Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Review

Author: Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown Books

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

Summary: Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious “errands”, she speaks many languages – not all of them human – and her bright blue hairactually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself. (Via Goodreads)

Review

From other reviews I’ve read about Daughter and Smoke and Bone I gathered that it was a book that divided people. Some people loved it, some people hated it so even though I bought it two months ago it took a bit of time for me to pick it up and start reading. When I did eventually start I became slightly worried that I was going to fall into the category of people who did not enjoy Karou’s story but boy was I wrong!

I’ll admit it did take me some time to get into this book. At first the premise, chimera, was difficult for me to grasp and I couldn’t quite envision it so it was hard for me to really settle into Karou’s world but after fifty or so pages I was well and truly hooked. I adored this book and I am already itching for the sequel!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is epic. It is beautifully written, Taylor’s prose is stunning, it really bring the characters and even the cities, especially Prague and Marrakech, to life. Her dialogue is witty and snappy and at times gloriously funny.

Life is too short to be wasted on inessential penises. – Brimstone

The relationships and the interactions between the characters are terrific – I especially loved the friendship between Karou and Zuzana and the mentor/ guardian relationship between Brimstone and Karou and how that unfolded and progressed. It was terrific and very touching and somewhat heartbreaking. One of my pet peeves did raise it’s head in the form of the instalove between Akiva and Karou but it was written in such a way that I didn’t mind, my thought process was basically, “Ugh instalove…OH GOD IT’S BEAUTIFUL…MY BABIES.”

Overall, I really enjoyed this. It does take some time to get into it but if you stick with it it’s worth it.

“Once upon a time an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.” But oh is it worth reading about.

4 Stars.