Daughter of Smoke and
Bone by Laini Taylor
Published : Little, Brown (2011)
Series : Book 1
of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy
The Book :
“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 have 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?” ~WWend.com
I’m posting this review now in order to match up with my
trip to Marrakech, Morocco. I’m
actually here for business, but I liked the idea of writing a review while
staying in a location where the book is partially set. Some notable events of Daughter of Smoke and Bone occur in
Marrakech, including the initial meeting of Karou and Akiva. Just for fun, I’ve included a picture of the square
where they met (from a nearby rooftop café) and of the brightly colored market
Karou mentions.
My Thoughts:
The magical setting of Daughter
of Smoke and Bone was probably one of my favorite parts of the novel. I thought the magic was pretty
creative, especially the hierarchy of wishes that one could trade for in
teeth. What was done with those
teeth was intriguing as well, but I’ll refrain from discussing it here in order
to not give away plot points. In the beginning, the fantastical creatures
appeared to be angels and devils, but I appreciated that it was not so simple
as that. The seraph and chimaera (a variety of human/animal races) societies,
and even the neverending war between them, didn’t follow the traditional
religious story. The seraphs were not necessarily good creatures, as the
chimaera were not necessarily monsters.
Karou began the story ignorant of everything beyond her chimaera
family’s shop, and discovering the rest of the supernatural world along with
her was one of my favorite aspects of the novel.
While I enjoyed the setting, I had mixed reactions to the
major characters. I appreciated that Karou had a female best friend, and that
she expressed genuine interest in her life and personal troubles. Karou also cared deeply for her
chimaera family, and it was nice to read about a character that was concerned
for the wellbeing of the people who loved her. However, this was also a novel where all of the main
characters were amazingly beautiful, and there were many long, lingering
descriptions of their physical qualities. There is a message that beauty is not
everything, as the story opens in the aftermath of Karou’s failed relationship
with a beautiful jerk.
Unfortunately, this is undermined by the constant focus on the physical
beauty of the characters.
In addition to her extreme physical beauty, Karou is shown
to be exceptional in many ways.
She’s intriguingly mysterious, an excellent artist, speaks over twenty
languages, and has been trained in martial arts since she was very small. I am not a fan of reading about
inhumanly amazing people, especially when they are praised in the text. Karou
is not completely perfect, though—she has a slightly irresponsible side, which
is shown when she uses magic for frivolous things (dying her hair, embarrassing
people she doesn’t like, etc.).
Karou was certainly a likeable character, in terms of personality, but reading
about all her superlative qualities was sometimes a bit annoying.
I liked reading about Karou, as she lived her double life
and went on errands for her chimaera family. However, after the male and female main characters met, it
became clear that Daughter of Smoke and
Bone was primarily a romance, of the supernatural “Romeo & Juliet” variety. As is usually the case with instant
love, the romance was based almost entirely on physical attraction, and was
fueled by both of them being incredibly gorgeous. As in Romeo & Juliet, they were also star-crossed
lovers, and they were seriously endangered by the circumstances surrounding
their relationship. I believe this is a case where I am emphatically not the
target audience of the novel, so I’m sure that there are many other readers who
found the romance much more affecting than I did. I was most impressed by the twist at the end of the novel,
which seemed to send the story on a very unexpected (and welcome) path. I am curious if the next two books in
the trilogy will maintain or negate the effect of the ending of this one.
My Rating: 3/5
After reading Daughter
of Smoke and Bone, I have to conclude that I am really not the target
audience. I am not a fan of
romance or star-crossed lovers, and I dislike the importance that is often
accorded to instant love. I’m also not particularly into stories that feature
many descriptions of amazingly beautiful characters. However, many of the characters were very easy to like, and I enjoyed reading about Karou's family and friends. Also, what was revealed about the system of magic and the fantastical world was pretty interesting, and seemed to have potential for more development in the future novels. The ending of the story stepped impressively away from what I expected, though I wonder if this ending will be preserved in the future novels.
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