I've really enjoyed other books by Taylor, and the story line of this series is really interesting, but what spoils it for me are some of the overwrought and overly-long descriptive passages. We did this book as a read-aloud with our 15 yr old and they also rolled their eyes at the florid descriptions of passion.

Great world-building though! And m invested enough to move on to book 2! ( )

This was a very imaginative and immersive first instalment, what a start to the series!

Worldbuilding was amazing, we went all over the world with Karou, collecting teeth from pretty shady characters.
All the scenes and environments were detailed and well described. Would love to see some of them in real life!

Character development was excellent! There is a great depth to the characters, I mean, everything is done for a reason. Even if you only get to know that reason much much later.
Karou is a fun, strong young woman. Leading a double life means she has a difficult time engaging and keeping her social life, except for her best friend Zuzana.
Brimstone, Issa and the others at the shop, Akiva, Chiro,... they all felt real, they had real feelings, real pain, real history. Really well written!

Pacing and flow were good, some parts were a tad slow but didn't bring the overall mood and feeling of the story down.

The book itself was well written with no (noticeable) errors.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book and oh man, I did not expect that ending... at all! Everything that had me wondering now all makes sense. But with it, so many emotions... Needless to say, you get emotionally invested, so beware :)

Book number two is on my TBR list, and I can tell you, I won't wait so long to start it either :D

I would highly recommend this book, it's fantasy with a tad of romance to it. The romance though really does add to the story and isn't just some tacky thing either, nope, real, growing feelings. Just remember... emotionally invested ;-) ( )

Interesting but lost interest towards the end ( )

I read this in 2 days and a few hours. I loved it and couldn't put it down. now I must promptly begin number 2... ( )

This book really surprised me. I went into this not knowing much about the basic plot, but knowing one major thing. I knew who Karou really was. The plot was insane and in a way, I wish things had gone differently with Karou being Karou. But at the same time, I am happy that things went the way they did, because it allows for such a rich, complex plot.

I will definitely be reading the next book and seeing where these characters go next and how certain relationships are affected by events in this first book. ( )