I have loved Laini Taylor’s series about chimera and angels since it first began with Daughter of Smoke and Bone. There was something immediately captivating about Karou’s bold blue hair, her mysterious friends, her immediate draw to Akiva, and the two worlds that she somehow had to navigate together.
Dreams of Gods and Monsters is the final part of the epic story that has taken Taylor years to tell. She creates a beautiful, magical world where Chimera and Angels fight for power and prestige in their world. But when the angels descend on her adopted home of Earth, Karou knows that there is nothing left to do but figure out a way to bring the chimera and misbegotten together to fight to save everyone they love now and may love in the future.
Dreams of Gods and Monsters is a complicated end to a complicated story. There are still parts that I don’t quite understand and parts that I don’t quite believe, but I will admit that I read the book quickly because I wanted to get to the end of the story. And, ah, the end. There is the ending I wanted, and the ending that made sense. The end of Karou and Akiva’s story is so perfect, but there is still so much left unsaid, undone, unresolved that I am not sure what I think of it.
These are books that require you to, without pause, believe in the power of the imagination. These are big, sweeping books with big, sweeping characters. And they’re worth every ounce of time it takes for you to read them!