Editors Note: What’s This? Are we a book review website now?
Well no. We’re still doing all the great things you’ve come to love about FresYes. However, this is another from Emma. She’s in 7th grade and a voracious reader. We loved it and thought it just needed to be shared and hope you do too! Have a young reader in your home? We’d love to share their book review too.
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Hello! I have yet another book review! What did you expect? It’s prime reading time! And this one’s a beauty! This time I have for you…(drum roll please)… Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor! I have no words for this book. It was just absolutely amazing. It’s on a whole other level of books.
Daughter of Smoke & Bone is about Karou, a girl shrouded in mystery with naturally blue hair and a knack for going missing. Karou is an art student, and an exemplary one at that. Yes, she draws all the normal stuff like bowls of fruit and statues, but her real passion lies in her drawings of imaginary creatures. But, these creatures might not be so imaginary. Here is a Goodreads.com summary that I feel puts the book in perfect words.
Around the world, black hand prints 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 grows dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly 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 beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery 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?
OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. When I finished this book (very quickly I might add), I was blown away. Every single thing I talk about in my reviews had been hit spot on. It was just so well-written that I can’t even put the perfection into words. So, I thought I would introduce some new topics that this book ALSO nailed.
Two words. World building. The difficulty of writing a book that takes place in two worlds at the same time, not to mention when you throw in the past and present, is SO IMMENSE. Daughter of Smoke & Bone takes place in our world at our time, a fictional world at our time, AND the fictional world eighteen years ago. When writing with three settings like these, it’s so incredibly important to keep the world of reality relevant, and the world of fantasy alive. Not only did Laini Taylor have to balance out a fantasy world with a real world, she had to show how the fantasy world had changed over 18 years. Let’s just say, she did just so. Taylor knows how to keep all three settings separate yet compatible. The worlds flow together without blending together, if you know what I mean.
Another big point that I don’t usually bring up is originality. Yes, yes I know every story is different; that’s the author’s job, to be original. But a lot of books can be compared to each other. But if someone asked me to name a book that was similar to Daughter of Smoke & Bone, I wouldn’t be able to. There is no book like this one. The storyline, the characters, the world, it’s all so unique.
So it’s safe to say that Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor is certainly high up on my bookshelf. It’s an everlasting story that continues in the next two books, Days of Blood & Starlight and Dreams of Gods & Monsters. Definitely a must read for anyone that appreciates a good story.
In my next review, I’ll be discussing something that holds a very special place in my heart. An oldie but a goodie, a true masterpiece. But you’ll have to wait to find out what it is!
-ECtheBOOKLION
Buy the Book:
Author’s Website
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
- Book Review: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child - October 11, 2016
- Book Review: This Is Where It Ends - September 11, 2016
- Book Review: Daughter ofSmoke & Bone By Laini Taylor - August 8, 2016
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