Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1) in The Wide Web of Friends in YA Books

Feb 19, 2014 Angela Blount rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, ya, urban-fantasy, no-hea-for-you

3 ½ Stars

Let me say up front, this was a supremely difficult book for me to rate/review...especially in coming up with a spoiler-free assessment. But it deserves that much, so here we go.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone begins as a sort of YA urban-fantasy, teetering on the verge of New Adult thanks to the heroine's raised-by-monsters state of independence and the Euro-centric cultural feel. (Oh, and more mentioning of 'penis' than I normally encounter in YA.) I would argue that, at a little past the
3 ½ Stars

Let me say up front, this was a supremely difficult book for me to rate/review...especially in coming up with a spoiler-free assessment. But it deserves that much, so here we go.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone begins as a sort of YA urban-fantasy, teetering on the verge of New Adult thanks to the heroine's raised-by-monsters state of independence and the Euro-centric cultural feel. (Oh, and more mentioning of 'penis' than I normally encounter in YA.) I would argue that, at a little past the halfway mark, the whole tone shifts and we're plunged into a full-on NA Fantasy...but I'll get to that a little later.

The story more or less swept me off my feet from the onset, and into the tantalizing vividness of modern-day Prague. The city itself was probably my favorite character. (At once archaic and exotic, by my meager American standards.) The heroine, Karou, lives what must be every art student's reverie—though she's also adrift, not allowed to know who or what she is. I flew through the first half and can honestly say I loved it—largely due to Laini Taylor's evocative prose and liquid-awesome style. Beautiful, darkly complex writing that rolls around in the mind and clings like a warm syrup.

While I deeply enjoyed the first 250 pages or so, I also have to say the dropping of details and backstory was somewhat sparse. The reader is strung along at great length waiting for more pieces of the puzzle. I was willing to be patient, hoping for a grand payoff. But what I ultimately encountered was a sort of atom-bomb of world-building encased in one of the longest flashbacks I've ever encountered. The abrupt surge of other-worldly sociopolitical, cultural, historical, alternate mythological, and fantasy elements left my head a bit muddled. At that point, it also seemed like we lost Karou and had to become acquainted with someone else entirely. And for this reader at least, that last 1/3rd of the book became a somewhat dissonant slog that almost felt like an entirely different book.

Oh, and there's insta-love—or near enough to it. Which is apparently fated, but I'm not clear on why. Don't get me wrong—I appreciated the fantasy parallels to Romeo and Juliet. But as the hero/love interest, Akiva fell a bit flat. He just seemed to be missing some intangible -something- I couldn't quite put my finger on, but which would have made him come more alive. And at the (somewhat dismal) end...I find I'm still not clear on why, exactly, so much critical information was kept from Karou. (If someone can offer some reasoning I may have missed, I'm all ears! Er...eyes? >.> But certainly not teeth, hehe.)

I enjoyed the writing and originality enough to round up to 4-stars, but alas, I can't say I'd be interested in reading further into this series. I really did hope I'd be enticed into continuing on. I will, however, be keeping an eye out for more of Taylor's works. A different sort of plotline could make all the difference. And her way with words is too delectable not to sample further.

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Oct 23, 2012 Chester rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011-to-2015-pub

I've never really been drawn to the angel/human, angel/devil sort of stories. I've tried Lauren Kate's Fallen and it didn't do well with me. So even when this got a lot of hype, I still wasn't expecting too much of it. But, despite my doubts, I bought the book. And so I turned the first page and it said...

"Once upon a time, an angel and devil fell in love.
It did not end well."

I was so ready for disappointment that I did not for one second realized that I just might like it.

But I did.

Daught ...more

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Apr 30, 2011 Carie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I haven't been able to stop thinking about this book. I LOVED it!! So vivid, beautiful, alive, and romantic! Heart-wrenching at times, very unique and imaginative, and I had no idea what would happen next as I read. Some very sweet moments, as well as a little humor and some tense, scary parts. And, I really lost myself in this story. It's amazing! Loved all of the characters and the fascinating revelations--like a mystery unfolding one page at a time. I would recommend this book for older teens ...more

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May 29, 2011 Catherine Keaton rated it liked it

Shelves: read-in-2012

3.5/5 stars.

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Nov 27, 2011 M. rated it liked it

Shelves: new-series, waiting-for-completion, ya-pnr, fantasy, witch-sorcerer-magic, angels

* Review with Spoilers *

I have mixed feelings about Daughter of Smoke & Bone. It is always hard for me to read a book that has such stellar reviews because then my expectations get set too high and almost always I end up disappointed. This book didn't completely bomb but I also didn't find it a masterpiece either. It didn't evoke any deeper feelings in me or made me suffer with the characters.

Here is what I liked about it:

The world was very original and the story had a certain flair of Romeo an * Review with Spoilers *

I have mixed feelings about Daughter of Smoke & Bone. It is always hard for me to read a book that has such stellar reviews because then my expectations get set too high and almost always I end up disappointed. This book didn't completely bomb but I also didn't find it a masterpiece either. It didn't evoke any deeper feelings in me or made me suffer with the characters.

Here is what I liked about it:

The world was very original and the story had a certain flair of Romeo and Juliet that I really enjoyed. The writing wasn't bad either, maybe a little bit too embellished for my taste, but I can't deny that Laini Taylor is a very talented writer.

Now here were my problems with it:

The pace - there were many parts in this novel where the plot dragged and I blame that to the very long flashbacks that completely disrupted the focus of the novel. I understood the necessity of those flashbacks but in my opinion they shouldn't have taken entire chapters. The world building was a bit too heavy on the information dump too and that helped to slow the pace of the book as well.

The POV - I didn't like the third person POV. Granted I usually prefer first person POVs anyways, but not all third person POVs are bad. However, the way the third person POV was done in this book felt too much like a commentator was narrating a story, like in the movie 'Twelve'. It made difficult for me to really connect with the characters. I think this story would have been ten times better if it had been written from Karou's and Akiva's perspectives.

The characters - I'm not sure about Karou. I don't like or dislike her. I'm on the fence. I respect her loyalty to her family, but I also loath it, especially at the end. I like Akiva better but I also didn't like how he couldn't be honest with his family from the start and how he turned his back on them. So you see, I got angry because Karou wouldn't put Akiva first before her family like he did for her and got angry because Akiva didn't put his family first. Not a reaction that makes a lot of sense, but oh well.

The romance - the insta-love between Karou and Akiva was explained after Akiva's big secret was revealed (Well, not so much of a secret since I think everyone who read this book figured it out early on who Karou was). However, what was the explanation behind the insta-love between Akiva and Madrigal? I only got that they were both extremely attractive and how could they possibly want anyone else? The parts were we could see how their relationship blossomed was glossed over and just mentioned in passing.

I could also complain about the cliffhanger but I would only be complaining in vain. Most series nowadays have cliffhangers, so either I wait until the series is completed or I just shut my mouth and accept it as the inevitable.

I realize that my list of things I didn't like is way longer than the list of things I liked. So one wonders why is so much easier to express your dislikes than your likes. Well, in my case, the dislikes were really annoyances. That is it. They annoyed me because they kept this book from being awesome. It's not like I want to read a book only to pick it apart. Hell no. If I could I would only read books that I could give 5 stars. And make no mistake, Daughter of Smoke & Bone totally had the potential. That is why I'm continuing to read this series in the hopes that it will live to its potential.

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Dec 28, 2011 Anna rated it really liked it

I think 3.5 stars.

This book from start to finish was NOTHING like I expected. It just kept going in the other direction from what I was expecting, sometimes good and sometimes bad.

I only gave it 3.5 stars because I felt a lot of disconnect with the characters. I felt little to know passion from Karou and Akiva, I just didn't believe it...actually scratch that I felt it sometimes from Akiva and once or twice from Madrigal but never together, it was weird. This rubbed me a little the wrong way bec ...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Amy rated it really liked it

I loved this book. I don't read much fantasy, because honestly, I don't always understand the characters and get lost in the made up names and creatures. This book did a good job mixing real world and fantasy though. It had somewhat of a mystery to it that I didn't quite figure out until the end and that was a nice surprise. The world building was great and the characters were likable. Can't wait for the sequel. ...more

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