Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor Review

It’s been so long since I have read a fantasy book and Daughter of Smoke and Bone has definitely got me back into reading fantasy books like this. It took me a while to get into the actual story but after a few chapters I was hooked. 

The story is mainly set in Prague and we first meet our protagonist, Karou, when she is on her way to the art school that she attends. From the start it was obvious that Karou was not someone who would just sit by and not do anything. Her encounter with Kaz, her ex-boyfriend, shows that she isn’t afraid of fighting and defending herself. Although it seems that Karou leads a normal life, she secretly works for a Wishmonger called Brimstone and enters his world through portals described as ordinary doors. The world that Laini Taylor created was so interesting and I loved finding out more information about the chimaera world. Black handprints begin to appear on doorways around the world, left by mysterious winged strangers who are gone in an instant. On one instance, Karou sees the black handprint and thinks nothing of it but when she is confronted by and angel in Marrakesh, her whole life changes. I have never read a book like this before and Laini Taylor’s writing perfectly brings the characters and setting to life. 

I give this book 5 out of 5 stars because I absolutely loved the plot, characters and her writing style and it has made me want to start reading more fantasy books which I am usually quite apprehensive about. I am meeting Laini Taylor in May and I am so excited to talk to her and get my books signed. I can’t say much about this book without giving away some of the main plot points so if you haven’t read this book then don’t read any further. 

After reading this book, Karou has definitely become one of my favourite protagonists. She was not afraid to get her hands dirty and I loved that she knew how to fight and defend herself. When Karou was cut off from Brimstone and Elsewhere, she took charge and tried to find her own way back rather than wait for someone to come and save her which, unfortunately, seems to be a running theme in some YA books nowadays. I suppose it is impossible to talk about Karou without talking about Madrigal. When the similarities between Karou and Madrigal were first shown, I knew that there was some kind of link between them. I thought that Karou had been a descendant of Madrigal and perhaps that Madrigal had been her mother, due to Karou not having parents. Finding out that Karou and Madrigal are the same person slightly annoyed me as it seemed that all the character development that we had seen of Karou was gone as soon as Madrigal’s past was revealed. This is probably the only criticism I have of this book and while I don’t think it is a bad plot point, I just personally didn’t like it. 

I loved Akiva’s character and the fact that he didn’t kill Karou when he had the chance made me like him as it showed that he had a bit of humanity and wasn’t just an angel who wanted revenge. Although he did play a part in burning down the portals, I never thought of Akiva as the ‘villain’ of the story. It seemed that he was just following orders and doing what he had been raised to do. I loved reading the parts about Akiva and Madrigal as it made him seem more human and showed that he was more than just a soldier. I have seen reviews of this book where people have given it a low rating because of the fact that Akiva’s physical appearance is mentioned a lot. This frustrates me as angels have always been seen as beautiful and it would have been strange for Akiva to not be seen as beautiful by everyone. 

The star-crossed love of Karou and Akiva tugged at my heartstrings as I spent half the book wanting them to give in and be with each other. I loved the way Laini Taylor portrayed their relationship and showed the gradual development of feelings rather than them instantly falling in love with each other. Their physical attractiveness to each other was shown quite a lot but this was to be expected because Akiva is an angel. Thinking back on certain points of the book, it was quite obvious that Karou and Madrigal were the same person as they had similar mannerisms and this can’t have just been a coincidence. I loved the forbidden love aspect of the book and although some people see it as cliche I feel like it was done by Laini Taylor in a way that was completely different to how I’ve seen it before.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and have already started the sequel in preparation for the release of the final instalment in April. I’m so excited to find out more about Karou and Akiva and also more about Elsewhere and the battle between the angels and demons.