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A review by weisstars
Dreams of Gods & Monsters by Laini Taylor
1.0
after loving the first book, i noticed a decline from book 2 into book 3. book 2 was still tolerable enough to get through, but i think book 3 just did not get proper editing and revisions to help support the story that it was trying to tell.
the war aspects became incredibly boring, and unfortunately, took a centerpoint in this sequel. i felt that it became stretched too thin: there was suddenly a whole bunch of new characters and plot lines, but not in a good way. since this is the final book in the trilogy, this is not the time to suddenly make these introductions, especially with such little payoff. from page one, we get the introduction of eliza, and this already was a red flag to me. but as i kept reading, i quickly realized that everything that i loved about book 1 had become buried and lost in a sea of ambitious writing that ultimately fails.
i think book 1 will always be special. but this book completely takes what was so magical and beautiful about karou's story and begins to make it too complicated. complication, on it's own, is not a flaw nor error of a book: for example, a game of thrones is an incredibly complicated book in it's own way, and yet this only serves the book quite well due to the author's execution of it. but in dreams of gods & monsters, this only hinders the book. it stopped being about karou and akiva, and became about the gods and monsters of that world. i understand that premise, and it can be interesting, but it was not grounded in any way. it made it all feel way too abstract and detached from anything emotional and meaningful.
i also found that switching povs so much was very distracting. i hated it in book 2, and in book 3, i absolutely loathe it. i just feel like we're missing so much interesting detail.
it's fine. i still love book 1. that one will always be special. but i'm afraid book 2 and 3 were wasted potential.
the war aspects became incredibly boring, and unfortunately, took a centerpoint in this sequel. i felt that it became stretched too thin: there was suddenly a whole bunch of new characters and plot lines, but not in a good way. since this is the final book in the trilogy, this is not the time to suddenly make these introductions, especially with such little payoff. from page one, we get the introduction of eliza, and this already was a red flag to me. but as i kept reading, i quickly realized that everything that i loved about book 1 had become buried and lost in a sea of ambitious writing that ultimately fails.
i think book 1 will always be special. but this book completely takes what was so magical and beautiful about karou's story and begins to make it too complicated. complication, on it's own, is not a flaw nor error of a book: for example, a game of thrones is an incredibly complicated book in it's own way, and yet this only serves the book quite well due to the author's execution of it. but in dreams of gods & monsters, this only hinders the book. it stopped being about karou and akiva, and became about the gods and monsters of that world. i understand that premise, and it can be interesting, but it was not grounded in any way. it made it all feel way too abstract and detached from anything emotional and meaningful.
i also found that switching povs so much was very distracting. i hated it in book 2, and in book 3, i absolutely loathe it. i just feel like we're missing so much interesting detail.
it's fine. i still love book 1. that one will always be special. but i'm afraid book 2 and 3 were wasted potential.