Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2) in Pick-a-Shelf

Jan 09, 2012 Misty rated it it was amazing

Shelves: review-copy-accepted, angels-and-demons, excited-for, arc-or-galley, series, supernatural-paranormal, juvenile-ya, sci_fi-fantasy, folklore-myth-fable-fairy-tall-tale, read-in-2012

Initially:

HOLY HELL I LIKED THIS EVEN MORE THAN THE FIRST.

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Feb 05, 2012 D.G. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, audiobook, reviewed, awesome-narration, fantasy

If the first book was light and hope, Days of Blood and Starlight is pain and sorrow, grief and despair, darkness and death, guilt and a heartbreak so vast that sometimes it would overwhelm me in an agony that was almost physical. This is not an easy book to read and it couldn’t have been easy to write. It’s the best portrayal of war I’ve been in YA because even though it’s fantasy, it’s very real. This is not sanitized violence like in video games; there is blood, hurt and revulsion, with soldi If the first book was light and hope, Days of Blood and Starlight is pain and sorrow, grief and despair, darkness and death, guilt and a heartbreak so vast that sometimes it would overwhelm me in an agony that was almost physical. This is not an easy book to read and it couldn’t have been easy to write. It’s the best portrayal of war I’ve been in YA because even though it’s fantasy, it’s very real. This is not sanitized violence like in video games; there is blood, hurt and revulsion, with soldiers in both sides wondering if there will ever be an end in sight while their leaders plot atrocities in the name of victory.

I had to take this book in a small doses because I really didn’t see how things could improve. It seems that the destiny of these people was to kill each other until the end of time and frankly if that’s what I wanted to see, I would have watched the news. But then a tendril of hope emerged in the story, frail and almost invisible, which grew in strength as more and more characters realized that there must be another way:

These weren’t her folk but…they were. And maybe that meant that anyone could be anyone’s, which was a sort of nice thing to think with the world falling apart.

Mercy breeds mercy as slaughter breeds slaughter. We can’t expect the world to be better than we make it.

The growth in both characters was a thing to behold. At the beginning of this book, both Karou and Akiva are broken and by the end, they still are. They haven’t come to terms with the past but they are not paralyzed by the scope of their guilt. By degrees, they realize that they cannot change what happened but they can change the future, that their dream is still possible even if it’s not in the form they dreamed it. I don’t know if there’s any future for them but the surprising developments of the story tell me there will be a future for their people.

Don’t be afraid that the book is all darkness. We are saved from a thoroughly depressing read by Zuzana and Mick, which are, hands down, the best secondary couple in YA, EVER! They were the lightness, the laugh, the music and the love that both characters and readers desperately needed. Neither the Chimera nor the Angels have ever lived in peace but Zuzana and Mick are their example that a bright future is possible.

The book was by no means perfect. The narrative was slowed down by changes in POV and long winded thoughts in the middle of action scenes. Sometimes I felt like screaming…get over it already! I really hope that Ms. Taylor curbs this tendency because this time it just affected the pacing of the story, any more could tip her narrative from imaginative and descriptive to self important and maudlin.

Overall, this was a wonderful book and I’m already counting the days until I can see how it all ends.

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Dec 05, 2012 Luann rated it liked it

Shelves: gr-author, fantasy, young-adult, adult, 2014

I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as the first one, although there was a time somewhere in the middle where I didn't want to stop reading. I was caught up in finding out what was going to happen to these characters. I did feel that some of the violence was over the top and quite disturbing. So while I can't really recommend this wholeheartedly, I do want to read the next book in the series. 2.5 stars. ...more

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May 03, 2013 Sunflower rated it liked it

Shelves: series-books, e-books, fiction-read-2013

It's starting to really piss me off when I get to the end of a book and find that it isn't finished at all, and there's a sequel that isn't out yet. In my ideal world, all parts of a series would stand alone, and be able to be read on their own, if the reader so wished. On the plus side, this author doesn't baby the reader by going over and over stuff that was in the previous book. If you can't remember then you're not keeping up! Though if you WERE reading this without the previous one, you wou ...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Kate rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mini-books, unlock-that-gridlock

This isn't going to be a long review because I don't think I can read it without majorly spoiling it.

This one keeps you guessing. Who is good? Who is bad? Is there a good and a bad or is that only an illusion? Can you forgive someone who does the unforgivable? How do you move on with your life when the one you trusted and loved the most destroyed the everything else you loved... everyone else you love? Can you ever forgive that person?

Karou deals with all of that and more in Days of Blood & Star ...more

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