Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1)

Let me say up front, this was a supremely difficult book for me to rate/review...especially in coming up with a spoiler-free assessment. But it deserves that much, so here we go.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone begins as a sort of YA urban-fantasy, teetering on the verge of New Adult thanks to the heroine's raised-by-monsters state of independence and the Euro-centric cultural feel. (Oh, and more mentioning of 'penis' than I normally encounter in YA.) I would argue that, at a little past the halfway mark, the whole tone shifts and we're plunged into a full-on NA Fantasy...but I'll get to that a little later.

The story more or less swept me off my feet from the onset, and into the tantalizing vividness of modern-day Prague. The city itself was probably my favorite character. (At once archaic and exotic, by my meager American standards.) The heroine, Karou, lives what must be every art student's reverie—though she's also adrift, not allowed to know who or what she is. I flew through the first half and can honestly say I loved it—largely due to Laini Taylor's evocative prose and liquid-awesome style. Beautiful, darkly complex writing that rolls around in the mind and clings like a warm syrup.

While I deeply enjoyed the first 250 pages or so, I also have to say the dropping of details and backstory was somewhat sparse. The reader is strung along at great length waiting for more pieces of the puzzle. I was willing to be patient, hoping for a grand payoff. But what I ultimately encountered was a sort of atom-bomb of world-building encased in one of the longest flashbacks I've ever encountered. The abrupt surge of other-worldly sociopolitical, cultural, historical, alternate mythological, and fantasy elements left my head a bit muddled. At that point, it also seemed like we lost Karou and had to become acquainted with someone else entirely. And for this reader at least, that last 1/3rd of the book became a somewhat dissonant slog that almost felt like an entirely different book.

Oh, and there's insta-love—or near enough to it. Which is apparently fated, but I'm not clear on why. Don't get me wrong—I appreciated the fantasy parallels to Romeo and Juliet. But as the hero/love interest, Akiva fell a bit flat. He just seemed to be missing some intangible -something- I couldn't quite put my finger on, but which would have made him come more alive. And at the (somewhat dismal) end...I find I'm still not clear on why, exactly, so much critical information was kept from Karou. (If someone can offer some reasoning I may have missed, I'm all ears! Er...eyes? >.> But certainly not teeth, hehe.)

I will be keeping an eye out for more of Taylor's works. A different sort of plotline could make all the difference, and her way with words is too delectable not to sample further.

I'm well aware of the fact I'm 2 years too late. I get that but hey! I'm here now and that's what counts.

I set out to write this review but I'm still not sure what to say. I keep thinking about the romance between Karou and Akiva. I'll explain my issues with it soon.

First of, the whole paranormal world in Prague was interesting. The architecture, the art, the culture... even the people pretending to be vampires were fun. We meet Karou in a dark alley getting felt up by her ex boyfriend who's an vampire/actor. They broke up because he cheated on her and Karou doesn't want to see his lying face anywhere near her. Kaz doesn't feel the same way and follows her to her art school where he poses naked in front of her whole class. Awkward. She eventually gets her revenge, wishing Kaz gets nasty itches to scratch in his most private places. Her friend Zuzana's there to cheer with her.

Karou's a blue haired girl who loves to draw strange characters with snake tails, bull heads and some human parts. What you didn't know is those characters are real. They are Issa and Brimstone, her sort of guardians. They deal with wishes and can open a portal to just about any place on Earth you could imagine with simply opening their door. Karou helps them acquire human/animal teeth for some reason she's still not aware of. She does try to get some info about her parents, herself, even about the teeth but Brimstone is not giving away any secrets.

Like with every other story, things get messy after 'the guy' shows up. A mysterious angel attacks Karou in the streets of Marrakesh. I'm just going to stop here for just a second cause I feel like I should say this. Everybody knows I love a good romance but in this case I prayed for less. I didn't want to read about feelings when there's so much to see in this crazy paranormal universe. Everything was going along fine till Akiva showed up. And they were attracted towards each other right from the start.

I was so ready to hate the second part of the book because of the dreaded romance but the craziest thing happened. I started liking the whole Karou and Akiva thing. The flashback scenes saved it. If it weren't for them, I would've pegged it as another insta-love.

So, if you're up for some quality paranormal fiction, pick up Daughter of Smoke and Bone. You won't regret it. It's full of magical creatures, drawings, fights between good and evil and of course, a steamy romance.

This book has one of those vague yet intriguing cover blurbs that tell you a book is going to be good. Only a truly good book can afford to give half-truths about its contents. That, combined with the extreme amount of hype for this enigmatic little book, had me completely interested.

What I Liked: The first thing about this book was Karou’s character. Within twenty pages, I knew she was the sort of heroine that I look for (and rarely find) in non-contemporary YA. For one thing, in one of the very first chapters, she complained about teenage girls who think that boyfriends are the answer to all life’s problem. Amen! And just…wow. She’s tough, edgy, but at the same time uncertain of herself. She knows her limits but still tests them. She loves her “family” and defends them. True, she has a bit of an insta-love moment, but there’s actually a semi-okay reason behind it.

In short, Karou is one awesome chick.

Another huge factor to my enjoyment of Daughter of Smoke & Bone was Taylor’s writing. The narrative is third person past, limited, going between two (maybe two-and-a-half) perspectives—I’m a huge fan of this more “traditional” approach to storytelling. And while the author’s style isn’t flashy or overly purple-prosey, it’s effective and works well for Karou’s personality. It’s crisp and sharp, with moments of creative imagery that get repeated throughout the novel.

Even though angels/demons are getting to be little tiring in the world of YA fiction, Taylor’s approach was unbelievable. I couldn’t have custom-ordered a better angel novel. For one, it humanizes both sides. The angels aren’t righteous, perfect beings—they make mistakes. And the demons aren’t terrible monsters—they have compassion, they’re self-sacrificing. Oftentimes, when an author tries to show both sides to a story, it doesn’t exactly work—you can always tell which side the author sees as “right.” Not so here, and I appreciated Taylor’s objectivity.

Halfway into the book, I only had one complaint: the plot was too predictable. I wanted something more. And then, in the last hundred pages, I got my “more.” It was unexpected and totally shook my opinions on the book. I was like: “whoa, a novel that managed to surprise me for once. Sweet.”

What I Didn’t Like: From the intense gushing above, I’m sure you can tell that I really liked this book. A lot. Actually, I was (a bit unwillingly) going to give a 5/5 rating. But then there was the epic plot twist, which was fantastic. However, what happened after said plot twist pretty much ruined the book.

Without spoiling anything, I’ll just say that Taylor essentially backtracks about twenty years and spends a hundred or so pages detailing what happened in the past. After the truly fantastic climax the reader just experienced, the sudden series of flashbacks brought everything to a screeching halt. It was an info-dump at the worst possible time.

For one, I really don’t think the information was necessary. By this time, the reader has already gotten the gist of what happened twenty years ago. I don’t think we needed a hundred pages of clarification. A simple paragraph of explanation from Akiva would have been enough.

Secondly, the flashbacks take you away from the now, which at the time was a very intense moment between Karou and Akiva. So while you’re reading what happened decades ago, you’re like “Hey! What about those guys? I don’t CARE about Madrigal right now! What’s going on with Karou?”

It was an awful, awful way to end the book.

In my opinion.

Verdict: Well, if I rated this book on the lasting impression it gave me, it’d be 2/5. The end was a train wreck. However, if you look past that, the first three-hundred pages were absolutely phenomenal. I was completely wowed and blown away. So, I’m disappointed by this book, but I still think it deserved some recognition. Laini Taylor did an excellent job here.
And, of course, there’s always next time. Days of Blood & Starlight looks promising, just so long as there aren’t any more unnecessary trips into the past.

Forget everything you’ve ever believed about angels and demons…

As readers, we search for those sometimes elusive books that stay with us and resonate long after we’ve read the last page and closed the cover. Those books we return to again and again for that special something that grabbed hold of our psyche and refused to let go. For me, one of those special books is DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE by Laini Taylor.

If the eye-catching cover hadn’t been enough to draw my attention, the title sure was. It hinted at something mysterious, something painful yet hopeful. And it didn’t disappoint.

This is the poignant tale of a young woman on the cusp of adulthood, a brilliant artist in a modern world, yet the only family she’s ever known exist Elsewhere and though she visits them often, entering through common doors around the world that are enchanted, her life is permeated with unanswered questions about who she really is and where she comes from. Because the hamsas in her palms and the chimaera she calls family aren’t part of the typical human teenage experience. And there’s no reason for the bone-deep attraction and comfortable familiarity she feels around a coldly beautiful, mysterious fiery-winged seraph … is there?

Karou, which means “hope” in the chimaera language, is a seventeen-year-old artist living in Prague. She’s also the courier for Brimstone, the enigmatic chimaera who raised her, a collector of teeth. But what he does with the teeth is what Karou burns to know.

When she enters the forbidden, shadowy door at the other end of Brimstone’s office that has been left uncharacteristically unguarded, her life and the lives of her chimaera family change in ways she never could have imagined and the truths she’s spent years wishing and searching for bring to mind the proverb “Be careful what you wish for.”

A fantastical blend of romance, myth, magic, and the search for one’s true self, this YA fantasy novel struck a cord in my imagination that’s still strumming today, a year after I first picked it up and devoured the words within.

Through Taylor’s mastery and obvious devotion to imagery, my love for the English language was renewed. I envisioned Prague, a city suspended within the grasp of history, and hosts of chimaera danced their way through my imagination. I laughed and cried, raged at Akiva for his heartbroken acts of vengeance and Karou’s insatiable, mistrustful curiosity. And I exclaimed with dismay when I read the last word, realizing that it’d be 12 WHOLE MONTHS before I could continue reading Karou and Akiva’s story!

Somehow, I survived, reread DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE after the release of the sequel, DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT, which cover and title are equally compelling, and fell in love all over again! And now I have to survive ANOTHER 12 months until the final, as yet unnamed, book in this trilogy is released. Oy vey!

If you haven’t read this book, stop what you’re doing and go buy it now. It doesn’t matter if you buy the printed or e-book version. Just get it and read it. And then read the sequel. Repeat. If you don’t love both books, there’s no hope for you as a reader.

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.”

It took me some time to really get into this story, but when I did I couldn't put it down. Taylor's prose is eloquent and light, floating off of the page with each sentence. She does some excellent world building, and makes her characters believable. My biggest complaint about most fantasy books is that the characters aren't believable or relevent, I don't buy it. Taylor is able to convince me that a character like Brimstone could really exist in the way he does through the story.

There is a love story at the heart of this novel, which is what really captured my attention. Many YA books are so focused on strong female characters, kicking ass and taking names, they forget that young girls want to read about love, to be enamored by the idea of soulmates, and that whatever is meant to be...will be.

I finished the last few chapters in a rush to get to the end of the book, wanting anxiously to find out what happened, and was left hanging. I am eager to read the sequal.

This book is a visual banquet, from the streets of Prague to the supernatural world of Brimstone and Akiva, I felt surrounded by magic, color, and the kind of little observations that bring a book to life for me. Karou is a fabulous heroine, and I was immediately drawn to her. The plot itself is unique and kept me turning the pages. I felt a bit let down by the romance because I couldn't quite connect to the insta-love between her and Akiva (even though there's a solid reason for it), and the second half of the book has so many flashbacks that I felt like I lost Karou. However, I still anxiously turned the pages to see how it ended, and I will definitely buy the sequel. Ms. Taylor is a talented writer with a magical imagination.