Review: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Release Date: September 27, 2011
Pages: 420

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. 

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. 

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war. 

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out. 

When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?

A lot of buzz has been generated around this book. I was very much looking forward to it; it looked so different and unique. Unfortunately, I didn't love it. I very much enjoyed it, but I was anticipating a lot more out of it. 

You can't deny that this book is unique. Everything about it is original: from the character's names to the story to the characters themselves. That is one thing that I really enjoyed about it. 

For whatever reason, I had a hard time getting into this book. It wasn't that it was slow, I just couldn't get into it. This got better about halfway through, but then I lost interest again. I guess you could say it was kind of a roller coaster for me. 

I think one reason I didn't like this book as much was the characters. I never really connect with them. This may be due to the originality. Not that originality is a bad thing, but when the characters are so different, I can't connect with them and bring myself to truly care about them. This may just be me, though. I'm sure other people really like this aspect. 

Overall, Daughter of Smoke and Bone was not what I was expecting. In some ways it was a nice surprise, but in others it was a bit lacking. It's not that I didn't like it, because it was enjoyable and very entertaining. Again, what I didn't like about this book may be what others truly enjoy.