Starred Review ALA Booklist

Starred Review By now, fans of Laini Taylor know what to expect: beautiful prose, strange and whimsical fantasy worlds, sympathetic monsters, and wrenching, star-crossed romance. Her latest, first in a two-book set, certainly delivers on that, and there's something quietly magical at play here. Lazlo Strange, an orphaned infant who grew up to be a librarian, has had a quiet first two decades of life. But Lazlo, reader of fairy tales, longs to learn more about a distant, nearly mythical city, called Weep after its true name was stolen. When a group of warriors from that very place come seeking help, Lazlo, never before a man of action, may actually see his dream fulfilled. Weep, though, is a city still reeling from the aftermath of a brutal war, and hidden there is a girl named Sarai and her four companions, all of whom have singular talents and devastating secrets. What follows is the careful unfolding of a plot crafted with origamilike precision. This has distinct echoes of Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone (2011), though ultimately it's a cut above even that: characters are carefully, exquisitely crafted; the writing is achingly lovely; and the world is utterly real. While a cliff-hanger ending will certainly have readers itching for book two, make no mistake is is a thing to be savored. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Taylor's long-anticipated latest arrives with a six-figure marketing plan, including a tour, promo swag, and plenty of publicity magic.

Horn Book

When the fabled city of Weep recruits the kingdom of Zosma's best minds for an undefined problem, lowly librarian Lazlo finagles a spot on the delegation. Meanwhile, "godspawn" Sarai has lived in a forified citadel over Weep ever since the gods were slaughtered for sexual violence. Taylor has spun another mesmerizing tale with captivating twists, intriguing characters, beautiful language, and baroque flourishes of the imagination.

Kirkus Reviews

A young man and woman dream amid violence's aftermath in this intense series opener.Twenty-year-old orphaned librarian Lazlo Strange, whose brutish exterior conceals his cleverness, dreams of stories of a lost city. Two hundred years ago, six merciless, magic-wielding Mesarthim landed their seraphim-shaped citadel in the legendary city, blocking its skies and cutting it off from the outside world. Fifteen years ago, the Godslayer Eril-Fane ended their reign of terror with the Carnage, and now the city is known only as Weep. Seeking to restore the skies to Weep, reluctant leader Eril-Fane recruits scientists from the world beyond Weep—and bemusedly welcomes Lazlo—to move the allegedly abandoned citadel. But the long-silent structure instead holds five surviving godspawn, gifted offspring of captured humans and cruel gods, equally traumatized by the massacre. Red-haired, blue-skinned 17-year-old Sarai is a dreamer like Lazlo but fears nightmares even as she inflicts them on the citizens below. Besides literal ghosts, Weep is also haunted by loss—lost memories, lost history, and lost half-blood children. Taylor's lengthy, mesmerizing epic offers an exotic Middle Eastern-esque world with invented words, biology, and mythology, populated by near-humans and strange creatures. The plot (endlessly dilated by dream sequences) is split between the lovers and then again among other narrators, rendered in delirious and sensuous, if repetitive, language. Weep becomes a laboratory in which Taylor examines slavery, trauma, memory, and appropriation, ending this first installment with a cliffhanger that leaves readers wondering if healing is even remotely possible. Lovers of intricate worldbuilding and feverish romance will find this enthralling. (Fantasy. 14 & up)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

In the first book of a duology, Taylor (the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy) again creates a complex and layered world of battling gods and humans. The tale begins 200 years after humans wiped out the powerful Mesarthim in a war so devastating that the city where it took place was said to have vanished and became known only as Weep. Lazlo Strange, an orphaned young librarian raised by monks, is obsessed with Weep and dreams of traveling across a dangerous desert to find it. Almost miraculously, the opportunity comes his way, and Taylor-s story takes shape in Weep itself where, unbeknownst to humans, five -godspawn--each with a special power-and the ghosts that serve them still endure, waiting to take revenge. While the pace is initially slow, momentum and tension build as love blossoms between two young people from warring factions, mysteries of identity develop, and critical events unfold in dreams, thanks to the gifts of a blue-skinned godspawn named Sarai. Gorgeously written in language simultaneously dark, lush, and enchanting, the book will leave readers eager for the next. Ages 15-up. Agent: Jane Putch, Eyebait Management. (Mar.)

Voice of Youth Advocates

Lazlo Strange is an orphan, raised by monks, and is now a librarian at the Zemonan Abbey, where he has learned all he can find about the Unseen City of Weep. His dream is to find out if the city still exists, but he never expects that dream to come true. When he is invited to join an expedition to Weep, his dream comes true. Meanwhile, in a citadel above the Unseen City, there is another dreamer, a blue-skinned girl named Sarai, who can see into the dreams of others. Sarai has four companions (not counting the ghosts), fellow godspawn, each with a unique talent. When Lazlo and his companions arrive in the city, life in the citadel is threatened. Fans of Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy will be clamoring to get their hands on this book, the first in a duology, and they will not be disappointed. They will dive into Taylor’s gorgeous prose and brilliant imagery and relish this story about dreams, love, monsters, gods, ghosts, war, and alchemy. Told from alternating points of view, this is complex but satisfying, a story about cultures meeting and clashing. The cliffhanger ending will leave readers frantic for the next installment.—Sarah Flowers.