Take a photo of a barcode or cover
nagia 's review for:
Lips Touch: Three Times
by Laini Taylor
As a general observation, I've decided that I do not like Taylor's writing. I know you all think me crazy but it's a matter of taste and Taylor's prose has too much flourishes and lyricism for my taste. I like metaphors and I love it when the writer creates with artistry visually beautiful scenes, but in moderation otherwise it tires me and I space out. It's the story I'm interested in, that's why I'm reading a book.
Also, I feel like Taylor loves "the sound of her voice" way too much. She just goes on and on and on and on....it is so tiresome hearing her saying the same thing over and over in a million different ways! Sometimes it feels like she's caught marveling at her own creation endlessly describing and forgetting the plot. There was little dialog, and I prefer dialog to narration, and the unraveling of backstories just didn't work for me; it hindered the story because it ruined the pacing.
Taylor has a wonderful imagination and her stories are always so rich and very original and if delivered differently I'd be enthralled but I really don't like Taylor's narrative.
Now as far as [b:Lips Touch|6369113|Lips Touch Three Times|Laini Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1341175359s/6369113.jpg|6556598] is concerned I liked it much better than [b:Daughter of Smoke & Bone|13528340|Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1)|Laini Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1338060846s/13528340.jpg|13355552], though I wouldn't count it amongst my favorite books. It's a series of dark, twisted and imaginative fairy tales that wetted my appetite but failed to saturate.
Kizzy's story:
Summarily: Our desires define us; what we yearn for and what we're willing to sacrifice for it.
I can relate to Kizzy's need to conform, to be like any other kid, to be what is generally perceived as beautiful. There isn't a teenage girl that can't relate, the need to be beautiful, to be wanted...I've felt that too, I used to be that awkward teen with the voluptuous body, she thought of as fat and hid under oversized tracksuits, with the owlish glasses and the unruly hair.
But Taylor is just too out there for me. The very first conversation Jack & Kizzy have includes the following phrase:
Not to mention that the weird girl nails the hottest guy alive is old! I know looks are the one think everyone focuses on at sixteen but the first time I fell in love it was to a funny guy with a lot of charisma who made my laugh, not the hottie I thought I wanted.
Estella's story:
Estella's, or Anamique's, story appealed to me more than Kizzy's. At times it bored & irked me, Taylor would halt the narration right as we'd reached a crescendo to give backstory, but it had this timeless quality of a dark fairytale. I kept imagining the whole thing as an opera, the Demon, the descent to hell, Estella, James...maybe it's because of the whole 'the girl with the angelic voice cursed to kill anyone who hear it' but I kept drawing comparison to "The Phantom of the Opera" and I A.D.O.R.E. that opera! I'd pay just to see Anamique signing while walking through the flames of Hellfire!
Estella's story was also heartbreaking. The fate of someone who cannot break free of the past, charged to silently bare the weight of the world, hated all the while. She was a tragic hero.
That being said I was kinda put out by the whole 'choose who deserves to live or die' thing. Yeah, it might sound like a no brainer if you have to choose between the life of an innocent child and that of a slaver but life if more complicated than that and death though not always fair it is always unbribable and the force that maintains a balance in the world. The whole thing was oversimplified I felt
The last story:
Of all three I felt that that was the darkest and most twisted and, oddly enough, my favorite. Yes, it still got too melodramatic and wordy for my taste but there was something raw and passionate about it and if I'm being honest what raised the rating to 3 stars instead of 2.
Also, I feel like Taylor loves "the sound of her voice" way too much. She just goes on and on and on and on....it is so tiresome hearing her saying the same thing over and over in a million different ways! Sometimes it feels like she's caught marveling at her own creation endlessly describing and forgetting the plot. There was little dialog, and I prefer dialog to narration, and the unraveling of backstories just didn't work for me; it hindered the story because it ruined the pacing.
Taylor has a wonderful imagination and her stories are always so rich and very original and if delivered differently I'd be enthralled but I really don't like Taylor's narrative.
Now as far as [b:Lips Touch|6369113|Lips Touch Three Times|Laini Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1341175359s/6369113.jpg|6556598] is concerned I liked it much better than [b:Daughter of Smoke & Bone|13528340|Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #1)|Laini Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1338060846s/13528340.jpg|13355552], though I wouldn't count it amongst my favorite books. It's a series of dark, twisted and imaginative fairy tales that wetted my appetite but failed to saturate.
Kizzy's story:
Summarily: Our desires define us; what we yearn for and what we're willing to sacrifice for it.
I can relate to Kizzy's need to conform, to be like any other kid, to be what is generally perceived as beautiful. There isn't a teenage girl that can't relate, the need to be beautiful, to be wanted...I've felt that too, I used to be that awkward teen with the voluptuous body, she thought of as fat and hid under oversized tracksuits, with the owlish glasses and the unruly hair.
But Taylor is just too out there for me. The very first conversation Jack & Kizzy have includes the following phrase:
[...]"Really. You should quit. Cigarettes make people taste ... yellow." [...] "So how do nonsmokers taste?" she asked, trying to appear unruffled. "Like licorice," said Jack Husk [...]For real? That's flirting? And then they have a breakfast picnic at a cemetery!!! Maybe I'd do that with family while visiting a relative's grave but for a first date with a stranger in a cemetery where I have no relatives? That's just cuckoo!
Not to mention that the weird girl nails the hottest guy alive is old! I know looks are the one think everyone focuses on at sixteen but the first time I fell in love it was to a funny guy with a lot of charisma who made my laugh, not the hottie I thought I wanted.
Estella's story:
Estella's, or Anamique's, story appealed to me more than Kizzy's. At times it bored & irked me, Taylor would halt the narration right as we'd reached a crescendo to give backstory, but it had this timeless quality of a dark fairytale. I kept imagining the whole thing as an opera, the Demon, the descent to hell, Estella, James...maybe it's because of the whole 'the girl with the angelic voice cursed to kill anyone who hear it' but I kept drawing comparison to "The Phantom of the Opera" and I A.D.O.R.E. that opera! I'd pay just to see Anamique signing while walking through the flames of Hellfire!
Estella's story was also heartbreaking. The fate of someone who cannot break free of the past, charged to silently bare the weight of the world, hated all the while. She was a tragic hero.
That being said I was kinda put out by the whole 'choose who deserves to live or die' thing. Yeah, it might sound like a no brainer if you have to choose between the life of an innocent child and that of a slaver but life if more complicated than that and death though not always fair it is always unbribable and the force that maintains a balance in the world. The whole thing was oversimplified I felt
The last story:
Of all three I felt that that was the darkest and most twisted and, oddly enough, my favorite. Yes, it still got too melodramatic and wordy for my taste but there was something raw and passionate about it and if I'm being honest what raised the rating to 3 stars instead of 2.