Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Daughter of Smoke & Bone
by: Laini Taylor
Little, Brown and Company
Age: Young Adult
2011
Genre: Young Adult, Horror, Fantasy
Keywords: Angels, Demons, Prague, Magic, Love
Summary: Karou is an art student in Prague who literally lives in two worlds. The first is inhabited by her best friend, art classes, and an annoying ex-boyfriend; the second is full of magic, secrets, and teeth. Karou has no recollection of her parents or how she ended up with the chimaera,* but no matter how many questions she asks the only answers she gets are not only vague but few and far between. Routinely, Karou is sent on errands to collect the teeth of humans and animals, but like everything else dealing with her second world, she is unsure of their purpose and meaning. When one of these errands brings her face to face with a seraph (sworn enemy of the chimaera) she comes closer to knowing the truth about who she is and where she came from.
The good: I loved this book. L.O.V.E.D it. Laini Taylor quickly sucked me in to Karou’s world(s) and I was reticent to leave it. First of all, isn’t the cover gorgeous? Second, the book is so mysterious and imaginative. The blending of Greek mythology and Taylor’s imagination is complex and fascinating to read. The themes of love and good vs. evil are prominent, but instead of “ho-hum, I’ve read that before” they take on a fresh quality due in large part to Karou’s perspective. Love, to Karou, is an element, much like the classic elements of air or water, that is impossible to live without; however, she has lived most of her life feeling the lack of it, despite the bond she feels with the chimaera. Therefore, when love comes it is a beautiful awakening of belonging. I know, I know, you’ve read it all before; however, when it is written well I never get tired of reading it, and I appreciate when it encompasses more than romantic love, although there is plenty of that. The battle between good and evil is murky and dependent on perspective. The seraphim believe they are good and the chimaera evil, but the vice versa is also true. Who is better – the master (seraphim) or the slave (chimaera)? The angel or the demon? The reader is constantly pulled between who is bad and who is good, ending with the uncomfortable resolution that neither is wholly one or the other. While Karou is ultimately a ‘good’ character, evidenced by her willingness to risk her own life for her family, even that act of supposed sacrifice clashes with her selfish desire to take a risk in order get answers and prove she is capable of the truth. This is getting too long, stopping now.
The verdict: I would recommend this to older teenage girls as well as people my own age. If you enjoyed books like Delirium by Lauren Oliver or Divergent by Veronica Roth, but then add a bit more of a fantasy twist you will love this book just as much as I did.
The rating: 9
*chimaera are usually composed of several different animal parts. According to Greek mythology a chimaera is a monstrous, fire-breathing female with the body of a lioness, a tail that ended in a snake’s head, and the head of a goat that came out from her spine (taken from Wikipedia). In this book, not all chimaera are the same. Some have the face of a man (or woman) with the legs of a gazelle, or legs like a wolf, etc.
Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Young Adult
