Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Laini Taylor
Publisher: Hodder
Pub Date: 2012
Review by: Vicky Galvin
Oh hi there, nice to meet you. Have you met Daughter of Smoke and Bone? Why don’t you talk a while. I have a feeling you’ll really get on....
Starting a new book is like meeting someone new. Sometimes, you just click.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone tells the story of 17-year-old Karou, an apparent orphan raised by three chimaera (mythical creatures with bodies that are both human and animal), but growing up alone in the human world. Needless to say, she presents quite the enigma – especially to herself. She knows her situation is far from normal, but Brimstone – her part-ram, part-reptile, part-human father figure – is determined that she remains ignorant of the reasons.
Everything changes with the arrival of an angel. Ridiculously beautiful and clearly haunted by a horrific past, Akiva has the answers for which Karou has been desperate all her life. The only problem is, he seems to want to kill her.
Reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone is like reading a dream; Laini Taylor tempers fantasy with reality in such a way that convinces the reader of the existence of both. Her characters, too, are the stuff of dreams – and nightmares. Taylor proves an expert in her manipulation of perspective – her complete recreation of mythical stereotypes and the origin of the enmity between angels and devils is inspired.
You want some advice? I’d clear a day or two in the diary before you start reading this, if I were you.
For those who love:
Stephenie Meyer,
Malorie Blackman.
Vicky Galvin is studying a Masters at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She has an unhealthy obsession with Regency England and is really bad at writing about herself in the third person.
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