Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor

[usullusa]

Lips Touch Three Times is a collection of three stories about three young women, love, and the otherworldly. As the title suggests, each story is somehow hinged on a kiss.

"Goblin Fruit" is the first and shortest of the stories. One could say it's a continuation of Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market". Kizzy, the granddaughter of Lizzie, for those of you familiar with the poem, lives in modern times now. She's awkward and embarrassed by her bizarre, old-fashioned family; she's yearning to grow up and become a woman. To quote the text itself "Kizzy wanted."Which all makes her ripe for the picking for Taylor's variety of goblin. This time though, it takes a bit more than her grandmother's fruit.
I'd have to say this is my least favorite of the three. It has some beautiful parts (I had to stop myself from quoting entire paragraphs in this entry), and I love the story, but it was somehow lacking. I think it could have been longer. I would have liked the cat and mouse to go on for a bit longer. But saying that I liked this story the least of the three doesn't mean much because I think all of them are brilliant.

"Spicy Little Curses Such as These" is about the daughter of the "Political Agent" in Jaipur during the height of British colonialism. She is beautiful, kind, cultured, all the classic qualities, but she has never spoken a word in her entire life. Anamique was "cursed" at birth. Whoever hears her voice will instantly drop dead. Some believe the curse, some don't, but for all her eighteen years, Anamique has never dared test the truth of it. That is until she falls in love.
It's part remix of Orpheus and Eurydice, part entirely original. I have no idea how accurate Taylor is with her Indian mythology, but there's certainly some Indian-esque demons and supernatural things going on. The ending to this one is particularly good I thought.

"Hatchling" is the longest by far. It takes up about half the book. The story wasn't my favorite, that honor goes to "Spicy Little Curses", but the mythology and world building in "Hatchling" blows me away.
Esmé has no idea why her life with her mother is so strange. They live alone; they never go out; Esmé has never been to school; and her mother doesn't work, preferring to sell tiny diamonds kept in a salt shaker instead. That is, until one day Esmé wakes up to find one of her brown eyes has turned blue. What unfolds is the tragic history of her mother, Mab, and the Druj, the shape-shifting, immortal beings that held her captive for the first fourteen years of her life. The Druj are part elves, part fae, part spell-casters. The story is really more about the Druj and how they came to be than it is about Mab and Esmé.
"Hatchling" pushed all of my fairytale buttons in a good way. Magic in this world is all about speaking or "whispering" things into being. The Druj are so old that they have forgotten even their own history, or what it ever meant to be human. All kinds of things I like in a story.

Overall, my first reaction to this book is to flail around with glee. The language is occasionally overwrought, but it suits the fairytale-esque quality the stories have. I would have liked "Goblin Fruit" to be longer and "Hatchling" to be a bit tighter story-wise. Verdict: if you see it at the store and have some money to spare, definitely pick it up. Plus it has beautiful illustrations by Laini Taylor's husband, Jim di Bartolo. Here are a few: [click to enlarge]