Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Daughter of Smoke and Bone (DoSaB, #1)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? (goodreads.com)
I am a huuuuuuuge fan of Laini Taylor's Dreamdark series. In fact, I think you should all go out and buy the two books in that series so that she can be asked to publish more. Go on. Go do it now. I'll wait.*waits*Done? Great! Now that I have that off my chest, I'd like to talk to you about Laini Taylor's latest release, Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Though it feels like a fantasy novel, this story is actually set in present day, so I tagged it as Urban Fantasy over Paranormal. I have seen nothing but rave reviews for this book, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I'm always wary of super-hyped books, you know?DoSaB is a beautifully told story of a girl who lives on wishes and hope. Karou flits between two worlds - ours and Elsewhere - like they are seamless. She is kind and imaginative and a mystery that you want to get to the bottom of.I'm having a hard time putting what I felt while reading this book into words. Mostly, I had a strong feeling of contentment and a nagging wistfulness for wishing I was as creative as the character and the words on the page. I felt swirls of colour surrounding me as I read. This book brought out my synesthesia with force. I smelled cinnamon and spice while I read. Such a strong sense of cinnamon that I had to chew cinnamon gum while reading at times, the craving was that bad!This book was poetry and painting all woven into words on paper.I even sticky-noted a page because a section of dialogue stuck out to me so much I kept going back to it and rereading it.
She paused. "I mean, your nonmagical magic. Your ordinary Karou wizardry. When will you be back?""Friday, I think. I just have to stop in Paris really quick --""'Stop in Paris really quick,'" repeated Zuzana. "You know, a smaller soul than I might end our friendship on the grounds of you saying obnoxious things like 'I just have to stop in Paris really quick.'""There are smaller souls than you?" countered Karou."Hey! My body may be small, byt my soul is large. It's why I wear platforms. So I can reach the top of my soul."-- Daughter of Smoke and Bone, page 165
"So I can reach the top of my soul." How bloody poetic is that? This book is riddled with lines that just took my breath away. Lines that were buried in the middle of paragraphs or snuck into dialogue all unassuming-like. The dialogue in this book rocks. Rocks hard, even. It's natural and funny and raw and real.While I was reading the only person I could picture as Karou is the actress Ksenia Solo. She's currently on a paranormal show called Lost Girl (which my husband and I love) and I adore her character Kenzie. She's also in Black Swan (which I have yet to watch - I'm too chicken!). She's Canadian as well. I believe the character of Kenzie even had blue hair in a couple of episodes, so I know she'd rock Karou all around the block, yo! (Not to mention all three names start with the letter K. I feel that is kismet! Oo! Another K!)The one thing I didn't like about this book? The romance. Sigh. I knew it would be there and I knew it was coming, but, please. I am so tired of romance in books. The instant connection between Karou and Akiva is explained in the end, but, I just... I can't. I'm so jaded about romance in YA right now that other books have ruined this aspect of a story for me. Akiva was nice and all, but I am tired of romance. ;)Cynical and jaded. Yep. That's me!AND! Since this series uses the title of the first book as it's "title" (and you all know how I feel about THAT) I have dubbed the series "DoSaB" and it shall be tagged as such until they decide to change it to something else. Ha! Take that, publishers!Pick up this book and read it. The end.DoSaB series
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone
- Days of Blood and Starlight - September 2012