Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

"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.

Reading Format: Paperback
Year Read: 2013
Star Rating: 5 stars

Although I was intrigued by the book before reading it, I had been putting it off as I went through a bit of an "avoiding YA books because I'm an adult" phase. I'm so pleased I got over that!

While it is aimed at young adults, the main character is old for her age so it had a different feel to other books in this genre that I have read.

I fell in love with this book and the characters right from the start. It is about Karou, a blue-haired, 17 year old girl living in Prague who is trying to juggle two lives; one normal in this world where she is an art student and the other where she runs errands for a monstrous creature called Brimstone and is surrounded by fantastical creatures called chimaera. There is a lot about her past and present that she doesn't know so she has a sense of feeling incomplete.

The descriptions of the characters is great and I could really imagine what they looked like - I bet the people who like drawing fan art will have a field day on Laini Taylor's creations! They were all really interesting too and I liked their uniqueness's.

I especially felt drawn into the setting in Prague as only the week before I read the book I had visited there so I was able to really visualise where Karou and the other characters were and what they were seeing and experiencing.

I have since read the two follow up books in the series, Days of Blood & Starlight and Dreams of Gods & Monsters which I will post reviews for at a later date.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone: View on Amazon || View on Goodreads