Dreams of Gods and Monsters - Review

"Once upon a time, and angel and a devil pressed their hands to their hearts and started the apocalypse."

With chief bad guy and leader of the angel armies Jael and his seraphim army The Dominion cross into the real world (landing in The Vatican – naturally!) in search of the human weapons they need to end the war with the chimera, Elsewhere and the mortal world meet in spectacular style. Karou takes control of the chimera army, with a hope of rebuilding their shattered home world of Eretz, and Akiva rallies the Misbegotten warrior angels against their erstwhile leader, while humanity awakens to the reality of angels on earth.

Oh my poor little heart!

Dreams and Gods and Monsters is the epic and fitting conclusion to the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. And it’s damn near perfect! The only thing that ruins the book is the ending. As in the fact that it does end, and I’m now left with a huge hole in my reading life that it will take a pretty amazing series to fill.

I loved the melding of magic and reality in DoGaM. Book one was a little more magic, book two was a little more reality, whereas book three has a lovely mix of the two. Jael’s PR war to win over the humans in order to secure our weaponary is wonderfully believable! There was still plenty of the incredibly lush and gorgeous world building I’ve come to expect from Laini Taylor, so vivid and descriptive I’d swear she’d been there and is recalling it from memory. At no point do her worlds seem contrived or jarring. There's nowhere where a dues ex machina pops up to save the day that hasn't had the mythical groundwork laid out for it. The next time I read a particularly bad example of that in YA, I'll return to this series to cleanse my reading palate!

This is the book where devil and angel come together too. The uneasy alliance between the chimera and misbegotten armies as they unit against the graver threat reflects the fragile trust rebuilding between Karou and Akiva. I was so happy to see this pair together again, even if they still don’t see eye to eye for much of the story. Laini Taylor is too good a writer to let their history be swept under the rug with a kiss, but with the future of both their races in their hands, they begin to start again. Both characters are battered, bruised and irrevocably changed. Gone is the carefree and mischievious Karou, now a strong and determined leader of what is left of her people. Gone is the stoic and vengeful Akiva, now fighting against the very system which created him. Stripped of everything we knew about them in DoSaB, what remains is the hope for peace that they once dared to dream of. The character arcs in this book, and the series, have been fantastic.

But as much as I love Karou and Akiva (one of my favourite YA couplings ever), they’ve been usurped in my affections by Liraz and Ziri. Nowhere is the uneasy alliance between chimera and seraphim more obvious than with these two. Angel Liraz is probably my favourite character of the series. The ultimate badass, she was willing to kill Akiva for his relationship with a chimera, so her gradual shift in seeing past the body that chimera Ziri is in to the soul inside is utterly beautiful. Anyone who had read the books can probably guess the parts where I was in tears! It goes to show how incredibly detailed and well written all of the characters are. Every character goes through the emotional wringer in this series!

Still can’t stand Zuzanna though!

I put this book down stunned, shaken and with a huge crazy smile on my face. I’m so sad to leave this fantastic and incredible world behind, but the journey from the beginning of book one to the end of book three has been nothing short of incredible. If you think you might have even the tiniest interest in this series, I urge you to read it. I promise you will not be disappointed!