Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Liani Taylor 

Published by: Little, Brown & Company

Released: September 27, 2011

 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone tells the story of Karou, an art student in Prague. Only, she might be the weirdest one there. Covered in tattoos, no known history, toting blue hair, and with an "imagination" large enough to conjure up stories every day to tell her friends, many, including her best friend Zuzuana, believe she is merely eccentric. But shouldn't every good fantasy reader know by now, "All the stories are true." (From the Mortal Instruments Series, Cassandra Clare). The tales drawn in Karou's sketchbook are not tales, but her real life. And her life can be frightening. 

Karou lives with four Chimera: intelligent beings with different parts of the body different species. For instance, Issa is a woman with a human and head torso, but the lower body of a serpent and the hood and cloak of one. Tiwga, Yasri and Brimstone are the other Chimera that Karou "works for". Karou has never known anything different than her life with the Chimera, as her earliest memory is of sitting in Brimstone's shop. And, because of this, she constantly wonders who she really is. She feels as if something is missing, though Karou is not sure what.  

Karou's life may be crazy, but it is pretty stable until the night she goes to *Spoilers!* Morocco to get teeth from a gravedigger there. She is chased and injured by an angel, a being she never thought even existed. And that angel will change everything.... *End of spoilers!* 

I loved this book. It was set in so many different cities, mainly Prague, and I loved the details Ms. Taylor gave each city. But my favorite part about Ms. Taylor's writing was how she kept on flipping back and forth between story lines, slowly drawing them all in to meet. For some readers, this can be really confusing, but I love the anticipation of it. 

What I also liked about this book was how Ms. Taylor explored the consequences of loyalty and betrayal. Karou is loyal, always, to her Chimera, and that *Spoilers!* leads to her endangerment *End of spoilers!* And then when she is betrayed, there are disastrous consequences, which would have been prevented if it weren't for an act of loyalty.... You can see how it gets complicated. 

And *Spoilers!* Akiva.... Oh, Akiva. The "angel"who restarted the war. *End of spoilers!*  He is written beautifully, with his emotions completely believable, especially his torment and regret over what he has done, and the anguish over what he thought happened.

I also loved Karou's best friend Zouzana, who was everything a best friend should be. She put up with Karou's drama - strange injuries, boyfriend issues, secrets, strange "errands" - but eventually was pushed to her limit when Karou told her that the life-threatening injuries she sustained were from *Spoilers!* an angel and nearly leaves, if not for a figment of Karou's sketchbooks suddenly arriving. *End of Spoilers!*

All in all, I loved this book. It was amazing. Truly. I actually think my aunt got it for me....

Written by Magnus