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Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 418
Total Page Count: 112,589
Text Number: 324
Read Because: book is by a local author and was advertised at a local bookstore, borrowed from the Corvallis library
Review: Strange, blue-haired Karou knows almost nothing about her identity—except that to her, the half-human, half-beast chimaera that raised her are as normal as the art school she attends in Prague. But when her chimaera family is threatened, Karou must do what she can to save them—and to discover who she is. Sometimes I feel like I didn't read the same book as everyone else. Daughter of Smoke and Bone begins almost absurdly: Karou is too idealized even to be called a Mary Sue, and her remarkable, snowflake-unique perfection would be satirical if the book exhibited any sort of self-awareness; instead, it's a mockery, a routine teen drama with an untouchably idealized protagonist. It takes 90 pages to move beyond those limitations, introducing a unique plot and intense character interactions—and when it does, it exhibits potential. At its best, Daughter is darker, bolder, and more lyrical than its paranormal young adult cousins; its worldbuilding is unique and its protagonist driven, and it attains a compulsive and absorbing readability. But Daughter is rarely at its best. The prose is lyrical but unpolished, scenes overlap and the point of view jumps around, and the titled chapters creates a distracting, corny case of title drop every few pages. The worldbuilding, meanwhile, is smothered by an intense romance. That romance, ultimately a combination of fate and love at first sight, isn't to my taste, but it does attain remarkable power; unfortunately, it exists out of balance with the rest of the book, and despite its power it's predictable, adds little, and distracts from the plot; it crowds out Karou's present for the sake of her past, leaving the book with a sequel-ready cliffhanger.
This isn't to call Daughter of Smoke and Bone bad, which it's not; unfortunately, nor is it the breath of fresh air I expected from reviews, or as good as I expect even in my pleasure reading. It's readable, escapist fantasy with a welcome dark bent and high aims, it has an indulgent lushness and even at its most romantic it never drags, but it has weaknesses that constantly detract, keeping it in the realm of just another paranormal teen romance: a better than average example of the genre, perhaps, but that's not saying much. I enjoyed it, but it didn't live up to my expectations, and I don't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Laini Taylor
Published: New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 418
Total Page Count: 112,589
Text Number: 324
Read Because: book is by a local author and was advertised at a local bookstore, borrowed from the Corvallis library
Review: Strange, blue-haired Karou knows almost nothing about her identity—except that to her, the half-human, half-beast chimaera that raised her are as normal as the art school she attends in Prague. But when her chimaera family is threatened, Karou must do what she can to save them—and to discover who she is. Sometimes I feel like I didn't read the same book as everyone else. Daughter of Smoke and Bone begins almost absurdly: Karou is too idealized even to be called a Mary Sue, and her remarkable, snowflake-unique perfection would be satirical if the book exhibited any sort of self-awareness; instead, it's a mockery, a routine teen drama with an untouchably idealized protagonist. It takes 90 pages to move beyond those limitations, introducing a unique plot and intense character interactions—and when it does, it exhibits potential. At its best, Daughter is darker, bolder, and more lyrical than its paranormal young adult cousins; its worldbuilding is unique and its protagonist driven, and it attains a compulsive and absorbing readability. But Daughter is rarely at its best. The prose is lyrical but unpolished, scenes overlap and the point of view jumps around, and the titled chapters creates a distracting, corny case of title drop every few pages. The worldbuilding, meanwhile, is smothered by an intense romance. That romance, ultimately a combination of fate and love at first sight, isn't to my taste, but it does attain remarkable power; unfortunately, it exists out of balance with the rest of the book, and despite its power it's predictable, adds little, and distracts from the plot; it crowds out Karou's present for the sake of her past, leaving the book with a sequel-ready cliffhanger.
This isn't to call Daughter of Smoke and Bone bad, which it's not; unfortunately, nor is it the breath of fresh air I expected from reviews, or as good as I expect even in my pleasure reading. It's readable, escapist fantasy with a welcome dark bent and high aims, it has an indulgent lushness and even at its most romantic it never drags, but it has weaknesses that constantly detract, keeping it in the realm of just another paranormal teen romance: a better than average example of the genre, perhaps, but that's not saying much. I enjoyed it, but it didn't live up to my expectations, and I don't recommend it.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
