Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Laini Taylor
Genre: Fantasy, YA, Paranormal
Publication Date: 27 September 2011
Number of Pages: 424
Source: Purchased
My Rating: ★★★
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 hairactually 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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?
If I could only say one sentence about this book it would be: "Amazing idea with good writing." Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor has gotten reviews across the board from boring to brilliant. I fell very much in the middle of this group. By all means it was a good book, but it lacked that extra oomph that left me wanting more.
The idea and setting behind the book are absolutely wonderful and I found it very intriguing by all means. I'm most likely going to read the sequel because I want more of the world that Laini Taylor only gives the reader glimpses of towards the end of the book. Besides the otherworldly setting, I also loved that the book was set in Prague although I feel as if neither world was described very in depth.
With that said, I found the characters all a little flat and underdeveloped. I feel like nothing really made any of the side characters stand out at all. There were characters that I loved, first and foremost Brimstone and Co., but I found most of them left no lasting impression.
As I mentioned at the beginning though, the idea behind the book is very unique but the writing just wasn't all there. The biggest complaint I had overall was in the first few chapters I feel like the author couldn't decide if she wanted the reader to be in the know of Karou's secret life or as confused as Karou's friends. The writing also seemed a little chunky at times. Overall, the plot flows well and I had no problem reading large chunks at a time, but I was never on the edge of my seat and unwilling to put the book down either.
In the end, I gave Daughter of Smoke and Bone 3 stars. Maybe 3 1/2. It wasn't bad, in fact it was good. It just wasn't overwhelmingly remarkable.
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 hairactually 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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?
If I could only say one sentence about this book it would be: "Amazing idea with good writing." Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor has gotten reviews across the board from boring to brilliant. I fell very much in the middle of this group. By all means it was a good book, but it lacked that extra oomph that left me wanting more.
The idea and setting behind the book are absolutely wonderful and I found it very intriguing by all means. I'm most likely going to read the sequel because I want more of the world that Laini Taylor only gives the reader glimpses of towards the end of the book. Besides the otherworldly setting, I also loved that the book was set in Prague although I feel as if neither world was described very in depth.
With that said, I found the characters all a little flat and underdeveloped. I feel like nothing really made any of the side characters stand out at all. There were characters that I loved, first and foremost Brimstone and Co., but I found most of them left no lasting impression.
As I mentioned at the beginning though, the idea behind the book is very unique but the writing just wasn't all there. The biggest complaint I had overall was in the first few chapters I feel like the author couldn't decide if she wanted the reader to be in the know of Karou's secret life or as confused as Karou's friends. The writing also seemed a little chunky at times. Overall, the plot flows well and I had no problem reading large chunks at a time, but I was never on the edge of my seat and unwilling to put the book down either.
In the end, I gave Daughter of Smoke and Bone 3 stars. Maybe 3 1/2. It wasn't bad, in fact it was good. It just wasn't overwhelmingly remarkable.
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