Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
My rating: 4/5 cats
words fail me.
this book has left me stunned and gasping and utterly satisfied, but unable to string together the words to convey the feels.
this is such a satisfying conclusion View Spoiler » to a trilogy that owns my heart completely.
and yes, i gave this one four stars cats, not five. but that doesn’t mean i didn’t love it like crazy. it just means that it was not as good as Days of Blood & Starlight, but it’s really immaterial – this book sings.
her worldbuilding is top-notch, her plot-mapping and characterization are impeccable, her language is gorgeous, her escape hatches are perfectly plausible within the world she has created, and the obstacles she throws in the path of her would-be lovers don’t feel contrived. View Spoiler »
everything in this book feels appropriate and necessary and the tension in both love and war and the in-between is guttingly good.
the only thing keeping this from the five-star cat is – as much as i enjoyed the stelians and eliza as characters, i just think it is less satisfying to have the third book of a trilogy be wrapped up by these fashionably-late-to-the-party characters, and that angelus ex machina situation was a little disappointing, but not unfair. just a little easier than her solutions generally are.
but still – all of my love to this book and its previous two. it’s a fantasy series that has real-world relevance that transcends its genre in the smartest ways. the sacrifices and regrets and hard choices, the (mis)perceptions informed by prejudices and the impossibilities and faith and falling. the angels with baggage, “tauntaun” used as a verb, the banter between zuzana and mik, the strategic betrayals, the dirt and pit-stains of travel, the belief in chocolate cake at the end, and the bone-deep weariness of hope.
this series has weight, and it has left its mark on me.
once upon a time
