Book 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 Review:

   Don't hate me guys, I know that a lot of people liked this book but after reading it, I don't get where all the hype is from. It was fun and all but epic. The premise wasn't encouraging so it took me a while to get into the story itself. Plus, I had some really high expectations based upon my friends recommendation and the hype but was unfortunately disappointed.

   The story follows a girl named Karou whom was brought up by chimeras, a non-human family. She herself didn't fully get eveything about them but was rather kept in the dark but turns out that she has much of a past. But while trying to live her life as a normal art student, she has got aberrant errands in places all around the world for Brimstone whom she considers her own father, in return she would get to make some wishes. Karou then meets a guy well a seraph solider where they find themselves drawn to each other and from then on, things get harder, weirder and more complicated.

   I liked most of the characters alot. Honestly, they were all captivating, especially Akiva. However, the writing was confusing, took time to know who's talking for instance and I just got lost alot. One thing I really hate about books is when narrated from a third point of view so this was a major turn-off. Nonetheless, the author definitely has a vivid imagination, I mean, she created this whole another world and there were a few parts where I truly felt just inside the book, she was able to exquisitely transmit the picture of her world into our minds. I also liked the fact that the plot was unpredictable - Duh! How could anyone with a world like that - but you get the point. 

   There wasn't much of a romance either, just a love story from Karou's past which I found a bit cliched with the reminiscing part but cute. Then comes Karou and Akiva - in the present - whom had something between them that made it seem appropriate enough for them to be together. Additionally, I am not really into angels fantasy, it kinda really didn't seem a lot like so except for the fact that there were angels but still and the star-crossed lovers thing. Nah.

   Overall, it was good and original but plain bizarre. Would I recommend it? Ah, well not so much. Okay, so here is the deal guys, it was a page-turner, interesting and unique but something was off about the world-building as well as the storyline itself. I have to admit that I enjoyed it and I would definitely be reading the next book in the series because of the cliffhanger. I was left intrigued. So, guess you could give it a try if you are capable of dealing with high fantasy novels.

 
Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone #1
Release Date: September 27th 2011 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Source: Owned
Links: Goodreads | Amazon
Rating: 3/5

Happy Reading!
xoxo, Mariam