(2) YA Vengeful Minya is holding Sarai's (Strange the Dreamer) soul in thrall. In interspersed chapters, in another world, Nova is dealing with her own trauma. By the time Nova appears in the main narrative, readers have learned how her story fits among the puzzle pieces of the plot. Taylor's prodigious imagination is on full display: marvelous world-building, suspenseful plotting, complex characterization, finely crafted prose, and grand thematic flourishes.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2018

(2) YA When the fabled city of Weep recruits the kingdom of Zosma's best minds for an undefined problem, lowly librarian Lazlo finagles a spot on the delegation. Meanwhile, "godspawn" Sarai has lived in a forified citadel over Weep ever since the gods were slaughtered for sexual violence. Taylor has spun another mesmerizing tale with captivating twists, intriguing characters, beautiful language, and baroque flourishes of the imagination.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2017

(2) YA The trilogy's concluding book (Daughter of Smoke & Bone; Days of Blood & Starlight) adds new character Eliza Jones, who suffers apocalyptic visions and proves to be the link from past to future. For all the well-made trappings of fantasy and horror, the patchwork amalgamation of myth and legend, the machinations of plot, and the colorful ensemble characters, this story remains a romance.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2014

(1) YA Karou and Akiva, torn apart by unforgivable betrayal at the end of Daughter of Smoke & Bone, are now engaged in the renewed war between the chimaera and the seraphim. The first half of the novel is full of rage and anger; the second half is dominated by surprises that ratchet up the suspense. The concluding volume of the trilogy promises to be a doozy.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2013

(1) YA Except for blue hair and an air of secrecy, art-student Karou is a seemingly normal teenager. No one knows that the figures from Karou's sketchbook--the chimaera--are her family. Taylor builds a fantasy realm with mythic creatures, human desires, and battles of biblical scale. Taut plotting moves Karou's quest briskly along while developing deeper mysteries, leaving readers both satisfied and eagerly anticipating a sequel.

Reviewer: Lauren Adams | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2011

(3) YA Faeries of Dreamdark series. Illustrated by Jim Di Bartolo. Whisper Silksinger is the last surviving member of a clan dedicated to guarding one of the sleeping Djinn, creators of the world. Magpie and Hirik, aspiring champions of the Djinn, will protect Whisper from the army of pursuing devils--if they can find her. Through Taylor's powerful storytelling, richly imagined world, and earnestly developed characters, old-fashioned winged fairies become fiercely new.

Reviewer: Amy Bennett-Zendzian

(2) YA Illustrated by Jim Di Bartolo. Kisses link these three fairy-tale-cum-horror stories, all crafted with unusual imaginative force. Female "ripeness" for seduction is a prominent theme; sexuality is a dark, dangerous urge, taking girls to the edges of terror. The shapely young women of Di Bartolo's illustrations display comics' conventions of feminine beauty, set in a realm of a sinister, shadowy atmosphere all red and gray.

Reviewer: Deirdre F. Baker | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2010

(3) 4-6 Faeries of Dreamdark series. While most faeries flit about blithely unaware of the world outside their forest, Magpie Windwitch and her rough-and-tough crow tribe hunt down rogue devils. But Magpie may not be able to protect the faeries when Blackbringer, the oldest evil of all, threatens total obliteration. Well-rounded characters fight, banter, love, live, and die in this fully imagined fantasy world.

Reviewer: Amy Lee Bennett