Looking for the Panacea: Flailage: Dreams of Gods and Monsters by Laini Taylor

Title: Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #3)
Author: Laini Taylor
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy
Release Date: 8 April, 2014 (US); 17 April, 2014 (UK)
Goodreads | The Reading Room

By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her, if there can even be a future for the chimaera in war-ravaged Eretz.

Common enemy, common cause.

When Jael's brutal seraph army trespasses into the human world, the unthinkable becomes essential, and Karou and Akiva must ally their enemy armies against the threat. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people.

And, perhaps, for themselves. Toward a new way of living, and maybe even love.

But there are bigger threats than Jael in the offing. A vicious queen is hunting Akiva, and, in the skies of Eretz ... something is happening. Massive stains are spreading like bruises from horizon to horizon; the great winged stormhunters are gathering as if summoned, ceaselessly circling, and a deep sense of wrong pervades the world.

What power can bruise the sky?

From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

At the very barriers of space and time, what do gods and monsters dream of? And does anything else matter?

Review by Nara

So, I had thought that this book was going to be released on the 17th of April (here in Australia), so when I went into the bookstore on the 26th of March with no intention of actually buying a book and saw Dreams of Gods and Monsters sitting there on the New Releases shelf, my reaction was something like this:

There was NO way I was leaving the store without grabbing me a copy of this beauty. So, after getting home and completely disregarding the fact that I should probably prepare for my uni classes the next day, I started reading Dreams of Gods and Monsters.

AND ERMAHGERD ULTIMATE FLAILAGE FOR THIS BOOK.
My God, I had forgotten how beautiful Laini Taylor's writing is. It's just so lyrical. And so magical. And her characters, her dialogue, her world building, her actual plot, THERE IS NOTHING BAD ABOUT THIS BOOK. Quite literally, I would not be able to tell you a single flaw in this book. Except for maybe the fact that it's the conclusion to this epic trilogy. Such a tragedy. Laini better be writing some more books in the future, or I might go into withdrawal.

ZIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII <3
My love for his character knows no bounds. How does one accurately describe Ziri? He's just so sweet and intelligent and kind and selfless and *swoons*. He gets his own love interest in this book and MY GOD I SHIP IT. I SHIP IT HARD. Unfortunately, things don't go quite as well for him as I would have liked and at several points in the book this was me:

So much awesome in this book. We find out a lot more about Akiva and the Stelians, and what exactly his magic is. We get our revenge on the villains from previous books. We FINALLY get Akiva and Karou together again (not even going to class this as a spoiler. There'd be so much more rage if these two didn't end up together). And of course I must mention Zuze and Mik. Gosh, I love those two. The three tasks may or may not be completed in this book ;)

And how could I forget the title? People. Let us have a minute's silence to appreciate the complete and utter beauty of that title.
...
......
.........
Dreams of Gods and Monsters. DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS.
Let us extrapolate from the title:
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
=Dreams of Angels and Demons
=Dreams of Akiva and Karou
=GIVE ME MY FREAKING HAPPY ENDING

Basically, this book is a masterpiece. Do me and yourself a favour, and grab a copy when it comes out? Kthxbye.

Oh yeah, and here's the obligatory flailage gif: