Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Series: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Volume: 1

Why I Read It: The first attempt? I like fantasy. The second attempt? A friend of mine encouraged me to give it another go. And I finished it this time.

A Quick Intro: Karou isn't a normal girl. She has blue hair (naturally blue- it grows out of her head that colour) and lives in a space-traveling travelling house with four creatures call chimera. She collects teeth for the said chimera, and has had eyes tattooed on her hands ever since she can remember. Her life is about to get even stranger- now burning hand prints are appearing on doors all over the world, as are rumours of the appearance of angels.

What I Thought: Laini Taylor has created quite an imaginative world. I'll hand her that right away, before I say anything else. As I mentioned, it took me two tries to get through it. I was incredibly put off of hearing about Karou's character in the beginning. She just seemed petty, and after about five pages I was sick of hearing about the ex-boyfriend. I was really only pulled in once we actually got the angels involved, and into the story. I'm still not in love with Karou's character, but I'm willing to pick up Days of Blood and Starlight. The world Laini Taylor creates is very engaging. I was glad of Zuzana and Mik were present to add an outside element, but when Karou came back to them for a little while it came a little disjointed. They way teeth are used in the magic are a fascinating, and suitably gruesome, which was actually lovely.  The world redeemed it for me, and I was pulled into Akiva and Madrigal's story (I won't say anything more, because spoilers), I wanted to know how their story ended (besides horribly). The element of darkness in the story was nice. It was a different kind of atmosphere than in books that I am used to. I don't really have too much to say about this book without the enormous spoilers.