Laini Taylor
"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?" -Amazon Description
This book is right up my alley; the concept is well thought out, and the chimaera are a unique set of characters, especially since they (or, at least a few of them) expunge the idea that beautiful = good and ugly = bad. And while it does have the 'angel' thing that has been so prevalent in young adult fantasy lately (or, you know, a year ago), it's in such an unusual way that I really didn't mind.
It's one part mysterious girl, one part awesome creatures, and about seven parts conflicting loyalties. All cool Prague-y/fantasy stuff aside, the book actually delivers a pretty awesome message about the consequences of environments where individual thinking isn't encouraged. Another aspect that I really enjoyed was the way that in the war between chimaera and seraphim, that narrator doesn't tell you which side to take. Neither are completely good, and neither are completely evil; they're just fighting.
Speaking of that, the world building in this book is nice. The details and expositions are not overpowering, just enough of an explanation to give you a good mental image, and leaving you with the impression that Taylor knew every aspect of the world of the seraphim/chimaera, and simply didn't find it necessary to share them, ala Ernest Hemingway. This is a characteristic that I really appreciate while reading.
The one thing that did irk me a little was when the depiction of the main character got a little too perfect. She's gorgeous, AND she fights perfectly, AND she speaks a ton of languages, AND she's perfectly quirky. And let's not forget Akiva, who is so amazingly beautiful that even quasi-frat boys will admit that he's hot. But even so, this really caught my eye once or twice, and there was enough character development/internal conflict with Karou that I could just brush it off.
The Bottom Line: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's the first in a series, and the second came out recently, and I definitely plan to read it. Daughter of Smoke and Bone contains very little that I've seen before. The writing is great, and the last hundred or so pages switches it up. The ending is open, but not too cliff-hangery, leaving me wanting to read the next one without a burning need to read it NOW. Whether that's good or bad is I suppose your choice.
It's one part mysterious girl, one part awesome creatures, and about seven parts conflicting loyalties. All cool Prague-y/fantasy stuff aside, the book actually delivers a pretty awesome message about the consequences of environments where individual thinking isn't encouraged. Another aspect that I really enjoyed was the way that in the war between chimaera and seraphim, that narrator doesn't tell you which side to take. Neither are completely good, and neither are completely evil; they're just fighting.
Speaking of that, the world building in this book is nice. The details and expositions are not overpowering, just enough of an explanation to give you a good mental image, and leaving you with the impression that Taylor knew every aspect of the world of the seraphim/chimaera, and simply didn't find it necessary to share them, ala Ernest Hemingway. This is a characteristic that I really appreciate while reading.
The one thing that did irk me a little was when the depiction of the main character got a little too perfect. She's gorgeous, AND she fights perfectly, AND she speaks a ton of languages, AND she's perfectly quirky. And let's not forget Akiva, who is so amazingly beautiful that even quasi-frat boys will admit that he's hot. But even so, this really caught my eye once or twice, and there was enough character development/internal conflict with Karou that I could just brush it off.
The Bottom Line: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's the first in a series, and the second came out recently, and I definitely plan to read it. Daughter of Smoke and Bone contains very little that I've seen before. The writing is great, and the last hundred or so pages switches it up. The ending is open, but not too cliff-hangery, leaving me wanting to read the next one without a burning need to read it NOW. Whether that's good or bad is I suppose your choice.
