The Ninja Reader

We need more books like this. That is the simple truth.Now, I know what you're thinking. Supernatural love? Kisses? If you're like me, then those words immediately summon up painful visions of sparky vampires and stalking and many, many painful hours spent in an attempt to find something redeamable about a book that is impossible to read. I'm calling this right now: "Lips Touch Three Times" may not be as popular as "Twilight", but it can bury it six feet under with the sheer beauty of its stories. Just putting them in the same sentance seems sacrilegious, so let me explain just why I think so:The writing: If I was using Stephen King's idea of the writer's hieriarchy, I'd put Laini Taylor among the really good ones. Oh, I can get all fangirly and help her get to the Shakespears, Faulkners and the rest of the ones on top of the pyramid, but for better or for worse, there can only be so many giants, and I prefer the magicians with words that stand underneath them. The prose is light, yet sophisticated, and irrevocably engaging. From first to last, it grabs you and doesn't let you go until the very end. And unlike some other books, it doesn't simply hypnotise you - it forces you at the edge of your seat, staring at the page (or screen), unblinking, and transports you to places where the air tingles with myth and magic. And speaking of myth...The stories are incredible. The characters are so multi-layered and intricate that they make me think of painted-glass windows - you can stare at them all day and always find something new. There is no right and wrong - in fact, most of the time, they do things which no self-respecting Mary-Sue would do, but when you finish reading the story, you find that you didn't want them to do the right thing, simply because you know what it's like to want something so badly you're willing to sell your soul for it.But I digress.The mythologis which Laini Taylor uses as base for her stories are solid and interesting, just like the stories themselves. They made me want to seek out a copy of the original Brothers Grimm fairy tales and just submerge myself into them - I missed those lovely times when I was eight and could barely read and actually could fall in love with the stories.Really, there are too many reasons why this book is so wonderful and I won't sit here and count them all down, but there is one more point I want to make: Lips Touch Three Times can definitely tells us something about love, kissing and just plain wanting. A critic whose opinion I value a lot said, while beating "Fallen" mercilessly to the ground, that stories don't exist for the sake of it, that they need to tell us something. Lips Touch Three Times can definitely teach us a thing or two - not especially about love, but maybe about wanting. About doing something reckless in spite of knowing better, and loving it. About your relationship with the world and how nothing you ever do goes without consequences.Five stars is too little for it.