Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

First Published: January 1st 2011
Pages: 418 (paperback)
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 1444722638
Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon US – Amazon AU

Synopsis

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 grown 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 hair actually 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 one of the strangers–beautiful, haunted Akiva–fixes his fire-colored 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?

Review

I have really mixed feelings about Daughter of Smoke and Bone at times I loved it to bits and just could not put it down, but then at some times I wanted to scream and throw the book across the room. Not because the book was bad but because I was just getting so frustrated with it.

I decide to read Daughter of Smoke and Bone not only because I had been told to by one of my friends whose book recommendations I listen to, but because it had been on my to be read shelf for quite a while. I am very glad she gave be the final push to read it because I really did enjoy, even though I did have a few dislikes.

I was really confused at the start of the book, for the first about 100 pages. I just didn’t get what was going on at all. I think maybe because the world building especially at the start wasn’t the best. I felt it lacked it. We were just brought into the world with a bang and it wasn’t really explained enough for me to grasp it. In saying that as the novel moved on I grasp the world pretty easy and understood more about it.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is beautifully written. Laini Taylor utilised language that is simply lovely. Reading it was an absolute pleasure. I love Taylor’s style I wanted to savour the words and make it last I think this is why it took me a while to read, I just took it slow but devoured it at the same time.

I really enjoyed the main female protagonist Karou. She was lovely to read and her personality was something completely different to what I have read before. The fact that she has hair growing out of her head blue is pretty epic. She is someone to admire in a way. She is living two lives, feeling like she doesn’t belong in either but she stays strong. Karou is fully devoted to both her best friends and her unique family but she cannot introduce them to her best friend for some very interesting reasons.

The plot of Daughter of Smoke and Bone was something that intrigued me to read it from the start. Come on, black hand prints starts appearing on doorways all around the world and no one can explain why. Then you put a gorgeous, mysterious and otherworldly stranger named Akiva who Karou doesn’t know if he is going to kill her, or if he likes her, well then you have trouble. I wasn’t disappointed with the plot at all, it was the two “I” words interesting and intriguing.

As we get to know Akiva, I know that my heart started to break for him. He is so full of grief and anguish, he is truly tormented, and yet I cannot help but understand why Karou is so conflicted about her feelings for someone she thinks she shouldn’t trust. I know I was in that situation I would feel the same way. Akiva is very intriguing in both a good and bad way. In reaction to meeting Akiva, Korou’s worlds collided and she finds more about her past, which I think I found really interesting. We find out more about Akiva and Karou’s past as the novel goes on and I couldn’t help but to feel sorry for them both.

I also liked that it was not heavily relying on romance. As much as I do love it, I also like when everything else matters much more then the romance. It was simply there nice and light but again beautifully written.

I also found it somewhat gruesome in some parts, which I totally loved. I don’t really like with authors sugar coat horrible events or things that happen. Yet another reason as to why I adored Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is truly an original piece of writing that is utterly beautiful, the worlds dance from page to page. It takes the normal Angel stories and throws them in the bin. It is so different from anything that I have read before and I suggest that you pick it up and give it a go because it will take your breath away.

Quotes;

“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.It did not end well.”

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”