Book review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

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?

Here we have another example of a book that’s written like a fairy tale.  It’s not the same as the Guardians series that I’ve mentioned has that type of convention, mostly because it’s clearly written for an older set (though not too much, given that this is a YA book).  I really did like this book, at the end of the day.  There’s such a sweeping mythology, and so many twists and turns that it keeps you on your toes and keeps you reading.  Or, at least it did me.  There aren’t too many books that make me want to read them rather than do things I should, like cleaning or editing (although when I have to do those I usually just end up on Tumblr).

The book also manages to make connections to things in the early pages that you might not have even paid attention to, which is the sign of a good story that was thought-out in either the planning stages or the editing stages, unlike many books that have obviously had plot points added on later when the author wanted more going on.

There were things I didn’t like about it; the relationships both seemed… rushed.  There just didn’t seem to be enough thought between “I hate him, he’s horrible” to “He’s the love of my life!” for both Karou and Madrigal, and it made the relationship, while sweet, seem artificial and not necessarily based on what was inside as it was supposed to be intended.  The relationship itself was nice, but as I said, I just didn’t feel like there was enough lead-up or getting into the character’s heads to understand why they fell in love with him so quickly.

Still, a good book, and I have the sequel up next, which I’m a lot less reluctant to read than the sequel to some of the books I’ve reviewed in the past.  Non-reluctance is a lot better than contempt for an author.