Classic Brandon Sanderson, always love his work and the secret projects have been amazing. All so original and perfect. Well I loved this one, Tress will always have a very special place in my heart.

5 stars!

The narrator is SO witty, I loved this so much. If you are new to Sanderson and haven’t read any books part of the Cosmere, not to worry because you can dive into this one with no problems in my opinion.

The delivery and flow of this story was flawless; the world building so intricate and wonderful. The two main characters, Yumi the Chosen who administers holy duties, and Nikaro the city-protecting Nightmare painter, were wonderful to read about. There’s so much in this book to love: the romance elements and how organically it’s written on the page, the friendships, ghosts and spirits, space exploration, I could go on and on!

I recommend this to readers who want to experience a well-written, captivating story with many charming romantic elements to it!

In Brandon Sanderson's universe, "Yumi and the Nightmare Painter" is a body-swap romantic fantasy with Asian influences that takes place on a new world. Although nightmares come true in Painter's dystopian, technologically sophisticated world, they can be banished with the right brushstrokes. Yumi is a spirit talker who lives in a hot, sunny place. She uses the skill of stone stacking to call spirits to ask for favours. Their universes are in danger of colliding, so they must learn from one another in order to survive.

According to Hoid, this is a stand-alone narrative. Despite the fact that this book is heavily aware of Cosmere (as most readers are supposed to be), I believe you may still enjoy the reading experience even if you want to read it independently (the allusions will just pass by). Among his Cosmere books, this is both Brandon Sanderson's most romantic and unique work. Furthermore, this is the third Secret Project, and it features my favourite artwork to yet.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. A great inclusion in the quad books by Sanderson. A man who doesn't know his own worth and a girl with more power than she realizes.

So I'm new to this author however this series had made me go and purchase all of his books it was such an amazing read I loved it.

I had difficulty finishing this book. The story and characters failed to hook me in the beginning and it felt much more like a romance teen novel than Sanderson’s fantasy novels. I would not recommend this to a patron who reads little, as it would probably fail to keep a patrons attention. I’d recommend this mostly to older teen patrons who like fantasy romance.

A great book for those that love Brandon Sanderson. Incredibly creative and engaging, and will be recommending to others.

I struggled to get into Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, but it was worth persisting. Readers are introduced to 2 very different world environments, and to leads who appear almost opposites on the surface, but who have core similarities.

Reclusive Painter patrols dark, shrouded streets, watching for nightmares that attack and hurt sleepers - his drawings eliminate them.

Isolated Yumi has each hour of every day strictly regulated and controlled. Her art summons spirits that provide vital energy to the villages she visits.

When they are forced to live each others' lives, everything changes.

Brandon Sanderson has quite a big back-list. Out of all these books I have read the first three books in the Stormlight Archive series and his standalone debut, Elantris. My favorite, without a doubt, is Elantris. There is just something about a good standalone fantasy that I love. When I saw the cover and synopsis for Yumi and the Nightmare Painter I was immediately intrigued. A standalone fantasy with Japanese and Korean inspirations? Yes, please! I also heard that it had the most romance out of all of Sanderson's books, and that he had written it for his wife, which I thought was sweet. I actually love the romantic relationships in the books I've read by him, my only wish being that there was more. So, all in all, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter sounded like the perfect book for me!

As usual, Brandon has created a unique and vastly interesting world. Yumi and the Nightmare's world are both very different from each other, but equally fascinating. The writing style and the choice to use Hoid as a narrator for the story was interesting, not something I expected. However, after my initial surprise I started to enjoy Hoid's sense of humour and way of narrating.

I loved the main two characters Yumi and the Nightmare, they both had distinct and memorable personalities. The development of their relationship was so sweet. I think Sanderson nailed the romance, creating a slow and realistic build up.

I've already bought myself a physical copy of this book, as I know I will be re-reading it in the future. Whether you're a Sanderson newbie or a longstanding fan, I think you'll enjoy Yumi and the Nightmare Painter.

Yumi is is a girl who can summon spirits. Nikaro is a nightmare painter. Both of their jobs are so important and necessary in their worlds and both of them are so burnt out. Somehow through a twist of fate, these two "freaky Friday" and must figure out how to navigate each other's worlds, solve each other's problems, and potentially even solve their own.

The worldbuilding is classic Sanderson, with deftly constructed magic systems and well-kept mysteries that captivate readers. This novel has strong Asian elements that are depicted in two different ways: Yumi's traditional rural world and Painter's cosmopolitan metropolis setting.

To absolutely no surprise, Sanderson excels at crafting a unique and intriguing world.

The characters were endearing despite their flaws. I adore the path they took and their destination. The book's topics, which include romanticizing everyday life, defining what constitutes art, and making decisions in life, were also quite appealing to me. The worlds were entirely unlike from anything I had ever read before, in my opinion, and the conclusion was flawless.

Everything about Yumi and the Nightmare Painter click with me. The mystery was intriguing, the characters were lovable, the world-building was intricate, and the writing was compelling.

Thank you kindly for approving my request.

I have the biggest grin on my face from this book. The voice took some getting used to (to be honest, I felt like this is probably how it would feel listening to Brandon Sanderson tell a story, which makes sense).

I loved the emotions, the redemption and character arcs, the twists and turns, the beautiful romance. The characters were thought and and just lovely.

I think this book has parts that could be confusing for those unfamiliar with the Cosmere, but I absolutely loved all the callbacks to previous books.

This book felt like The Rithmatist in some ways and Gossamer by Lois Lowry in other parts. It gave me heavy Just Like Heaven and K-drama vibes as well.

I absolutely love Yumi and Painter's relationship and how it progresses. They are just so stinkin' cute!!!! I love that they found each other and don't have to be alone anymore.

Truthfully, this love story rivals the romantic subplot of Warbreaker, which has been my long standing Brando Sando favorite. Just an absolutely beautiful couple.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy of this book. It honestly and truly made my day when I saw that my NetGalley request had been accepted. The thoughts and opinions contained in this review are my own.

The four stars are for the scattering of info dumping (Sorry Hoid!). It just felt a little low bar for a Sanderson book, but that said, he wrote it for himself and for his wife, especially, so it makes sense that he would leave his normally more rigid plot structure in favor of trying something different.

4.5

Brandon Sanderson has such a talent for unique worldbuilding, and this is very clearly no exception. Like, the nightmare painters, are you kidding me!? What a cool idea. I would never in a million years come up with an idea like that. Also just everything about Hoid. Who even is that guy.

My only criticism is that it felt a bit too long and I did sometimes struggle to pick it up, but that's personal and minor. I love the contrast between Painter and Yumi's worlds, and the contrasts in how they relate to both their own and each others' worlds. Painter is so relatable - who among us hasn't self-sabotaged a relationship for no reason? I get it, dude. Both Painter and Yumi are fun to follow along with because they feel real; they're both highly capable and completely useless at the same time.

Also, the slow build transplanetary romance just really gets me.

Though Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is not one of my usual genres, Sanderson's writing style is highly accessible. I enjoyed this much more than I thought I would! 4 Stars.

Thank you netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book (although I am a little late for giving feedback). I am a a huge fun of Brandon Sanderson so I had high expectations and this book did not dissapoint. This is the first book of the secret projects I have read and I am astounded of how amazing a writer, Brandon sanderson is! YATNM contained a unique and magical world alongside interesting characters. I really enjoyed this one!

Thank you Netgalley and Publisher for this advanced copy.

Yumi and The Nightmare Painter was the best book from secret project so far. It was so good and had different vibes from previous cosmere novels. Fresh and Entertaining.

Sanderson just amazes with this eclectic tale. The characters felt so tangible and the world building was totally another level.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter had a very promising setup but failed to capture my attention until the last 20% of the book.

To absolutely no surprise, Sanderson excels at crafting a unique and intriguing world. I was particularly fascinated by the idea of nightmare painters and a world of constant darkness. Unfortunately, it never felt like the story was focusing on the parts that I found most interesting. The reveals at the end both explain and make up for a lot of the details I was missing in earlier parts of the book. But I struggled to stay engaged and frequently considered not finishing the book.

Though the concepts in Yumi and the Nightmare Painter are very cool, the actual story lacks substance. Sanderson explores a lot of interesting themes about art and identity, however, these are delivered in very heavy-handed comments from the narrator. Most of the book involved incredibly repetitive scenes that Hoid told the reader should have depth, emotion, and character growth. But I never felt any of that from the story itself, likely because I was so frustrated with the main characters.

In the absence of a high-stakes plot, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter falls onto its characters and thematic messaging. Unfortunately, I found the characters shallow and annoying which left me incredibly bored for most of the book. Many of the character interactions and conflicts felt unrealistic or lacked enough context to make them compelling. My dislike for the main characters feels a bit unfair because they are both products of their situations. Their immaturity and naivety are understandable, but incredibly annoying to read. The story was clearly biased towards Yumi which was disappointing as I was far more intrigued by Painter. I was also frustrated with how unfair Yumi acted towards Painter—bulldozing through his life while throwing a tantrum if he questioned anything she told him to do in her world. I have seen other reviews describe this as a more romance-heavy fantasy story, but I really did not feel any romantic tension between Yumi and Painter.

I have a lot of mixed feelings when it comes to the choice of narrator for this story. Though I am a relative newbie to Sanderson’s Cosmere I am somewhat familiar with Hoid and the role he plays in Sanderson’s books. I am always a fan of unique narrative styles and I was initially very intrigued by Hoid’s relatively omniscient, quirky narration. Unfortunately, I feel like this snarky, fun narrative voice actually hindered the story in some ways. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter covered some heavier, more serious topics but the quirky commentary often felt like it clashed with the tone that the book was trying to create. The story is frequently interrupted by heavy-handed sermons on the nature of art that felt like thinly veiled, uncreative author self-inserts. My last straw with this style of narration was when Hoid had to info-dump the reveals about the world because there was no way to naturally work the explanations into the story.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is an intriguing contemplation of the nature of art and the role of artists in society. Unfortunately, I spent most of the book bored or annoyed and was ultimately left underwhelmed.

I give this book 5 stars. This is one of the best books that I’ve read this year. I immediately fell in love with it and I highly recommend that everybody reads this. This book is about a girl named Yumi who finds herself tied together with a boy named Painter and they have to go on a whole journey together to figure out what they need to do in order to go back to normal, while helping each other learn who they each are as a person along the way. The reason why I give this book 5 stars is because I didn’t know what to expect going into this book, but the concept really drew me in from the start and I couldn’t put it down once I started reading. I felt like it was super unique because I never read anything before where the two characters are attached in the way that they are attached and the whole journey of them trying to figure out why they are attached, while also trying to save the world was also very interesting. I also was rooting for them romantically because in this book, the author did include what I described as a romantic subplot, that drew me in and I needed to know if they ended up together or not. The character development of Yumi and Painter is also very well written, well thought out, and they did a really good job of figuring out who they each were separately as a person, while also helping each other figure out who they were. There was some mind blowing plot twists that reminded me of the movie Inception or some other science fiction thing where everything in the world is not as it seems and it makes you wonder if it’s an illusion or a simulation. With Painter’s world being more technologically advanced/futuristic and Yumi’s world being very classic, traditional, and more old world, I felt like the juxtaposition of both of those was very well done. The way that they intermingled it was very interesting to read. It also was a good enough book that even though I read the ARC as an ebook, when it released in stores I went out and bought my own copy, so I highly recommend that you get this book! The physical book has beautiful art in it and the story is so good that you will not be disappointed.

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was overall a fun time. From the beginning, the book was shrouded in a bit of mystery as it is evident that the book has a very different narrative voice than Brandon's usual writing. Am I supposed to keep this review spoiler-free? Not sure if I am, so I'll just go ahead and give a spoiler warning.

Minor spoilers!

It's Hoid. I don't think it's much of a spoiler as most fans probably looked it up beforehand, but as for me, I came into this book knowing absolutely nothing. I wanted to be surprised. All I knew was the title and the fact that it was one of Brandon's secret projects.

The concept of the story was really nice and allowed for exploration of so many themes. Nikaro, who paints nightmares into harmless things to dispel them, and Yumi, a spiritual rock stacker, have crazy body swap shenanigans. I liked the discussions of what constitutes art, which I find is a common theme in Sanderson's works, and dreams vs realities and tradition vs technological advancement. This was done so well with the dynamic between Painter and Yumi. I love Yumi. We must protect her at all costs. I don't know if she needs protecting actually. She seems pretty powerful. Too powerful 👀 I need to know more about how Yumi became so powerful. The mystery around how Yumi and Painter were connected had my brain firing off in so many different directions. As I've read quite a few Cosmere books, I had a good idea of how their magic could work. It's giving Lightweaving, it's giving Midnight Essence.

The giant paint brushes and nightmares reminded me of anime. You could see how East Asian inspired this book was. I can't comment on how accurately these cultures were portrayed. It did seem like a mixture of many different Asian cultures. There were Japanese and Korean names. The settings left like modern and ancient Japan. I definitely think this gave the book the most real-world feel out of all of Sanderson's Cosmere novels I've read. I didn't feel like I was being transported into a completely different universe like I did with Stormlight. It felt more like a contemporary urban fantasy + Yumi's world.

The writing was exciting in the beginning. As I said, the narrative voice felt different from Brandon's usual writing style. Hoid has a way of capturing your full attention. I was fascinated by theorising on who Hoid was telling this story to. It was clearly someone on Roshar, but I’m intrigued to find out who needed to hear this story. As the book went on, Hoid's voice seemed to disappear and we went back to normal Brandon writing. His style is somewhat invisible, so I was consuming the story without noticing the words. Then suddenly Hoid would do a little quip to remind us that he's narrating. I wish it was a little more consistent.

Yumi's turmoil after finding out that all these rules that she was following for her religion were pointless was great! She had to deconstruct her faith in the middle of her role as a yoki-hijo coming into question. I loved it. Everything she knew about the world came crumbling down, but she still managed to pick herself back up. For anyone one who has deconstructed their religion, the panic was oh too real. The final act, as expected, came together really nicely. THE OUTFIT CHANGE?! I love a good outfit change ready for battle, not gonna lie.

I know everyone and their mama is writing allegories for AI, but the machine was a really nice allegory for AI. It can't take over from the real skill, passion, and originality that humans bring. On Painter's end, his burnout was very relatable. Not being inspired and going for the simple things you know you're good at is too real. It's a useful trick. Usually, that helps you keep creating art even when you're feeling uninspired. I didn't like how much of a liar he was though. His lies actually affected a lot of people, and I know he felt bad, but the spiral of lies is one of my least favorite tropes. It actively annoys me when people can't tell the truth, and it ends up getting them in more trouble.

The gang of friends were great if a little one-dimensional. But they sure were memorable. I just wish there was a bit more time to flesh them out. Akane 😍 aka the love of my life. Was I the only one who shipped her with Yumi for a second? Yumi's first thoughts upon seeing Akane were straight up GAY. In all seriousness, I like that Yumi and Akane were immediately friends. Akane adopted Yumi like she was her little sister. It's rare to find female friendships depicted so well in fantasy. I just love seeing girls supporting girls.

It's hard to place this story amongst all the Cosmere books I've read. I enjoyed it, but it didn't hit that hard. I'm still excited to hopefully meet Yumi and Painter again. There is still so much to find out about their worlds and their neighbors.

I'm so pleased to have received this arc. It is one of my most anticipated reads of the year and did not disappoint.