Reviews with content warning for Death - Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor

20 reviews

shoni's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It's been so long since I've read a series and been so invested and taken away by it. I've been sitting here not ready to let this world go and just accept that it's over. Laini created such a beautiful world and I love how there is even a logical explanation for the portal and how everything came to be. Honestly, the ending left nothing unanswered and was wrapped up nicely. But also having it show that this isn't the end for the characters, in their life they just finished a chapter and the next one is now beginning. Which just makes me so happy and at the same time want more.

I love how every book we get more POV introduced. Eliza's POV did bother me at first because I wanted to know more about Karou, Akiva, Zuzana, Mik, and Ziri but she did grow on me and I love how her character was introduced and used looking back. It was such a smart choice!

especially how the godspend got introduced and brought full circle it was just done so nicely. AND THE END WHEN THE MAIN CREW WERE ESENTIALLY THE CHOSEN GODSEND UGH THAT WAS JUST BEAUTIFUL!

The ending just made me so happy but also I wish we got more.

I wanted to know where Karou and the chimera's set up camp, I wanted to know how Akiva without knowing fixed the rip, AND I JUST WANT MORE

My favorite will be the way that with the multiple POV we always just continued where the other POV left off with just someone else's. We never had to go through a repeat fully, and even if we took a few steps back to understand how such a scene came to be it was done in such a way that it seemed like a natural thought process and not rushed. I also just love Laini's work building which makes it feel so real and easy to visualize that I just want it to exist and be able to go visit. Because who does not want to be able to see such amazing beings. Like I'm just in awe.

And I said it from the beginning. Zuzana and Mik are amazing and iconic and they are honorary samurai and I love how at the end they played such an important part. And most importantly where Karou's family that she didn't lose. that she got to choose to be here and experience it all with her. Do I still want more to know about the dull but not so dull life of all the characters? Especially Ziri, yes! But sadly no more to be given. But I'm happy I could experience a world and characters that felt so real and so amazing that I want to be friends with them.

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epsyphus's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

Strong finish for the series; the mixing of the fantasy and the real world was well done I thought.

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martamae77's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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piperclover's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

I absolutely loved the political aspect of this book and how it wound this fantasy world into real world and how we saw the the implications of this. I really enjoyed new character and seeing different pieces of the story with new perspectives. I would give this 5 stars if at least 20, if not more, pages were cut because it started to really drag in the last 65 pages or so. A lot of the pages that could have been cut were overly wordy semi-poetic descriptions and unnecessary semi-poetic lamenting/pining (she tried to be really ornate and poetic but it came across as trying way too hard and being so confusing). There was a new plot line about an event that occurred hundreds of years ago that was really poorly described and I still don't really understand it. The explanation was given over way too many chapters that were broken up by other story lines and along with the overly wordy semi-poetic description, I found it nearly impossible to follow.

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grilledcheesd's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

i fucking love this series so much. i'd love to give a more detailed review but i listened to the audiobook and didn't make a single note. i stand by what i said initially - this book had me gripped in suspense.
i guess my only note is that the audiobook narrator changed how they pronounced some things over the course of the series, sometimes flopping back and forth (i noticed it most with liraz, as the emphasis switched between syllables quite a bit).
okay but i just googled the characters names to see how to spell liraz and honestly i get it now. the spellings are wild compared to how they sound lmfao.
original review:
oh my gOD LAINI TAYLOR RIPPED MY HEART OUT SO MANY TIMES. i was on the edge of my seat for most of the book and i loved it i loved it i loved it. i can't even form a more coherent review right now

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strange's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I can’t say I disliked this book overall, but I found it to be a bit of a disappointing conclusion

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

2023: 3.75

Whelp, my below review is so sweet and innocent 😅 I felt that the introduction of lore and world building came too late in a series and should have been spread out more throughout the novel, even if just odd tidbits that would make sense at the end of the series. I would love to see more of this world/the strange the dreamer world because I do think it's an interesting idea and Taylor is a good writer.

2017: 5 stars
Oh that was so precious 😍😭 such a perfect perfect ending holy moly, my babies were together and Ertz is healing and it's perfect
It took me forever to get through the first half of the book just because I didn't want the story to end 😂 I really enjoyed the plot and all the mini plots in it
The story didn't end like a happily ever after, but a honest way of post war and rebuilding a world
As always, the writing style was perfect
This definitely one of my favourite series now ♥️

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lililoves's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The final instalment to Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone series is almost the bridge between the first and second book, taking place in both our world and Eretz. What I loved most about this book is seeing how humans would react to angels appearing in the sky one day (yes, there is a lot of chaos). I also loved learning more about the lore, although as a physicist I struggled to put aside some of my quantum physics knowledge to accept the combined history of Eretz and Earth. In saying that, I liked the combination of fantasy and sci-fi, and I wish it was done more.
I think why I gave this book less stars than the other books is that I felt it could have possibly ended 100 pages earlier than it did. I think the last 100 pages were needed but they almost felt seperate to the rest of the story. I enjoyed them, I just didn't enjoy that they were kinda tacked onto the end...
The ending itself though was beautiful and left me wanting more (looking at you Laini...). I encourage everyone to read the afterward of this series because I think it helped me understand the ending better and why Taylor chose to end the series like she did.

Overall, one of the best YA series I've read in a long time! I would recommend this to anyone that is a fan of SJM or VE Schwab.

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ashlightgrayson's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

I never felt very invested in the relationship between Akiva and Karou in previous books, but I think I finally started to like the idea of them together in this last book. This installment had a further exploration of the lore which added to the world-building. We were introduced to new characters that were important and relevant to the ongoing war between chimera and seraphs. I appreciated that the consequences matched the stakes in the war. No one really left the war completely unscathed, yet the ending was still hopeful. This was probably the best book in the series, which usually isn't how I feel about trilogies. I'm looking forward to reading more books by Laini Taylor. She has great prose and world-building which was really what kept me interested in this series. A solid conclusion.

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bringmybooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Original Read: 2015, Re-Read: July 2023
Original Rating 4 ★ , Re-Read Rating 5 ★

✨ 𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗚 ✨ B̷O̷R̷R̷O̷W̷ B̷Y̷P̷A̷S̷S̷

OKAY BUT COME ON HOW IS THIS SO GOOD

(I have minor squabbles re: the ending because I feel like it left a couple of things open ended and I mean it’s fine for them to be open ended because you basically know what’s happening but also I wanted more?? And yeah I know the book was already 600+ pages but I would have read 100 more and that’s the truth)

ALSO LIRAZ’S CHARACTER ARC IS UNPARALLED GENIUS

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