In Daughter of Smoke and Bone Laini Taylor has created a story so evocative and complex that without re-writing the whole book, there is only one simple way to describe it; with the following excerpt:
Of course that doesn’t even begin to touch on the many facets of the world our heroine, Karou, lives in. Karou is a blue haired, 17 year old, art student. Raised by what many would consider demons, her own history is a mystery. She is a human with a family made up of chimera and calls only one ‘normal’ girl, Zusana, her friend. She travels throughout the human world by a series of doors that lead in and out of her guardian Brimstone’s workshop. And I can’t forget to mention her family’s profession; Brimstone is a trader of teeth and Karou, ever the dutiful daughter, is the delivery girl.
Then, if you can believe it, things get even stranger, as an angel appears and starts to hunt her down.
There are many things to adore about this book; the visceral world Taylor has created, the deep history she unravels, the magic that she seamlessly weaves throughout, but what I delighted in the most was that despite her unique life, Karou is extremely relatable. Level-headed, intelligent, loyal and protective of those she cares about, Karou is not only a girl you would want to know, she’s someone you would want to be like. Even when chaos starts to surround her, Karou does not bend, leastwise break, under the pressure.
It’s wonderful to have a story ignited by love where the center is one of strength, not one of weakness and gasping breath. Not that gasping breath doesn’t have its place in fiction, I just particularly enjoy it when love doesn’t make the female lead weak in the knees but instead makes her will all the stronger.
As the reader is taken on the journey through Karou’s past we can see just how strong she has become, perhaps foreshadowing how strong Karou will need to be for the next two books – and that’s definitely gasp worthy.
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