Sunday, April 21, 2013

Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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?


My thoughts: This book's cover grabbed my attention when it first came out and I was super excited to have received it on my birthday last year. I was quite surprised on how much I liked this book. It was beautifully written! Not only did I came to enjoy the characters but I fell in love with the worlds that Laini Taylor created.

I was completely captivated after reading the quote before the first chapter: "Once upon a time, a demon and an angel fell in love. It did not end well." Right away the reader gets the sense that things were not going to end well for the main characters.

The characters were amazing. Karou was an incredible female character. She was strong, brave, smart, loyal, and caring. I really liked how there was a mystery about her when it came to her identity and I liked the attraction between her and Akiva. The other characters were also great to read. Brimstone sounded scary to think of in real life but he was such a loving character that his "scariness" did not affect my appreciation of him. Another character that I fully enjoyed was Karou's best friend Suzana. She was a spunky girl and the scene of her being a marionette sounded breathtaking.

Like I mentioned before, the worlds that Laini Taylor created were beautiful. Her writing style was impeccable. I loved how her words were able to create such vivid pictures in my mind. Taylor's strong writing technique was very evident in the first two-thirds of the book.

Now the last third of book did not flow as smoothly. It was still great to read and it was interesint to learn about Karou's past. However, I felt that this last part of the book was choppy and confusing. I found myself having to go back to re-read certain areas so I could get a full comprehension of what was going on. Fortunately, the ending was heartbreaking enough that I somewhat overlooked the break of flow of the book.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a beautifully written story with great characters and incredibly vivid descriptions. Though the last part of the book could have been fixed a bit, I am still looking forward to the next book in the series. I rate this:

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