Review of Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor

Little Brown Books for
Young Readers

The Days of Blood & Starlight (Bk. 2 Daughter of Smoke and Bone)
By Laini Taylor
5 Scribbles

No one builds worlds as well as Laini Taylor—well not since Tolkien anyway. And now that Karou knows who she truly is, she is plunged headfirst into the broken world of her people, the chimaera. Filled with vengeance and righteous anger, Karou chooses to join her people in the fight against the angels—and against Akiva—in a crucial role.  But is her choice to turn her back on love worth it?

The characters in this novel are even more lifelike and vivid than in the first. It is easy to become immersed in the world of Elsewhere while reading about wolves, Naja, Kirin and winged creatures designed by Karou’s artistic hand. From Thiago’s glossy white fur and menacing eyes, to Ziri’s lithe, antelope-human body, to Akiva’s special beauty and glowing red wings, the reader is treated to a kaleidoscope of images that become virtual candy for the imagination.  And if the descriptions of the creatures and the world of Elsewhere don’t captivate the reader, then the bloody conflict certainly will. Karou and Akiva, soul mates and lovers in book one, find themselves as sworn enemies in this second installment. For Karou, this means filling Brimstone’s shoes as the new Resurrectionist and trusting Thiago, the wolf she still hates with all her being, but must follow to avenge the deaths of her people. It is a strange situation that places Karou as a sort of voluntary prisoner and amplifies the fact that the need for vengeance now controls her. Akiva, on the other hand, is ready to make amends to Karou, and to cease his killing ways, because “a drop of mercy dilutes a lake of hate.” And while there is truth in this, Karou has not had the benefit of years to heal that brought Akiva to this conclusion—thus, she has sworn to hate him.  How much will Karou be willing to endure, and how many angels will she have to kill in order to find any semblance of peace? And if both sides can come to some peace, will the physical marks of Hamas and tattoo marks of the slain on the angels’ hands, be too much of a reminder of atrocities past for the opposing sides to accept one another?

While the conflicts are heavy, bloody, and battles constant, some comic relief is thankfully present via Karou’s BFF Zuzana, now hooked up with Mic from book one. The two provide welcome foils to the newly-sworn-enemies-once-lovers Akiva and Karou. Zuzana and Mic also show an ironic tolerance for the strange creatures and help illustrate the power of music and kindness on the human (and not so human) soul. Perhaps most importantly, these two characters keep the story grounded, and add a human element to the second book which hints at the idea that humans may play a critical role in book three which I am anxiously awaiting…

Review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

Little, Brown Books
for Young Readers

Daughter of Smoke and BoneBy Laini Taylor
5+ Scribbles
Spunky and independent seventeen-year-old Karou has always been different from other teenagers. She has an extraordinary gift for drawing, she wears a string of wishes around her neck, she has blue hair, and she attends a prestigious art school in Prague. She lives alone and has no parents that she knows of; her only family consists of a small group of Chimaera—magical, beautiful creatures—that raised her in an enchanted workshop beyond a hidden portal, only to later nudge her into the human world. Karou knows something is missing in her life, but she accepts that there may never be answers to her questions, no solution to the loneliness that sometimes threatens to engulf her. And then one day she meets the handsome and fierce Akiva, and suddenly her world is helter skelter. Taylor paints with words the way master artists paint with brushes. Her descriptions are rich, textured, and raw, allowing the reader to travel through portals with the characters and to see through the character’s eyes. The plot has the flavor of an appetizer-sized portion of Romeo & Juliet with just a sprinkling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. It is impossible to reach the end of one chapter and not have an overwhelming desire to turn to the next. Readers become emotionally invested in Karou. They will identify with her when she realizes for the first time that family is not perfect, and that we all must eventually face the world alone. They will laugh with Karou and her best friend Zuzanna as they groan over life’s challenges, and they will struggle with Karou to fully understand temptation, forgiveness and redemption. All of these lessons are interwoven into the tapestry of the story seamlessly without ever being in the least didactic, or simplistic or distracting. Taylor has taken the canvas of a novel and painted a lovely and matchless masterpiece. There is a reason that this novel has been voted one of the Top Ten Best Books of 2012—a unique and refreshing tale like this hasn’t been told since C.S. Lewis. If I had a bruxis I’d wish that the next book was already waiting for me on my shelf—but alas, I love eating too much to part with my teeth.