Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

Beautiful sparkly pretty Magical Angel Boyfriend look at the pretty WHEEEE!

Little, Brown & Company, 2011, 418 pages

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?

Warning: This book annoyed me. Hence, much profanity.

( I give it points for the phrase 'inessential penises.' )

Verdict: THIS IS A MAGICAL ANGEL BOYFRIEND BOOK! Okay, I just had to get that out there to warn anyone else who, like me, stupidly thought it was something else. If you like Magical Angel Boyfriend books, I think that you will love The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, because the writing and the worldbuilding is very good for what it is. If you don't -- well, I really did love Laini Taylor's writing, just not her themes or what the story turned out to be, so I'll wait until she writes something less likely to make me headdesk at misguided expectations.

Book Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor

Beautiful sparkly pretty Magical Angel Boyfriend look at the pretty WHEEEE!

Little, Brown & Company, 2011, 418 pages

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?

Warning: This book annoyed me. Hence, much profanity.

( I give it points for the phrase 'inessential penises.' )

Verdict: THIS IS A MAGICAL ANGEL BOYFRIEND BOOK! Okay, I just had to get that out there to warn anyone else who, like me, stupidly thought it was something else. If you like Magical Angel Boyfriend books, I think that you will love The Daughter of Smoke and Bone, because the writing and the worldbuilding is very good for what it is. If you don't -- well, I really did love Laini Taylor's writing, just not her themes or what the story turned out to be, so I'll wait until she writes something less likely to make me headdesk at misguided expectations.