Dazzled by Books

I had conflicted feelings about reading this book. It really didn’t sound interesting to me at all. Then everyone kept raving about how this was such a great series. The description that is given for the synopsis really didn’t draw me to the story. After so many people telling me I needed to read it, I finally purchased the series.

Karou is human or she believes that she is human but she is growing up in a shop of monsters. These monsters collect teeth and gives out wishes. Karou ultimately doesn’t know what is going on with the teeth and the wishes, she just knows that this is what her life involves.

Being an orphan in a way, the only family she has are the monsters. Ultimately Karou has two lives. She has the life with her monster family and then she has her life with her best friend Zuzana. When Karou finds out that there is much more to her family that she ever thought, she is on a mission to get back to them. All she wants to do is find her family and keep them safe.

I think the flashbacks in the story helped explain things about Karou and the angel Akiva. The way that Taylor writes is so beautiful. Her descriptions of the characters are amazing. One of my favorite descriptions is when she is describing Madrigal. Here is just a small piece, “Her legs shifted at the knees from flesh to fur, the gazelle portion giving them an elegant, exaggerated length, so that when she stood to her full height she was nearly six feet, not including the horns, and an undue portion of that was leg.” That is just a small portion of what she wrote describing Madrigal. Look how gorgeous that writing is.

The plot in this story is pretty good. I feel like it kept the reader on their toes and was able to follow along throughout the whole story without getting confused at all. I think Taylor left a nice mystery to the story so that the reader was discovering things at the same pace as the main character, Karou.

I was listening to the story on audiobook along with reading a long. I think the narrator for this book did a great job. She was able to keep my attention for the entire thing. I didn’t find myself nodding off for feeling bored, so that is a really good quality. I liked the fact that the narrator changed up her voice for the different characters (this probably had a lot to do with editing also). I like when the narrator is able to keep my attention because then I feel like I could fully pay attention to the book even though someone else is reading it to me.

I think Taylor did a really good job with this book. It is fun and easy to love. The character are fantastic. I feel like Taylor leaves the reader wanting for more. I still can’t get over how beautiful her writing is. Taylor has a wonderful talent for writing. I am definitely looking forward to what she has in mind next. I will continue to read/listen to the “Daughter of Smoke and Bone” trilogy. I recently got to meet Laini Taylor and I have to say that she is awesome. I will definitely be falling her work and seeing what other things come from Laini Taylor.