Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
The blurb: Errand requiring immediate attention. Come.
The note was on vellum, pierced by the talons of the almost-crow that delivered it. Karou read the message. ‘He never says please’, she sighed, but she gathered up her things.
When Brimstone called, she always came.
In general, Karou has managed to keep her two lives in balance. On the one hand, she’s a seventeen-year-old art student in Prague; on the other, errand-girl to a monstrous creature who is the closest thing she has to family. Raised half in our world, half in ‘Elsewhere’, she has never understood Brimstone’s dark work – buying teeth from hunters and murderers – nor how she came into his keeping. She is a secret even to herself, plagued by the sensation that she isn’t whole.
Now the doors to Elsewhere are closing, and Karou must choose between the safety of her human life and the dangers of a war-ravaged world that may hold the answers she has always sought.
My review: This novel took me a little while to get into but then I was completely hooked! It’s fantastic, what more could you want than a blue haired heroine who dreams of being able to fly! Laini Taylor has created an epic, new fantasy world in Elsewhere, beautifully crafted and detailed with such lovely touches that she herself must be a magician to keep all those story threads under control!
I won’t give too much of the plot away but when it splits and you’ll understand this when you read it I was really thrown and ready to be disappointed. I thought the two narratives wouldn’t work together, that it was just too much of an epic undertaking.
I was, after a chapter however, convinced that the only person who could do it well was Laini Taylor, this is a beautiful, emotive and stirring book, a refreshing take on angels and a brilliant new addition to YA. Wishes created from teeth, a secretive and war torn world, a forever love story – utterly fantastic!
9.5 out of 10 stars! **********.5
