Nightmares, and loved it. I wasn’t sure they’d get a happy ending after the first book.

I bet Lazlo is the kind of little brother that forgets you’re the oldest just because you are trapped in a six year old body. Poor Minya.