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Rate: 5/5

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Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror

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Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is a love letter to art; it captures the beauty and pain of creation as only a true artist can.

“It’s a common mistake to assume that someone is weak because they are accommodating.

Overview

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, the third installment of Brandon Sanderson’s Secret Project, is utterly brilliant. I do not often feel so strongly about a book, but Sanderson has created something truly majestic here; from the first pages to the last final words, you can see his love of art seeping from the very edges and cracks. It is such a personal yet epic story that contains almost every one of his staples: great world building, inventive magic systems, and most importantly, relatable characters that feel perhaps too real. Not only did he demonstrate these aspects, he was, in some ways, able to exceed even his previous works. You have no choice but to appreciate and be awed by this book. Perhaps his best work yet.

“Art – and all stories are art, even the ones about real people – is about what it does to you.”

Plot

Yumi and Nightmare Painter introduces us to two protagonists: Yumi and Painter. Though they live in seemly separate universes, they are both artists: Yumi, in her world, is a highly respected stone artist who continues the tradition of rock stacking, and Painter is a nightmare “police” that helps people from being consumed by their own nightmares. I cannot spoil how the plot advances, but these characters start to interact and begin a friendship that eventually blooms into genuine love. Until the very end, the plot personally felt a little bit boring; the interactions were repetitive and could sometimes become boring. However, the satisfactory ending more than makes for it.

“Why do we tell stories? They are a universal human experience. Every culture I’ve ever visited, every people I’ve met, every human on every planet in every situation I’ve seen…they all tell stories.

Magic System

The magic system in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is truly unique and exceptional. The idea that you can kill nightmares by drawing them on paper is something only Sanderson could’ve thought of; in the way he writes these magic systems, you just feel the love and happiness he gets from writing these stories and giving them to us readers. 5/5

“Never let something trivial, like a sense of humor, get in the way of a good joke.”