Yumi and the Nightmare Painter

 Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson, 474 pages. 

Yumi was chosen by the spirits to act as a liaison between them and the people of her burning world full of floating plants. Nikaro lives in a world of shadows, lit by neon, and works painting walking nightmares to render them harmless. The two lead their own lonely lives until a supernatural force links them together, unarguably and inconveniently. The two start waking up on each other's worlds, while the other has to linger like a ghost nearby. So they have to figure out why they were bound in the first place so they can figure out what they have to do to make it stop (assuming they still want to by the time this is all over) (assuming they have a choice). 

The visuals in this book are so extremely cool. Both Yumi and Painter's worlds are cool and magical in totally different ways, and it was a real pleasure inhabiting both. I also quite liked all of the characters, who were flawed, and ridiculous, and deeply sympathetic. I will say it took a little bit of work keeping up with the plot in the second act, but I definitely didn't mind. That being said, I suspect the fact that I've read all of the other Cosmere novels probably helped me make sense of what was going on, even if this one in particular is a stand-alone. This book has a lot more Japanese influence than most of his other novels, which made for something a little bit different. Overall the story is a lot of fun with some heavy emotional gut punches mixed in (standard Sanderson) and I would definitely recommend it.