Daughter of Smoke and Bone [Kindle Edition]

This is the story of a beautiful, blue-haired girl named Karou, who has one foot in the normal world, and one foot in the world of magical beasts, monsters she calls friend or even family, teeth in exchange wishes, and lots and lots of unanswered questions. The most prevalent of all being "Who are you, Karou?"

Let's get this set in stone before I get on with the bits I didn't like: Laini Taylor has a real way with words. And that's a very overused phrase, I know, but in this case it just happens to be true. The writing is several grades above that of many of the YAs I've read; it's fanciful, lyrical and often beautiful. She paints with words in the same way Karou fills her sketchbook with the beautiful images of her monstrous friends. Images she passes off to her art class friends as fantasy. Little do they know they are real likenesses of real people/beasts/creatures. The descriptions were sometimes so vivid that I almost felt like I could see the pages of Karou's book, or the streets of Prague. And I particularly enjoyed the description of Zuzana's marionette performance. So, initially I was extremely impressed, intrigued and expecting to be hooked into the story any minute now. Any minute. Aaaaany second now.

But, sadly, as much as I enjoyed the writing style and could appreciate its quality, I'm afraid I didn't care quite as much for the actual story or the plot devices used within it, and that "hook" that I was waiting for, never came.

I spent much of the beginning section of the book confused because we were given so many questions with no answers forthcoming. This I can normally deal with; I don't mind being teased and tantalised if the payoff is worth it. But when I realised what those answers were slowly seeming to add up to, I couldn't contain my groan. I can't give away what it was because it would be highly spoilerific, but let's just say I hate that particular plot device. I think it made the potentially interesting relationship between Karou and Akiva suddenly seem totally unauthentic. It was nothing more than thinly disguised insta-love in both its guises.

Character-wise, I thought Karou showed promise at the beginning of the book. When she was putting her ridiculous ex firmly in his pace, I had hope. That hope was dashed the second Akiva stepped onto the pages and the mooning began. Akiva's character, while sounding stunning to gaze upon, left no impression on me whatsoever.

Probably my favourite character was Brimstone, he seemed the most interesting of the bunch but was only in the very beginning and was not given a time to shine.

I ultimately felt no pull towards this book other than to appreciate its quality and beauty from afar. Really, really far afar. I'd compare it to a fine piece of art I can admire the talent behind, but wouldn't want to actually hang in my lounge. I also intensely disliked the ending so probably will not be continuing with the series.

3 Stars ★★★ - given a bonus star for the writing.

I'm not saying it's a bad book. It's fun. There is some great dialogue and subtle prose, lovely description and some unique concepts.

But it reads like a sugar rush, like devouring every single Young Adult teenage girl novel since 1990. YA has mostly moved on from the inevitable 'beautiful heroine, so beautiful everyone stares', with her supporting cast of equally beautiful friends and loves. The blue hair, tattoos, the karate, the flying, the magic, the more magic, and then throw in some angels/demons, throw in some war, throw in a masquerade ball, now we have a reincarnation subplot, now have a love story, oh wait - a forbidden love story, of course, and...

And it all just gets too much, like it was a checklist of popular ideas rolled into one. The unique idea of the Wishmonger is lost amongst the rest, which is a shame because I loved the system of scuppies and shings (though Gavriels just made me think of Guy Gavriel Kay). The decision to set it in Prague is completely lost as the dialogue is still extremely American, with American slang, humour and reference (example: Czechs do not take the North American brand known as Tylenol. They take Paralen there.) It is tiring to read of the heroine's unstopping perfection and her ability to wish her appearance, linguistic skill and flying ability takes away any sense of risk from the book.

I'd have probably liked this a lot more when I was 12 or 13, and I admired Dee's martial arts in The Forbidden Game, and Jennifer's subtle beauty, and Audrey's Euro-sophistication - but that was various qualities spread out over a cast, not lumped all over one heroine who, for all her flashy skills, fashion descriptions and beauty, we still don't really know as a person.

It is enjoyable, like candy floss is enjoyable even though everyone's now moved onto health foods. But you still wish that the Wishmonger plot developed into something fresh and new, and not just the old magical-beautiful-girl-with-forbidden-angelic-lover again.

This is an inventively plotted fantasy novel with a difference. Set initially in Prague, it's the story of teenage art student Karou. But the story quickly morphs from college classes and boyfriend troubles into something much stranger. What are the strange "errands" Karou must fulfil? Where does she go when she disappears from the city without warning? How can she speak so many languages? Why does her long, bright blue hair never seem to need dyeing?

We soon understand that this is a girl with a foot in two worlds; the everyday urban one populated by humans, and the place she calls "Elsewhere", where she was raised by chimaera - hybrid creatures much stranger than herself. But her secret world is under threat: deceptively beautiful interlopers are marking it for destruction, along with all it contains. And Karou's peculiar fate is to fall in love with one of them.

The plot shape of the novel has much in common with "Romeo and Juliet", just like the 'Twilight' cycle, but it's much more inventive and colourful than the vampire series. Closer in scope and intention to Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, it introduces a heroine as spirited as Lyra - and with an equally confused heritage to deal with. Karou's loyalties are divided, her path never clear. Should she trust the world that raised her and cared for her, or set herself adrift on a new river of discovery? Which kind of love is best - that of an adoptive father, or that of a murderous soulmate?

Daughter of Smoke And Bone is part supernatural romance, part epic fantasy. It starts small, but its world quickly opens out and reveals imaginative dimensions you simply don't envisage at the start. It only fault is that the main plot twist of this first book in the trilogy is a little to easy to predict; Karou's secret past isn't quite as much of a surprise to us as it evidently is to her. But this is a small complaint. Read and enjoy - I'll certainly be devouring the subsequent instalments when they appear.