Night of Cake and Puppets, by Laini Taylor

Laini Taylor wrote a novella called Night of Cake and Puppets. Best. Title. Ever. I am so stoked!

It's about Zuzana and Mik. I'm jumping up and down squealing. (For those of you not already Laini Taylor fans (and why aren't you? huh? really?), these are characters from her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. This novella takes place in the middle of the first book.)

I can download it right now. I love the internet. I'll be back.

"I am a rabid fairy. I am a carnivorous plant. I am Zuzana."

"I eat vengeance with a spoon like it's honey."

"Life doesn't need magic to be magical."


I can't quote anymore because I just want to quote the whole thing and that would be spoilery.


Aieeeeeeee! Okay. All love stories ever written are now lame and boring and passionless as blanc mange. No romance will ever, ever, ever measure up to Night of Cake and Puppets. And wow, does this woman know how to ki . . . nope, spoilers!

I think the long short story/short novella is Laini Taylor's best medium. Don't get me wrong: her novels are great. But there's all that plot and stuff to distract you from her sentences, and her sentences are exquisite. And epic action and adventure are fine, but what she's best at is moments. Pure, magical, intense, perfect moments of discovery, encounter, twist of heart. She distills the revelations we all long for into poetry of scene and dialog that leave you breathless with anticipation and delight. You didn't know the world could be like that but she creates it for you before your eyes.

I want to go to Prague, right now.

I'm going to reread the story.

"A small, whole Sacher torte, its chocolate so dark it looks black."

Mmmmm.