Review Detail

After seeing loads of people with eyes painted on their hands I figured I better read Laini Taylor’s “Daughter of Smoke & Bone.” Now that I’ve finished the thing, I’ve come to the conclusion to take much better care of my teeth in case anyone ever decides to resurrect into my likeness.

Using teeth to create bodies for souls to inhabit and having tattoos of eyes on one’s hands are just two of the many details delved into in Taylor’s book. When I say many, I mean many. There are a lot of details, big and small, that are written in this story, many leaving me wondering what the importance of them were to the overall story. But I gotta say: I didn’t mind any of these details at all.

Taylor’s lead character, Karou, has such an interesting life that I want to know silly things like what bakery she goes to in Prague in the morning. I want to know that she went to Paris to get her BFF an antique tutu. I want to know that her favorite hangout is known for its poison goulash. Normally when faced with mundane details that seem to be put in there just to create a higher word count I find myself huffing and ughing until I get to some real meat. With Taylor’s depiction of Karou, it didn’t seem like she was reaching for a higher word count. Instead it feels like Taylor gets just as lost in the wonder of the world she’s created as her readers do. So even though the book probably could have been 50 pages shorter and still had just as much action, I don’t think it should. I found myself wanting to read more about Karou’s life, sort of like yearning for a literary reality show: “Keeping up with Karou.”