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Daughter of Smoke & Bone #2
Days of Blood & Starlight
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.
This is not that world.
Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
This is not that world.
Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.
But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
517 pages, Hardcover
First published November 6, 2012
About the author
Laini Taylor
40 books39.2k followersHi! I write fantasy books. My latest is STRANGE THE DREAMER, about a young librarian, a mythic lost city, and the half-human children of murdered gods. Check it out :-) Before that I wrote the DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE trilogy, which has been translated into 32 languages. It's about a blue-haired art student raised by monsters, a broken angel, and a war that has raged for 1000 years in another world. I also wrote LIPS TOUCH: THREE TIMES, which was a National Book Award finalist, and the DREAMDARK books. As well as various short stories and novellas.
Thanks for reading!!
www.lainitaylor.com
@lainitaylor
Thanks for reading!!
www.lainitaylor.com
@lainitaylor
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 16,038 reviews
June 4, 2020
5 SMOKING STARS!
Daughter of Smoke & Bone Review
You can find the full review and more about this book on my blog
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(This may contain spoilers)
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(This may contain spoilers)
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(This may contain spoilers)
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The story:
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The characters:
Karou
Akiva
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*Pictures from the review are not mine, I took them mostly from Google images or Tumblr*
Daughter of Smoke & Bone Review
This is the best sequel I have ever read.The first book was great ,but this one...perfection.Everything fits amazing,the characters had a truly development,they are perfectly explained and described,the background is smoky cool,and antique.The story is mind blowing,written so smart.There were some moments I was speechless,like what just happened.
You can find the full review and more about this book on my blog
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“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.
Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.
This was not that world.”
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The writing style as in the first book was classic and unique.It is what makes this book ever more special.The author has this way of twisting words.Confusing sometimes but it is so beautiful to read.
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“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.”
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(This may contain spoilers)
There are some moments that got me,left me mouth opened like the scene with the white wolf and Karou in the court.They way Thiago turned the case on his side was mind blowing and so smart.
Also the scene with Karou and Akiva and Thiago in the same room and the scene after that was awesome.I don't even know how the author came with that idea.It was brilliant and wise!
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“I am one of billions. I am stardust gathered fleetingly into form. I will be ungathered. The stardust will go on to be other things someday and I will be free.”
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(This may contain spoilers)
What I can't get are the thoughts of Karou toward Akiva.Yes I know her family had died because of the angels but he was not the one to blame.Not alone.And yes he had broken the promise but he thought she was dead,and she would have done the same if she was in his shoes!
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“Your heart is not wrong. Your heart is your strength. You don't have to be ashamed.”
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(This may contain spoilers)
Also one of the hardest moments was when Hazael died.He was my favorite character.Such a cool person!
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“Nothing made you feel so useless as another person's grief.”
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And I would love if the author would write more about Mik and Zuzanna.Maybe a whole book just for them.The perfectly fit together and the coversations between them are so funny with dirty jokes and all that stuff.
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“It was interesting the way a small hate could grow inside a big hate and take it over.”
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The ending was hilarious and unexpected.The epilogue was beyond perfect and there was also a cliff.
The story:
This book follows the story of the first one.Now Karou left with only with rage decides to worth with her kind to help them fight the angels.In the other side Akiva looks for her everywhere and he doubts she may be dead.So the both sides prepare for the war,angels with the their king,and the chimaera with the white wolf. Karou is at her home now doing her job but is she really fighting the right enemy?
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“What can a soldier do when mercy is treason, and he is alone in it?”
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The characters:
Karou
In this book you can see a different side of Karou,a darker one.After what happened in the book,she has lost her ability to love.But behind her emotionless self she is still the girl who cared and loved.
Akiva
We can also see a different side of Akiva in this one.He is still the tough,smart angel and you could feel this need of lost love and its pain.Because there are a lot of emotion moments including Akiva we could spot some of his other qualities.
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“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.
Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.
This was not that world.”
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I highly recommend this book to all the readers.Read the first one first.And I'm looking forward to read the last one.I heard it is even better!
*Pictures from the review are not mine, I took them mostly from Google images or Tumblr*
December 17, 2020
Wow, I am impressed by the ode I wrote to this novel when I first read it. What a gush! Like this book still, although I feel it’s a little long. Impressive world-building.
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“Let’s see. You know how, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet wakes up in the crypt and Romeo’s already dead? He thought she was dead so he killed himself right next to her?”
“Yeah. That was awesome.” A pause, followed by “Ow,” suggested elbow punctuation on the part of Mik.
Karou ignored it. “Well, imagine if she woke up and he was still alive, but…” She swallowed, waiting out a tremor in her voice. “But he had killed her whole family. And burned her city. And killed and enslaved her people.” (Days of Blood & Starlight, chapter 47)
This is approximately the circumstances in which we find Karou and Akiva at the beginning of Days of Blood & Starlight. All available blurbs and summaries are a little coy and vague about what this sequel has in store for its readers. Wonder no more. This is a dark, brutal novel with a war at its core. At the opening, Akiva just gave his seraphim brotherhood all the tools to destroy chimaera, and chimaera...well, they are almost completely eradicated as a nation. Karou is chimaera's only real hope of survival. No more talk of romance and love in this story. Akiva and Karou are in different camps now, with an abyss of resentment, guilt and disappointment separating them.
I have already heard a few voices upset by this almost-no-romance development. Not everyone wants to be torn away from the heavy romantic story line of Daughter of Smoke & Bone and face the ugliness of never-ending war where nobody wins. But for me this trilogy is better for it. I am not the sort of reader whose attention can be held for long by romantic angst. I love reading about love, but I am not of the opinion that just love can sustain a series of books. Something bigger than that has to be at stake. In this book, there is, and it pushes all romantic woes to the background. And understandably so, considering the nature and severity of the rift between the lovers. Can you continue loving someone who initiated genocide of your nation? Will you expect to be forgiven for killing off your beloved's entire family? Probably not.
Days of Blood & Starlight also gave me more in terms of storytelling than I had anticipated. I didn't expect at all to be so deeply submerged into the world of chimaera and seraphim, to get to know it so intimately. I remember getting only a glimpse of Eretz in Days of Blood & Starlight. This sequel is an adventure through the Emperor's harem, chimaera's tribal villages, seraphim barracks, ruins of Loramendi and excesses of Astrae, and then a look at what is is BEYOND the borders of the land known to Akiva and Karou. It is such a pleasure to read something about a world that has so much depth to it, to feel like I will never know the full expanse of this world and every wonder it holds. The masterful twists at the end left me hungry for more and more, because as much as I know about Eretz now, I also know how much there is still left to explore.
Days of Blood & Starlight may be not as quirky and charming as its goulash- and skuppy mischief-filled predecessor, but it's a novel that encourages you to contemplate the consequences of war for both winners and losers and futility of revenge. Even though I missed Prague and ever annoying Kaz a little in Days of Blood & Starlight, reading it was still a pleasure, albeit a pleasure of a different kind.
________
“Let’s see. You know how, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet wakes up in the crypt and Romeo’s already dead? He thought she was dead so he killed himself right next to her?”
“Yeah. That was awesome.” A pause, followed by “Ow,” suggested elbow punctuation on the part of Mik.
Karou ignored it. “Well, imagine if she woke up and he was still alive, but…” She swallowed, waiting out a tremor in her voice. “But he had killed her whole family. And burned her city. And killed and enslaved her people.” (Days of Blood & Starlight, chapter 47)
This is approximately the circumstances in which we find Karou and Akiva at the beginning of Days of Blood & Starlight. All available blurbs and summaries are a little coy and vague about what this sequel has in store for its readers. Wonder no more. This is a dark, brutal novel with a war at its core. At the opening, Akiva just gave his seraphim brotherhood all the tools to destroy chimaera, and chimaera...well, they are almost completely eradicated as a nation. Karou is chimaera's only real hope of survival. No more talk of romance and love in this story. Akiva and Karou are in different camps now, with an abyss of resentment, guilt and disappointment separating them.
I have already heard a few voices upset by this almost-no-romance development. Not everyone wants to be torn away from the heavy romantic story line of Daughter of Smoke & Bone and face the ugliness of never-ending war where nobody wins. But for me this trilogy is better for it. I am not the sort of reader whose attention can be held for long by romantic angst. I love reading about love, but I am not of the opinion that just love can sustain a series of books. Something bigger than that has to be at stake. In this book, there is, and it pushes all romantic woes to the background. And understandably so, considering the nature and severity of the rift between the lovers. Can you continue loving someone who initiated genocide of your nation? Will you expect to be forgiven for killing off your beloved's entire family? Probably not.
Days of Blood & Starlight also gave me more in terms of storytelling than I had anticipated. I didn't expect at all to be so deeply submerged into the world of chimaera and seraphim, to get to know it so intimately. I remember getting only a glimpse of Eretz in Days of Blood & Starlight. This sequel is an adventure through the Emperor's harem, chimaera's tribal villages, seraphim barracks, ruins of Loramendi and excesses of Astrae, and then a look at what is is BEYOND the borders of the land known to Akiva and Karou. It is such a pleasure to read something about a world that has so much depth to it, to feel like I will never know the full expanse of this world and every wonder it holds. The masterful twists at the end left me hungry for more and more, because as much as I know about Eretz now, I also know how much there is still left to explore.
Days of Blood & Starlight may be not as quirky and charming as its goulash- and skuppy mischief-filled predecessor, but it's a novel that encourages you to contemplate the consequences of war for both winners and losers and futility of revenge. Even though I missed Prague and ever annoying Kaz a little in Days of Blood & Starlight, reading it was still a pleasure, albeit a pleasure of a different kind.
September 11, 2021
"She-devil sighting in southern Italy"
Laini Taylor is down to business with this second book, Days of Blood & Starlight (I don't think I'll remember the title though). Even though the my ratings for both books up to now ended up being 4-stars, this one was a solid 4+ where as the first one was only a rounded up 3.5. So, it's really Goodreads fault.
"My misanthropy knows no bounds. Hate rises off me like cartoon heat waves."
This one really made it clear that the first book was only a backstory installment, to create the world (which was spectacular) while developing the key characters (some of whom were amazing). Days of Blood & Starlight picks up from that solid foundation, providing the reader with a much more eventful, thrilling, and adventurous storyline. The somewhat annoying romance (though I probably belong to the minority here) is a little dialed down, and the plot is much more unpredictable. When you add Taylor's solid world building, and fabulous prose to that, we end up with an excellent successor to the first.
The changes (or growth) in the characters was one of the most noticeably things here. True, the first book's ending indicated Korou and Akiva might not share a single thread for a while, but that was not all. Both of them undergo considerable changes here, especially Korou, who is being converted to a very mature kind of character. Though I do miss the gleeful behavior from before, I love this new traits which complements the gloomy atmosphere of this second book. It's now clear that I got ahead of myself when I thought Hazael and Liraz to be villains in the first book, and looks like they'll probably end-up being amongst the favorites. Speaking of favorites, Zuzana is becoming entertaining by each conversation; I think she's a refreshing addition to the cast, but without appearing in a hackneyed manner, thanks to the author.
"There has to be some basic understanding of right and wrong, even when it comes to orders."
Now the ending... well, it did feel a bit weird. Since I'm writing this review after finishing the third book as well, I don't think I'm in the wrong here. During the last couple of the pages, the author did take a considerable leap forward, leaving some huge blank spaces. Luckily all those were completely filled in the third book. May be the author was in a bit of a hurry to finish the second one, then though better of it later and added the missing stuff there. But this second book, as I said before, is a great successor, and elevated the series to another level!
"All children are innocent. All children are sacred."
Laini Taylor is down to business with this second book, Days of Blood & Starlight (I don't think I'll remember the title though). Even though the my ratings for both books up to now ended up being 4-stars, this one was a solid 4+ where as the first one was only a rounded up 3.5. So, it's really Goodreads fault.
"My misanthropy knows no bounds. Hate rises off me like cartoon heat waves."
This one really made it clear that the first book was only a backstory installment, to create the world (which was spectacular) while developing the key characters (some of whom were amazing). Days of Blood & Starlight picks up from that solid foundation, providing the reader with a much more eventful, thrilling, and adventurous storyline. The somewhat annoying romance (though I probably belong to the minority here) is a little dialed down, and the plot is much more unpredictable. When you add Taylor's solid world building, and fabulous prose to that, we end up with an excellent successor to the first.
The changes (or growth) in the characters was one of the most noticeably things here. True, the first book's ending indicated Korou and Akiva might not share a single thread for a while, but that was not all. Both of them undergo considerable changes here, especially Korou, who is being converted to a very mature kind of character. Though I do miss the gleeful behavior from before, I love this new traits which complements the gloomy atmosphere of this second book. It's now clear that I got ahead of myself when I thought Hazael and Liraz to be villains in the first book, and looks like they'll probably end-up being amongst the favorites. Speaking of favorites, Zuzana is becoming entertaining by each conversation; I think she's a refreshing addition to the cast, but without appearing in a hackneyed manner, thanks to the author.
"There has to be some basic understanding of right and wrong, even when it comes to orders."
Now the ending... well, it did feel a bit weird. Since I'm writing this review after finishing the third book as well, I don't think I'm in the wrong here. During the last couple of the pages, the author did take a considerable leap forward, leaving some huge blank spaces. Luckily all those were completely filled in the third book. May be the author was in a bit of a hurry to finish the second one, then though better of it later and added the missing stuff there. But this second book, as I said before, is a great successor, and elevated the series to another level!
"All children are innocent. All children are sacred."
April 23, 2019
*Reread with For Love Of A Book
This book is amazing and it made me cry for really sad things and really good things and just OMG!
God!
Karou is living with the evil freaking Thiago and the other chimaera. They are all hateful and evil with the exception of a few. But I won't go into that without giving away some major spoilers that you need to read for yourself. OMG!
Karou is now the resurrectionist, she took over Brimstone's old job. But she is making things for Thiago that are horrific and more deadly. The war between the seraphim and chimaera is neverending.
There is blood and guts and savagery in this book. I mean why wouldn't there be in a war. And poor Karou is not where she wants to be, she's not in the life she wants to be in, she wants her friends back. The nicer chimaera, but we can't always get what we want, although, sometimes things do come back.
And poor Akiva. He's back with Hazael and Liraz fighting against the chimaera. He thinks Karou is dead until he finds out she's not. And one day she does forgive him for something he did, he didn't know, he just didn't know.
And then Zuzana (Karou's best friend) and Mik (Zuzana's boyfriend) show up at the creepy monster house to visit Karou. God, if they only knew what they were getting into and thank God at that time Thiago needed Karou or they would have been supper!
But it was so much fun with the days that Zuzana and Mik were there. There was so much laughter in with all of the horrific stuff. I really want those guys as my best friends too. Along with Karou and I want my own Akiva!
Thiago is doing horrible things to his people in order to make them stronger. He's also a jerk that does bad things to his people for other reasons too. But sometimes, a woman is just a bit smarter than the evil ruler. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it buddy!
I'm so freaking happy over this book! Well, okay accept of the crying and some other things.
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
This book is amazing and it made me cry for really sad things and really good things and just OMG!
Once upon a time,
an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them.
And it's snap split the world in two.
God!
Karou is living with the evil freaking Thiago and the other chimaera. They are all hateful and evil with the exception of a few. But I won't go into that without giving away some major spoilers that you need to read for yourself. OMG!
Karou is now the resurrectionist, she took over Brimstone's old job. But she is making things for Thiago that are horrific and more deadly. The war between the seraphim and chimaera is neverending.
Once upon a time, the sky knew
the weight of angel armies on the move,
and the wind blew infernal
with the fire of their wings.
There is blood and guts and savagery in this book. I mean why wouldn't there be in a war. And poor Karou is not where she wants to be, she's not in the life she wants to be in, she wants her friends back. The nicer chimaera, but we can't always get what we want, although, sometimes things do come back.
And poor Akiva. He's back with Hazael and Liraz fighting against the chimaera. He thinks Karou is dead until he finds out she's not. And one day she does forgive him for something he did, he didn't know, he just didn't know.
And then Zuzana (Karou's best friend) and Mik (Zuzana's boyfriend) show up at the creepy monster house to visit Karou. God, if they only knew what they were getting into and thank God at that time Thiago needed Karou or they would have been supper!
But it was so much fun with the days that Zuzana and Mik were there. There was so much laughter in with all of the horrific stuff. I really want those guys as my best friends too. Along with Karou and I want my own Akiva!
Thiago is doing horrible things to his people in order to make them stronger. He's also a jerk that does bad things to his people for other reasons too. But sometimes, a woman is just a bit smarter than the evil ruler. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it buddy!
I'm so freaking happy over this book! Well, okay accept of the crying and some other things.
MY BLOG: Melissa Martin's Reading List
April 26, 2023
"What are we fighting for? What are we killing for? What do you see when you look into the future?"
Gone are the first book's spunkiness and lightheartedness, and (thankfully!) the annoying romance angle (even though the deceiving and useless cover of this book may wrongly lead you thinking otherwise).
Instead the darkness and dirt and tiredness and betrayals and pain and weariness and hopelessness and violence and vengeance and grim determination set in, and it is so much more realized and gripping and touching than I hoped - having lived up to the promise that the first book in the series was trying to set up.
Days of Blood and Starlight are filled with blood and not that much starlight, after all. This book does not shy away from pulling gut punches, sometimes in a dirty way. And I loved it.
She is a shell-shocked survivor, and she tries to navigate her way through this new world in a daze, relying on pain and wearing herself out. The fire seems to be gone out of her for a while as she resigns herself to being a necessary albeit unwanted and resented player in the game - a puppet to be tolerated until she can be replaced. She does what she thinks needs to be done - and there is nothing warm and fuzzy or comforting about it. I have a soft spot for reading about those scarred by painful experiences, and Karou wins my heart with her plight. And yet she is determined and strong, with more steel in her backbone than I can imagine - because who could have doubted that she will eventually find her way?
And on the other hand, we have Akiva - the hated (at least by me) romantic interest from the first book, who (and that's a tribute to Laini Taylor's skill, I must say!) unexpectedly has enough character development for me to come to understand him and even grudgingly respect him. Akiva genuinely is trying to set things right - and not only because of his love for Karou but also, it appears, because of realizing how little cruelty and vengeance are actually worth. He is allowed to develop on his own, and not just as a part of a standard cutesy couple that he almost became with Karou many moons ago.
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....
The big theme of this book, the one that kept resonating with me, was the futility of violence and the longing for compassion and mercy and peace. The uselessness of adhering to the 'eye for an eye' approach to vengeance and violence is repeated over and over and over again. Because, as we have seen so many times in our real world, the natural compulsion is to answer violence with more of the same, to wreck vengeance, to make the other side feel your pain. Many seemingly 'righteous' wars, even recently, have been started on this idea, and the results of them have never been satisfying, have never been worth it; instead, only more suffering and pain was dealt to those caught in the middle of the fighting.
***
***
Breaking something is always easier than building something new - but it is rarely a sustainable solution to the problem. It seems so devastatingly simple - but yet so often overlooked, so often trampled in the search of more rewarding 'justice' - which causes more pain. The vicious cycle, isn't it? The futility of it is so obvious in literature, like this book, but why are we so blind to it in real life?
***
***
I can easily see this book not having such a following as the first book in the series did - because of the pronounced darkness of the tone and the decided lack of romance. The tensions are about the power, not about love. The conflict is not because of feelings but because of grim reality of war and power struggle. But this shift in tone and emphasis is what made me a fan of this book, and is what makes me really look forward to the next one in the series. Because sh*t is getting more real, believe me. And I want to learn more.
4.5 stars, without hesitation. I will even round up to five, given how much I enjoyed it. So there.
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My review of the first book in the series, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, is over here, by the way.
The third and final book, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, is reviewed here.
Gone are the first book's spunkiness and lightheartedness, and (thankfully!) the annoying romance angle (even though the deceiving and useless cover of this book may wrongly lead you thinking otherwise).
Instead the darkness and dirt and tiredness and betrayals and pain and weariness and hopelessness and violence and vengeance and grim determination set in, and it is so much more realized and gripping and touching than I hoped - having lived up to the promise that the first book in the series was trying to set up.
Days of Blood and Starlight are filled with blood and not that much starlight, after all. This book does not shy away from pulling gut punches, sometimes in a dirty way. And I loved it.
"A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all."It's not often that a sequel is stronger than it predecessor, but it's the case here. Laini Taylor unflinchingly minimized the wonder and cuteness and romance and instead focused on creating a rich landscape devastated by war, and characters wounded and scarred by it, and yet caught in the relentless cycle of violence which breeds more of the same.
"In the cycle of slaughter, reprisal begat reprisal, forever."Karou is hardly recognizable as the spunky blue-haired girl full of vitality that we came to love. She lost everything she held dear and permanent in her life, and is barely a shell of her old self, consumed by regret and shame and guilt which, honestly, she really does not deserve (and the frequently annoying in its persistent cheerfullness presence of Zuzana is a painful reminder of how different Karou's life has become).
She is a shell-shocked survivor, and she tries to navigate her way through this new world in a daze, relying on pain and wearing herself out. The fire seems to be gone out of her for a while as she resigns herself to being a necessary albeit unwanted and resented player in the game - a puppet to be tolerated until she can be replaced. She does what she thinks needs to be done - and there is nothing warm and fuzzy or comforting about it. I have a soft spot for reading about those scarred by painful experiences, and Karou wins my heart with her plight. And yet she is determined and strong, with more steel in her backbone than I can imagine - because who could have doubted that she will eventually find her way?
"Be your own place of safety, she told herself, straightening. No crossbar in the world could protect her from what lay ahead, and neither could a tiny knife ticked in her boot - though there her tiny knife would most certainly remain - and neither could a man, not even Akiva. She had to be her own strength, complete unto herself."Karou - resourceful, strong, level-headed, self-sufficient - you are still welcome to join my literary BFFs circle. Really.
And on the other hand, we have Akiva - the hated (at least by me) romantic interest from the first book, who (and that's a tribute to Laini Taylor's skill, I must say!) unexpectedly has enough character development for me to come to understand him and even grudgingly respect him. Akiva genuinely is trying to set things right - and not only because of his love for Karou but also, it appears, because of realizing how little cruelty and vengeance are actually worth. He is allowed to develop on his own, and not just as a part of a standard cutesy couple that he almost became with Karou many moons ago.
--------------
.....
....The big theme of this book, the one that kept resonating with me, was the futility of violence and the longing for compassion and mercy and peace. The uselessness of adhering to the 'eye for an eye' approach to vengeance and violence is repeated over and over and over again. Because, as we have seen so many times in our real world, the natural compulsion is to answer violence with more of the same, to wreck vengeance, to make the other side feel your pain. Many seemingly 'righteous' wars, even recently, have been started on this idea, and the results of them have never been satisfying, have never been worth it; instead, only more suffering and pain was dealt to those caught in the middle of the fighting.
***
***Breaking something is always easier than building something new - but it is rarely a sustainable solution to the problem. It seems so devastatingly simple - but yet so often overlooked, so often trampled in the search of more rewarding 'justice' - which causes more pain. The vicious cycle, isn't it? The futility of it is so obvious in literature, like this book, but why are we so blind to it in real life?
***
***I can easily see this book not having such a following as the first book in the series did - because of the pronounced darkness of the tone and the decided lack of romance. The tensions are about the power, not about love. The conflict is not because of feelings but because of grim reality of war and power struggle. But this shift in tone and emphasis is what made me a fan of this book, and is what makes me really look forward to the next one in the series. Because sh*t is getting more real, believe me. And I want to learn more.
4.5 stars, without hesitation. I will even round up to five, given how much I enjoyed it. So there.
-----------
My review of the first book in the series, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, is over here, by the way.
The third and final book, Dreams of Gods and Monsters, is reviewed here.
May 6, 2021
“Dead souls dream only of death. Small dreams for small men. It is life that expands to fill worlds. Life is your master, or death is.”
But of course, my favourite instalment in the DOSAB trilogy has the honour of being my 50th Goodreads review! ;)
(P.S. How did this happen???! I only began reviewing books in June! How did I manage to review 50 books in less than 5 months?! I am shooketh…)
Where to begin? Where to BEGIN? Now that I’m finally reviewing (arguably – as it changes on a day-to-day basis) my favourite book of all time, there is so much to discuss! I don’t think that I need to reiterate the beauty that is Laini Taylor’s breath-taking prose, as I gushed about it nonstop during my review for the previous book. This is a dark and brutal war story, this time around, in contrast with the magical, whimsy of the first instalment. I even watched an interview once with Laini Taylor, where she explicitly stated that she included the light and funny moments with Zuzana and Mik because, if she hadn’t, she risked making this book too dark and depressing, which I definitely agree was a smart move. Zuzana’s prominent role and witty banter provided much-needed levity in this novel, which had such dark themes, from war to death to prejudice…and even rape. I also know that I’m not alone in considering Zuzana to be one of my favourite characters, in not only this trilogy, but in YA fantasy itself! <3
“Let’s see. You know how, at the end of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet wakes up in the crypt and Romeo’s already dead? He thought she was dead so he killed himself right next to her?" … “Well, imagine if she woke up and he was still alive, but…” She swallowed, waiting out a tremor in her voice. “But he had killed her whole family. And burned her city. And killed and enslaved her people.”
Unfortunately for me, my ship’s romantic moments were essentially non-existent in this book, as well…mostly because of the revelations that came to pass at the end of the first instalment. Akiva is with his seraphim brethren at their camp as they formulate their next plan for attack, whilst Karou is trying to salvage what little is left of the chimaera race by undertaking Brimstone’s past responsibilities as the resurrectionist. Now, there is a void of resentment, guilt, disappointment, and betrayal separating the two of them, in addition to a complete lack of communication. As always, in literary relationships for some reason, many problems could be easily resolved if they actually CONVERSED with one another! Despite my disappointment as a result of the lack of swoon-worthy moments, I do not feel as if the absence of romantic developments hindered this novel at all. If anything, I think that it added to the intensity of the plot. Since there is a war going on around them and their loved ones are dropping like flies, Akiva and Karou have more important things to worry about. Their plates are pretty full at the moment and they don’t need to add relationship troubles into the mix. Their love lives aren’t the priority…the survival of their respective races IS. Thus, it only makes sense that romance has taken a backseat here. …I still adamantly and desperately ship them though! <3
There are spoilers for Daughter of Smoke and Bone, NOT Days of Blood and Starlight, below!
Days of Blood and Starlight begins close to where Daughter of Smoke and Bone ends…
As we now know, Karou was once a chimaera, by the name of Madrigal, in a previous life. She had rescued Akiva, who was badly wounded from battle, after which he seeks her out in order to thank her for saving his life and to promise to never take another life of one of her kind (LOL). Despite him being seraphim and her being chimaera, against all odds, they fell in love and dreamt of a world devoid of war and strife. When the affair was discovered by Madrgial’s covetous foster-sister, Chiro (grrr…), they were punished for their transgression. Akiva was brutally tortured by the chimaera and Thiago, the “White Wolf”, who also, personally, had Madrigal beheaded.
Finally happy that they are re-united at last, having found each other in another life, and thus proving that their love transcended death, Karou (with Madrigal’s memories inside her) now thinks that she can be with her love. That is until Akiva confesses to killing the only family that she had ever known while mourning for her, which includes Brimstone, Issa, Twiga, and Yasri, who raised and protected her for her entire life. Heartbroken, Karou leaves Akiva in Prague and heads through a portal to Eretz with the Fallen angel, Razgut.
Now, in Days of Blood and Starlight, Karou has assumed Brimstone’s role by resurrecting chimaera for Thiago. Thiago is leading what remains of the chimaera race by sending them on missions to protect the chimaera villages from being invaded by the seraphim. Or at least, that’s what Thiago tells Karou anyway.
Ziri, the last remaining member of Karou’s Kirin tribe, returns severely injured from one of Thiago’s attack and destroy missions against the seraphim. He confides in Karou that Thiago’s plans are anything but peaceful, and she ultimately realises that Thiago doesn’t want to need her anymore. If she’s not careful, her days are numbered while she lives under Thiago’s ever-watchful and resentful eye.
This was supposed to be another buddy read with Laura the Explorer! …But…I got excited and accidentally left her behind, in the dust! Oops. Sorry! :P
P.S. The artwork above is again credited to Lesya BlackBirdInk! Seriously, her work is phenomenal!
June 28, 2018
war.
just... war.
i have read plenty of books about war before. fiction, yeah, but fiction about wars that actually happened: conflicts in europe, america, africa... but i have never read another book that did what this one did for me - i have never felt the horror of war as much as i felt in this one. and that's a little messed-up, right? that it would take a YA fantasy novel about imaginary battles between imaginary beings to bring the horrors of war and genocide into my emotional sphere?
in my defense, when i read or watch movies, it's like this asperger's cloak descends upon me, and i never really get emotionally invested, and usually it sucks because i don't get scared at books, and i don't get that nice cathartic crying-response that a lot of people do when they read. so it is usually unfortunate.
but here, i really felt something. i didn't cry or anything, but i frequently felt nauseous,angry, and so frustrated that i just wanted it to stop. not the book, just the bloodshed and the revenge and the political decisions that kept leading to such horrifying acts.
it's really powerful stuff, particularly for YA. but that's kind of what laini taylor does. she writes these incredibly sophisticated worlds with remarkable characters, and an incredibly subtle fantasy world. and in Daughter of Smoke & Bone she did the impossible for me in that she made me care about the romance angle of it, when usually i am reading these YA books and kind of enduring the heavy stares and kissing to get back to the action.
this one? there was so much horrifying action, i think i was probably praying for a kiss or two to relieve it. but no! no kisses for you, karen/karou!
that is not to say it is all one prolonged desperate howl. there is comic relief, and zuzana and mik provide a couple of kisses to remind the reader of the kinds of things that will be lost if this war continues.
and oh god, it continues.
i feel like i could write pages and pages about this book, but i also feel like a lot of it is better kept inside of me, and for you to discover for yourself. which is something of a cop-out, i understand, but if you read the first one, you are probably going to be compelled to read the second one. after that, it's all on you. do not be expecting any of the sweetness and light of the first book - this is a different and much darker story. this is fear and vengeance and emotional scouring and survivor's guilt. consider yourself warned, but don't stay away on those grounds, because the experience of reading this book is a very important one, and it has left me a little shaken, and that's worth a million love stories.
the projected date for the third part??
2014.
you have got to be kidding me.
come to my blog!
just... war.
i have read plenty of books about war before. fiction, yeah, but fiction about wars that actually happened: conflicts in europe, america, africa... but i have never read another book that did what this one did for me - i have never felt the horror of war as much as i felt in this one. and that's a little messed-up, right? that it would take a YA fantasy novel about imaginary battles between imaginary beings to bring the horrors of war and genocide into my emotional sphere?
in my defense, when i read or watch movies, it's like this asperger's cloak descends upon me, and i never really get emotionally invested, and usually it sucks because i don't get scared at books, and i don't get that nice cathartic crying-response that a lot of people do when they read. so it is usually unfortunate.
but here, i really felt something. i didn't cry or anything, but i frequently felt nauseous,angry, and so frustrated that i just wanted it to stop. not the book, just the bloodshed and the revenge and the political decisions that kept leading to such horrifying acts.
it's really powerful stuff, particularly for YA. but that's kind of what laini taylor does. she writes these incredibly sophisticated worlds with remarkable characters, and an incredibly subtle fantasy world. and in Daughter of Smoke & Bone she did the impossible for me in that she made me care about the romance angle of it, when usually i am reading these YA books and kind of enduring the heavy stares and kissing to get back to the action.
this one? there was so much horrifying action, i think i was probably praying for a kiss or two to relieve it. but no! no kisses for you, karen/karou!
that is not to say it is all one prolonged desperate howl. there is comic relief, and zuzana and mik provide a couple of kisses to remind the reader of the kinds of things that will be lost if this war continues.
and oh god, it continues.
i feel like i could write pages and pages about this book, but i also feel like a lot of it is better kept inside of me, and for you to discover for yourself. which is something of a cop-out, i understand, but if you read the first one, you are probably going to be compelled to read the second one. after that, it's all on you. do not be expecting any of the sweetness and light of the first book - this is a different and much darker story. this is fear and vengeance and emotional scouring and survivor's guilt. consider yourself warned, but don't stay away on those grounds, because the experience of reading this book is a very important one, and it has left me a little shaken, and that's worth a million love stories.
the projected date for the third part??
2014.
you have got to be kidding me.
come to my blog!
December 24, 2012
Right
I mean reading this book was a hell of a ride. Taylor doesn't just like to rip things apart, she bloody well SHREDS them and scatters the remaining pieces into the wind.
Like, I mean this book is really not for the faint of heart. It brings back all the magic of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but there's more pain involved in this one, both physical and emotional.
AND THAT ENDING
NO
I MEAN COME ON
STOP LEAVING ME HANGING LIKE THIS, TAYLOR.
I mean reading this book was a hell of a ride. Taylor doesn't just like to rip things apart, she bloody well SHREDS them and scatters the remaining pieces into the wind.
Like, I mean this book is really not for the faint of heart. It brings back all the magic of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but there's more pain involved in this one, both physical and emotional.
AND THAT ENDING
NO
I MEAN COME ON
STOP LEAVING ME HANGING LIKE THIS, TAYLOR.
Read
January 6, 2013
A-a whole year until the next book comes out?!
I can't.....I can't........ *snaps*
OHMIGOD I CANT W8 I CANT I REALLY CANT AHHHHH OMGOMGOMG THIS IS GOING 2 TAKE 4EVER ND I WANT IT NOW! I NEED MORE AKIVA AND KAROU! Y DOES THIS HV 2 TAKE SOOOOOOOOOOOO LIKE LONNNGGG!
Woahhhhhhh. Did I just have a total trolly fan-girl rant... over a book? Taylor...
I think....I think I just need to go sit down. I feel so woozy. This series just does such weird things to me *looks at the release date again*
OoooooOoooOooohhhhhhh.
December 26, 2015
I think this is a 4.5...
Wow, just wow. *switches to spanish*
Les dije que mi GR era spanglish, y hoy se me antoja escribir en español. ES QUE A VER. No sé ni cómo expresar mi sentir sobre este libro, tuvo muchas cosas increíbles y pocas cosas que no me gustaron, así que empezaré con lo que no me gustó.
Creo que tuvo partes algo densas y aburridas, y las historias de algunos nuevos personajes no me interesaban para nada. Y otra cosa es que siento que le faltó esa MAGIA del primer libro. Yo me enamoré del mundo que Laini nos presentó en Hija de humo y hueso, con la tienda de Brimstone, los deseos, los dientes, la humana de cabello azul, ¡todo era tan místico y fantástico! Y este libro perdió todo eso: Se volvió oscuro y desolador, y aunque la trama se puso mil veces más intensa, extrañé mucho toda esa magia del primer libro.
Esas son mis únicas "quejas"... todo lo demás PERFECTO. WOW.
OH, y antes de que se me olvide, quiero hablar de: ¿SEGURO QUE ESTOS LIBROS SON YOUNG ADULT? He leído muchas novelas MUY fuertes, pero jamás había leído una novela JUVENIL así de fuerte. De verdad que hubieron dos escenas que me dejaron boquiabierta y que no podía creer que estuviera leyendo eso en un libro para jóvenes. Y no porque sean situaciones nuevas en un libro YA, sino por la forma en que Laini las contó. WOW. Por si no quedó claro, SÍ, ME GUSTARON ESTAS ESCENAS FUERTES, aunque también me shockearon un poco.
Otra cosa que amé fueron MIK Y ZUZANA, ¡mis preciosos! Amenizaron mucho el libro. Me encantó leer todas las escenas en las que convivían con las quimeras :D. Gracias a ellos pudimos ver que las quimeras no son malas, es sólo que tienen un líder muy perverso.
También... creo que me encariñé un poco con Akiva. Jamás le voy a perdonar lo que hizo al final del primer libro, pero ow, yo tengo algo con los "chicos rotos", no que los quiera arreglar, sino que los QUIERO ABRAZAR, y Akiva está tan destrozado que sólo quiero estrujarlo bien fuerte entre mis brazos :C.
Y pues...
BRIMSTONEEEEEEEEE.
Ay.
Sigue siendo mi personaje favorito.
Wow, just wow. *switches to spanish*
Les dije que mi GR era spanglish, y hoy se me antoja escribir en español. ES QUE A VER. No sé ni cómo expresar mi sentir sobre este libro, tuvo muchas cosas increíbles y pocas cosas que no me gustaron, así que empezaré con lo que no me gustó.
Creo que tuvo partes algo densas y aburridas, y las historias de algunos nuevos personajes no me interesaban para nada. Y otra cosa es que siento que le faltó esa MAGIA del primer libro. Yo me enamoré del mundo que Laini nos presentó en Hija de humo y hueso, con la tienda de Brimstone, los deseos, los dientes, la humana de cabello azul, ¡todo era tan místico y fantástico! Y este libro perdió todo eso: Se volvió oscuro y desolador, y aunque la trama se puso mil veces más intensa, extrañé mucho toda esa magia del primer libro.
Esas son mis únicas "quejas"... todo lo demás PERFECTO. WOW.
OH, y antes de que se me olvide, quiero hablar de: ¿SEGURO QUE ESTOS LIBROS SON YOUNG ADULT? He leído muchas novelas MUY fuertes, pero jamás había leído una novela JUVENIL así de fuerte. De verdad que hubieron dos escenas que me dejaron boquiabierta y que no podía creer que estuviera leyendo eso en un libro para jóvenes. Y no porque sean situaciones nuevas en un libro YA, sino por la forma en que Laini las contó. WOW. Por si no quedó claro, SÍ, ME GUSTARON ESTAS ESCENAS FUERTES, aunque también me shockearon un poco.
Otra cosa que amé fueron MIK Y ZUZANA, ¡mis preciosos! Amenizaron mucho el libro. Me encantó leer todas las escenas en las que convivían con las quimeras :D. Gracias a ellos pudimos ver que las quimeras no son malas, es sólo que tienen un líder muy perverso.
También... creo que me encariñé un poco con Akiva. Jamás le voy a perdonar lo que hizo al final del primer libro, pero ow, yo tengo algo con los "chicos rotos", no que los quiera arreglar, sino que los QUIERO ABRAZAR, y Akiva está tan destrozado que sólo quiero estrujarlo bien fuerte entre mis brazos :C.
Y pues...
BRIMSTONEEEEEEEEE.
Ay.
Sigue siendo mi personaje favorito.
July 9, 2017
4.5 stars!
May 10, 2015
If there's one thing that makes my blood boil and my skin ripple with creepy crawlies, it's a story that disrespects real suffering. For me, this was one of those. Even though it started off really well, the second half majorly crashed and burned. Think there are two stories of suffering in this series: the teen-angst romance and the story of genocide and grief. This was such a huge fail for me in the way the grief story becomes an afterthought so the teen-angst romance can get back in the spotlight. This story is about how attraction to a hot guy molds a girl and changes her fibers, defines (in some undefinable way) who she is, and grief is something that, while uncomfortable, passes like a bruise. I think the opposite is true.
Murder and the Manic Pixie
I googled "genocide statistics," and these are the numbers the internet came up with for me:
Armenia: 1,000,000 killed from 1915-1923
China under Mao: 58,000,000 killed
USSR under Stalin: 20,000,000 killed (Robert Conquest, The Great Terror)
Holocaust: 5,700,000 killed from 1933-1945 (Nuremberg Trial)
Khmer Rouge (Cambodia): 1,600,000 killed between 1975-1978
Bosnia: 250,000 killed from 1992-1995 (U.S. State Dept.)
Rwanda: 1,000,000 killed in 1994
Somalia: 300,000 killed from 1991-present (IRIN, a UN agency)
Darfur: at least 450,000 killed from 2003-present (UN High Commission on Refugees)
(http://www.urbanministry.org/wiki/gen...)
It is kind of interesting that when we talk about war and genocide, we round the numbers so cleanly. We shove individuals off the statistics because one million makes a catchier number than 999,876. Or, maybe, we just estimate because it's not possible to even know how many people died. It is certainly not possible to estimate how many survivors have been broken by genocide, not to mention the lives broken by racism and sexism, the slightly more chill siblings of genocide.
Chris Hondros, Samar Hassan, 5, screams after her parents were killed in Tal Afar, Iraq
I understand why Stalin’s regime romanticized and justified genocide, and the same with Pol Pot, Hitler, and Mao. Propaganda is useful when you are clinging to maniacal power. And as Eddie Izzard says,
About this book, though . . . we see a lot of genocide in the world . . . and it seems disrespectful to me to romanticize a genocidal warlord, whether it is for the purposes of propaganda or for the purposes of a YA fantasy novel. Pushing Akiva’s choices onto the Emperor, or whatever he was called, just doesn’t ring true to me. You kill the people you kill, even if someone else told you to. And I’m not saying that books for a younger audience can’t talk about genocide. The Gregor the Overlander series blew me away when it went into genocide. Truly amazing. This book, though, was a whole book full of manic pixie dream girls dabbling in genocide and then gazing at each other.
Even the dudes in this book are manic pixie dream girls. And it’s like, you know: genocide just gets so monotonous and tiring after a while. Genocide ennui is so now. You kill and kill, and at first it’s fulfilling, but then you’re like, “this really isn’t getting me laid the way I thought it would, even though I got these eyes of fire and a dreamy widow’s peak and, like, shawls fulla moth-birds I picked up at Hot Topic.”
Then, you gaze across a crowded battlefield at this girl, and she’s all, “OMG, all I want is hugs! And I know you , but I’m pretty sure it was just because you loved me sooooo much!”
And then her wise, exotic nanny is all, “Honey chile, you just gotsa go get yo man! He only ‘cause he’sa grievin’ fo you. If you go back to him, maybe it will bring peace ta tha whole wide universe and tha moons’n stars.”
Really? . . . Really?! It kind of highlights how convenient the resurrection convention of this series is. It’s okay that he’s a mass-murdering fuckhead! We’ll just bring the people we cared about back to life, and no harm done!
Romeo and Juliet
Partway through this book, Karou somewhat heavy-handedly reminds us that Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the story of Romeo and Juliet + genocide, which, duh. Thanks, Karou. I, um, read it.
Now, I love Romeo and Juliet. I love it a lot. When I was in college, my genius roommate used to convince guys hanging out at our house to perform the balcony scene with her as a comedy. The play makes this wonderful, sad-clown comedy. Juliet is a crazy person, wanting to pluck Romeo back to herself like a little bird on a string, bwuhaha. Romeo is a self-centered ass, in love with the idea of being in love and bragging about his girlfriends to his buddies. It is kind of hilarious, especially set to the backdrop of the plague breakout in Verona, which gives some perspective to the childish dramatics of our couple.
I have also seen one completely earnest, sad, beautiful production of Romeo and Juliet. The actors playing the couple were living together in real life, and they had this palpable spark between them that made the star-crossed fate truly tragic. The lighting was intimate, like the production in Slings and Arrows once it turns beautiful (here at 2:50) and the couple was still dumb and cursed, but I may have teared up a couple of times because they were beautiful and hopeful.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone caught elements of both comedic and tragic readings of Romeo and Juliet perfectly. The real tragedy in either reading is that the story of these lovers can only exist within this window of time. It can only exist with the suicide at the end. Like any romantic story, it only works if the sun sets at the appropriate time. Otherwise, you start to realize that he snores, and she chews too loud. He says all his sentences as a question; she can’t ever remember to put the cap back on her toothpaste.
Or, worse than snoring, as Taylor so beautifully showed in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, he has the capacity in him to commit genocide and kill every one you ever loved. It is beautiful because that changes the entire game; it changes the entire person he is. He is not the person dreaming of peace and respect for all creatures. He is the person killing them.
“Or is he?” Days of Blood and Starlight asks in its backwards bulldozing over the beauty of the first book. Maybe he was super provoked and it was okay that he killed and betrayed everyone because he was like, really, really sad. Awww. Poor little mass murdering fuckhead. He was so sad!
Romance and Grief
So, the thing that bothers me in the fallout in this book is Karou. This story assumes Karou's devotion to this dude, into whose eyes she's gazed for like twelve seconds, would be a strong enough feeling to overcome her grief for her family.
It creeps me out when women in real life blindly stay with men who make them feel terrible. It says something to me about the degradation of the soul. I think that plenty of smart and interesting women do that, but it is at its base a creepy choice to me. But, then, nothing in this story built up to Karou for that type of creepy choice, so her actions and feelings for Akiva just made no sense to me. There was this idea that it could be noble to go back to someone who made you feel the worst you could possibly feel. It’s not romantic, but it’s also confusing.
It also makes no sense to me because romantic feelings (especially early, fiery romance) are like a delicate collectible unicorn figurine, and grief is like a jackhammer. Sometimes romantic feelings can’t survive someone’s table manners and overuse of the word “absolutely,” and it is beyond me to conceive of a situation, aside from being creepily insane sufferer of Stockholm syndrome, where romantic feelings could survive the murder of one’s whole family.
Other Miscellaneous Complaints
Am I wrong, or did all the hand-burning on the doors stuff happen when Karou was seventeen? But, I know Brimstone made her a baby because she has memories of her childhood, and it’s never indicated that they are false. So, like, this book is trying to tell me that Akiva was the nicest guy ever, and dreaming of peace, but then he did all of the hand-burning stuff in reaction to seeing Madrigal get killed? But, he just waited seventeen years to express his heat of passion genocide? That makes no sense.
Also, if the hamsas work after you cut off a hand – so they have some kind of magic of their own aside from the soul inside of the body – why didn’t they just burn hamsas into the outside of the walls of Loramendi? Further, how did the whole group of angel soldiers stand around holding the hamsa hands without also accidentally hitting each other with hamsa magic? Dumb.
And why be such an asshole to Ziri, book? Why be such an asshole to the ONLY actually badass character in this entire story? WHYYYY????
In Conclusion
Overall, I often don't agree with that advice to writers (I think from Faulkner) to "kill your darlings," and I feel like writers often misapply it because they have something to prove. But, in the first book, Taylor so boldly worse-than-killed Akiva by revealing him to be a mass murdering fuckhead. Trying to resurrect his character by romanticizing what he did felt cheap and disrespectful in this one. Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, like Akiva, all had motivations for their mass murdering, but they were not romantic motivations. It is not romantic to commit genocide or kill your girlfriend’s family. It is not romantic to make another person feel terrible. It’s not romantic to want to make out with a guy who killed your family. It just isn’t.
______________________________
I got a copy of this book from a friend, and nobody paid me anything to rip it to shreds with the crescent blades of my keyboard.
Murder and the Manic Pixie
I googled "genocide statistics," and these are the numbers the internet came up with for me:
Armenia: 1,000,000 killed from 1915-1923
China under Mao: 58,000,000 killed
USSR under Stalin: 20,000,000 killed (Robert Conquest, The Great Terror)
Holocaust: 5,700,000 killed from 1933-1945 (Nuremberg Trial)
Khmer Rouge (Cambodia): 1,600,000 killed between 1975-1978
Bosnia: 250,000 killed from 1992-1995 (U.S. State Dept.)
Rwanda: 1,000,000 killed in 1994
Somalia: 300,000 killed from 1991-present (IRIN, a UN agency)
Darfur: at least 450,000 killed from 2003-present (UN High Commission on Refugees)
(http://www.urbanministry.org/wiki/gen...)
It is kind of interesting that when we talk about war and genocide, we round the numbers so cleanly. We shove individuals off the statistics because one million makes a catchier number than 999,876. Or, maybe, we just estimate because it's not possible to even know how many people died. It is certainly not possible to estimate how many survivors have been broken by genocide, not to mention the lives broken by racism and sexism, the slightly more chill siblings of genocide.
Chris Hondros, Samar Hassan, 5, screams after her parents were killed in Tal Afar, Iraq
I understand why Stalin’s regime romanticized and justified genocide, and the same with Pol Pot, Hitler, and Mao. Propaganda is useful when you are clinging to maniacal power. And as Eddie Izzard says,
We think if someone kills someone, you go to prison, that’s murder. You kill ten people, you go to Texas, they hit you with a brick – that’s what they do. Twenty people, you go to a hospital, they look at you though a small window forever. And, over that, we can’t deal with it. Someone who’s killed a hundred thousand people . . . we’re almost going, ‘Well done! You killed a hundred thousand people? You must get up very early in the morning! I can’t even get down to the gym.’
About this book, though . . . we see a lot of genocide in the world . . . and it seems disrespectful to me to romanticize a genocidal warlord, whether it is for the purposes of propaganda or for the purposes of a YA fantasy novel. Pushing Akiva’s choices onto the Emperor, or whatever he was called, just doesn’t ring true to me. You kill the people you kill, even if someone else told you to. And I’m not saying that books for a younger audience can’t talk about genocide. The Gregor the Overlander series blew me away when it went into genocide. Truly amazing. This book, though, was a whole book full of manic pixie dream girls dabbling in genocide and then gazing at each other.
Even the dudes in this book are manic pixie dream girls. And it’s like, you know: genocide just gets so monotonous and tiring after a while. Genocide ennui is so now. You kill and kill, and at first it’s fulfilling, but then you’re like, “this really isn’t getting me laid the way I thought it would, even though I got these eyes of fire and a dreamy widow’s peak and, like, shawls fulla moth-birds I picked up at Hot Topic.”
Then, you gaze across a crowded battlefield at this girl, and she’s all, “OMG, all I want is hugs! And I know you , but I’m pretty sure it was just because you loved me sooooo much!”
And then her wise, exotic nanny is all, “Honey chile, you just gotsa go get yo man! He only ‘cause he’sa grievin’ fo you. If you go back to him, maybe it will bring peace ta tha whole wide universe and tha moons’n stars.”
Really? . . . Really?! It kind of highlights how convenient the resurrection convention of this series is. It’s okay that he’s a mass-murdering fuckhead! We’ll just bring the people we cared about back to life, and no harm done!
Romeo and Juliet
Partway through this book, Karou somewhat heavy-handedly reminds us that Daughter of Smoke and Bone was the story of Romeo and Juliet + genocide, which, duh. Thanks, Karou. I, um, read it.
Now, I love Romeo and Juliet. I love it a lot. When I was in college, my genius roommate used to convince guys hanging out at our house to perform the balcony scene with her as a comedy. The play makes this wonderful, sad-clown comedy. Juliet is a crazy person, wanting to pluck Romeo back to herself like a little bird on a string, bwuhaha. Romeo is a self-centered ass, in love with the idea of being in love and bragging about his girlfriends to his buddies. It is kind of hilarious, especially set to the backdrop of the plague breakout in Verona, which gives some perspective to the childish dramatics of our couple.
I have also seen one completely earnest, sad, beautiful production of Romeo and Juliet. The actors playing the couple were living together in real life, and they had this palpable spark between them that made the star-crossed fate truly tragic. The lighting was intimate, like the production in Slings and Arrows once it turns beautiful (here at 2:50) and the couple was still dumb and cursed, but I may have teared up a couple of times because they were beautiful and hopeful.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone caught elements of both comedic and tragic readings of Romeo and Juliet perfectly. The real tragedy in either reading is that the story of these lovers can only exist within this window of time. It can only exist with the suicide at the end. Like any romantic story, it only works if the sun sets at the appropriate time. Otherwise, you start to realize that he snores, and she chews too loud. He says all his sentences as a question; she can’t ever remember to put the cap back on her toothpaste.
Or, worse than snoring, as Taylor so beautifully showed in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, he has the capacity in him to commit genocide and kill every one you ever loved. It is beautiful because that changes the entire game; it changes the entire person he is. He is not the person dreaming of peace and respect for all creatures. He is the person killing them.
“Or is he?” Days of Blood and Starlight asks in its backwards bulldozing over the beauty of the first book. Maybe he was super provoked and it was okay that he killed and betrayed everyone because he was like, really, really sad. Awww. Poor little mass murdering fuckhead. He was so sad!
Romance and Grief
So, the thing that bothers me in the fallout in this book is Karou. This story assumes Karou's devotion to this dude, into whose eyes she's gazed for like twelve seconds, would be a strong enough feeling to overcome her grief for her family.
It creeps me out when women in real life blindly stay with men who make them feel terrible. It says something to me about the degradation of the soul. I think that plenty of smart and interesting women do that, but it is at its base a creepy choice to me. But, then, nothing in this story built up to Karou for that type of creepy choice, so her actions and feelings for Akiva just made no sense to me. There was this idea that it could be noble to go back to someone who made you feel the worst you could possibly feel. It’s not romantic, but it’s also confusing.
It also makes no sense to me because romantic feelings (especially early, fiery romance) are like a delicate collectible unicorn figurine, and grief is like a jackhammer. Sometimes romantic feelings can’t survive someone’s table manners and overuse of the word “absolutely,” and it is beyond me to conceive of a situation, aside from being creepily insane sufferer of Stockholm syndrome, where romantic feelings could survive the murder of one’s whole family.
Other Miscellaneous Complaints
Am I wrong, or did all the hand-burning on the doors stuff happen when Karou was seventeen? But, I know Brimstone made her a baby because she has memories of her childhood, and it’s never indicated that they are false. So, like, this book is trying to tell me that Akiva was the nicest guy ever, and dreaming of peace, but then he did all of the hand-burning stuff in reaction to seeing Madrigal get killed? But, he just waited seventeen years to express his heat of passion genocide? That makes no sense.
Also, if the hamsas work after you cut off a hand – so they have some kind of magic of their own aside from the soul inside of the body – why didn’t they just burn hamsas into the outside of the walls of Loramendi? Further, how did the whole group of angel soldiers stand around holding the hamsa hands without also accidentally hitting each other with hamsa magic? Dumb.
And why be such an asshole to Ziri, book? Why be such an asshole to the ONLY actually badass character in this entire story? WHYYYY????
In Conclusion
Overall, I often don't agree with that advice to writers (I think from Faulkner) to "kill your darlings," and I feel like writers often misapply it because they have something to prove. But, in the first book, Taylor so boldly worse-than-killed Akiva by revealing him to be a mass murdering fuckhead. Trying to resurrect his character by romanticizing what he did felt cheap and disrespectful in this one. Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot, like Akiva, all had motivations for their mass murdering, but they were not romantic motivations. It is not romantic to commit genocide or kill your girlfriend’s family. It is not romantic to make another person feel terrible. It’s not romantic to want to make out with a guy who killed your family. It just isn’t.
______________________________
I got a copy of this book from a friend, and nobody paid me anything to rip it to shreds with the crescent blades of my keyboard.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 4, 2016
IM A MESS THIS DESTROYED ME AND IT WAS AMAZING
September 4, 2018
okay. when i read ‘daughter of smoke and bone,’ i complained that the relationship felt too insta-lovey. and now after reading this, im going to complain that there wasnt enough love. WHO EVEN AM I?! i just really want to see karou and akiva happy and heathy and in love. is that too much to ask!?
overall, this wasnt bad! ive seen nothing but absolute obsession when it comes to this series, and i desperately wanted to feel the same. after ADOSAB, i thought i was on the right track, but after reading this, maybe the whole monsters vs. angels just really isnt my thing? the story was definitely entertaining enough (even though this was a classic second book series filler), but there is just something missing for me to fall in head over heels in love with this story.
i will admit that the writing was lovely. there were times when the language felt like pure poetry, with some sentences being quite moving. you can really see how laini taylor has developed her style from one book to the next. and even though not much happened in this, i do think the series is headed in a good direction overall and i will most likely be picking up the next book! so fingers crossed!
↠ 3.5 stars
overall, this wasnt bad! ive seen nothing but absolute obsession when it comes to this series, and i desperately wanted to feel the same. after ADOSAB, i thought i was on the right track, but after reading this, maybe the whole monsters vs. angels just really isnt my thing? the story was definitely entertaining enough (even though this was a classic second book series filler), but there is just something missing for me to fall in head over heels in love with this story.
i will admit that the writing was lovely. there were times when the language felt like pure poetry, with some sentences being quite moving. you can really see how laini taylor has developed her style from one book to the next. and even though not much happened in this, i do think the series is headed in a good direction overall and i will most likely be picking up the next book! so fingers crossed!
↠ 3.5 stars
November 11, 2012
With it's amazing die-worthy gorgeous cover, how can this book be bad at all? Really? It would be a sin!
Days of Blood and Starlight is the fantastic sequel to the very well loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, where we met the lovely Karou and her unimaginable surroundings. Both the characters and world building in this series are created wonderfully and incredibly vivid--which is surreal for such an imaginative fantasy world. While we are taken on a mind blowing journey when this world unravels in our minds in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, its sequel doesn't have the magic of learning the world, the fascination of experiencing for the first time what Laini has created. This is often the downfall of sequels; we know it, we want to move forward, and although this one didn't completely fall prey of such stalled sequels, it does take quite a while to get the ball rolling. The first half of the book, albeit still interesting, even a little nostalgic, feels like it will never end. This does happen to be about 250 some pages… Finally, when certain secondary character become a bigger part of the story the pace is, or at least feels, like it's finally moving forward. These characters really bring so much energy into this novel that it almost completely changes the tone of the book once they're in the picture. But it's not just them, so much stuff has started to happen all around. Now it's fun, exciting, intense, funny, emotional; all the reasons I loved the first in this series has come to the forefront.
The first part of the book may be slow, but the second half is full of wicked fight scenes and great plot advancement that make you forget it was even slow in the first place. I was especially taken by the abrupt plot happenings that Laini decided to add in this sequel. I think maybe I don't expect very important things to happen in the middle child of a trilogy, so I'm very happy when we actually get some things checked off the list!
Having learned who she really was, and what her world consists of, Karou is clearly not the same young, carefree teenager she once was. She has become tough, determined, with some very hard edges. The character growth is there and it makes complete sense with story developments we went through. I love how she becomes who she has to be to make things right for her people. Her loyalty is admiring and a great quality in a protagonist; you can easily understand her, root for her, and sympathize to her situation. The side characters, the monsters, the creations, everyone is so alive in this novel! One example of excellent writing!
The character voices, the incredible world, the fantastic fight scenes (especially in this sequel); it's elaborate without being overdone, it's pretty without being cliché. It's all so attractive! Obviously, I highly recommend this series, especially to fans of fantasy--in which I am not, so doubly great if you are!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
Days of Blood and Starlight is the fantastic sequel to the very well loved Daughter of Smoke and Bone, where we met the lovely Karou and her unimaginable surroundings. Both the characters and world building in this series are created wonderfully and incredibly vivid--which is surreal for such an imaginative fantasy world. While we are taken on a mind blowing journey when this world unravels in our minds in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, its sequel doesn't have the magic of learning the world, the fascination of experiencing for the first time what Laini has created. This is often the downfall of sequels; we know it, we want to move forward, and although this one didn't completely fall prey of such stalled sequels, it does take quite a while to get the ball rolling. The first half of the book, albeit still interesting, even a little nostalgic, feels like it will never end. This does happen to be about 250 some pages… Finally, when certain secondary character become a bigger part of the story the pace is, or at least feels, like it's finally moving forward. These characters really bring so much energy into this novel that it almost completely changes the tone of the book once they're in the picture. But it's not just them, so much stuff has started to happen all around. Now it's fun, exciting, intense, funny, emotional; all the reasons I loved the first in this series has come to the forefront.
The first part of the book may be slow, but the second half is full of wicked fight scenes and great plot advancement that make you forget it was even slow in the first place. I was especially taken by the abrupt plot happenings that Laini decided to add in this sequel. I think maybe I don't expect very important things to happen in the middle child of a trilogy, so I'm very happy when we actually get some things checked off the list!
Having learned who she really was, and what her world consists of, Karou is clearly not the same young, carefree teenager she once was. She has become tough, determined, with some very hard edges. The character growth is there and it makes complete sense with story developments we went through. I love how she becomes who she has to be to make things right for her people. Her loyalty is admiring and a great quality in a protagonist; you can easily understand her, root for her, and sympathize to her situation. The side characters, the monsters, the creations, everyone is so alive in this novel! One example of excellent writing!
The character voices, the incredible world, the fantastic fight scenes (especially in this sequel); it's elaborate without being overdone, it's pretty without being cliché. It's all so attractive! Obviously, I highly recommend this series, especially to fans of fantasy--in which I am not, so doubly great if you are!
--
An advance copy was provided by the publisher for review.
For more of my reviews, visit my blog at Xpresso Reads
June 27, 2024
|| 5.0 stars ||
Well, damn. This series is truly just insanely good!!
This book was extremely different from the first one, but somehow feels like it fits perfectly!
To summarize why this book is absolutely amazing:
The world-building is so unique and compelling, the characters are extremely interesting, thoroughly developed and surprisingly easy to root for (despite their flaws and mistakes), the romance is heavily layered, the friendships/family bonds run deep and true, the writing is simply amazing, the pacing is unbelievably pleasant, and the plot is just SO GOOD!!
This story really brought out all the emotions in me: frustration, despair, wonder, pride, vengeance, giddiness, grief, suspense, anger and love!
For the people interested in the romance part (which is not at all the only thing this book has to offer, but still, it’s important), you can trust me on this: We truly get an amazing star-crossed lovers tale here that has so much pain and self-loathing, but also so much hope and longing! These two enemies cannot help but keep coming back to each other, even against so much betrayal and heartbreak!! It’s not easy for them though, and we definitely have to wait for a happy ending!
All in all, this came pretty close to perfection for me! The fact that this book manages to have so much depth filled with amazing characters arcs while also having a deeply engrossing plot with great twists? Yea, that’s pretty much perfection.
'Daughter of Smoke & Bone' trilogy:
1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone - 4.5 stars
2. Days of Blood and Starlight - 5.0 stars
3. Dreams of Gods and Monsters - 4.5 stars
Novella:
1.5. Night of Cake and Puppets - 4.5 stars
Well, damn. This series is truly just insanely good!!
This book was extremely different from the first one, but somehow feels like it fits perfectly!
To summarize why this book is absolutely amazing:
The world-building is so unique and compelling, the characters are extremely interesting, thoroughly developed and surprisingly easy to root for (despite their flaws and mistakes), the romance is heavily layered, the friendships/family bonds run deep and true, the writing is simply amazing, the pacing is unbelievably pleasant, and the plot is just SO GOOD!!
This story really brought out all the emotions in me: frustration, despair, wonder, pride, vengeance, giddiness, grief, suspense, anger and love!
For the people interested in the romance part (which is not at all the only thing this book has to offer, but still, it’s important), you can trust me on this: We truly get an amazing star-crossed lovers tale here that has so much pain and self-loathing, but also so much hope and longing! These two enemies cannot help but keep coming back to each other, even against so much betrayal and heartbreak!! It’s not easy for them though, and we definitely have to wait for a happy ending!
All in all, this came pretty close to perfection for me! The fact that this book manages to have so much depth filled with amazing characters arcs while also having a deeply engrossing plot with great twists? Yea, that’s pretty much perfection.
'Daughter of Smoke & Bone' trilogy:
1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone - 4.5 stars
2. Days of Blood and Starlight - 5.0 stars
3. Dreams of Gods and Monsters - 4.5 stars
Novella:
1.5. Night of Cake and Puppets - 4.5 stars
April 15, 2018
Only one word can describe my feelings about this book:
Fuck.
Fuck.
FUCK.
Don’t take that the wrong way. I mean it in a good way. A very good way.
You know why I love this series so much? Because it’s different. I’d previously rage-quit reading anything even remotely YA because I just can’t with the contrived drama, and the angst, and the dopey, sappy, first time love, and the Mary Sues. The goddamn Mary Sues.
Authors, stahp it with the goddamn Mary Sues.
And then there’s the love triangles. Anyone who’s spoken to me for a fraction of a second on here probably already knows exactly how I feel about love triangles because I carry a banner with me from thread to thread that announces my feelings on that subject. Its message is aided by the fifty megaphones I keep strapped to my person, the volume set to stun as they blare forth:
“AUTHORS, STAHP IT WITH THE MOTHER FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLES.”
But then there’s YA born from the brain of Laini Taylor. I’ll read it. Nay, I’ll devour it. Breathe it in and hold it in my lungs for as long as possible before I’m forced to exhale or lose consciousness. I’m not saying that she’s exempt from using some of the above themes and tropes. Hell, I think this book has all of them. You know what makes it so different? It’s the beautiful writing, the pacing of the story, the incredible characterization, the depth to which she delves, the entire execution really.
Unlike so many others in this category, she makes these overused themes believable, relatable, and addicting as fuck. Therefore, she gets ALL THE STARS.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
Fuck.
Fuck.
FUCK.
Don’t take that the wrong way. I mean it in a good way. A very good way.
You know why I love this series so much? Because it’s different. I’d previously rage-quit reading anything even remotely YA because I just can’t with the contrived drama, and the angst, and the dopey, sappy, first time love, and the Mary Sues. The goddamn Mary Sues.
Authors, stahp it with the goddamn Mary Sues.
And then there’s the love triangles. Anyone who’s spoken to me for a fraction of a second on here probably already knows exactly how I feel about love triangles because I carry a banner with me from thread to thread that announces my feelings on that subject. Its message is aided by the fifty megaphones I keep strapped to my person, the volume set to stun as they blare forth:
“AUTHORS, STAHP IT WITH THE MOTHER FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLES.”
But then there’s YA born from the brain of Laini Taylor. I’ll read it. Nay, I’ll devour it. Breathe it in and hold it in my lungs for as long as possible before I’m forced to exhale or lose consciousness. I’m not saying that she’s exempt from using some of the above themes and tropes. Hell, I think this book has all of them. You know what makes it so different? It’s the beautiful writing, the pacing of the story, the incredible characterization, the depth to which she delves, the entire execution really.
Unlike so many others in this category, she makes these overused themes believable, relatable, and addicting as fuck. Therefore, she gets ALL THE STARS.
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest
November 18, 2012
If Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a dream, a mirage, a masterpiece of writing and phrases and words, overlapped and edited and fine-tuned to create a perfection of romance, snark, and pulsating chemistry, all tinged with a palpable undertone of bittersweet, Days of Blood and Starlight is like a hard slap, the cold splash of water, and the startled opening of ones eyes into the bleak, war-ridden, fragile, and bloody reality of life. Unlike most trilogies which follow in a steady rhythm of romance or action or paranormal mystery, Laini Taylor breaks all imaginary constraints and reveals to us the completely unexpected, for Days of Blood and Starlight is as far removed from its predecessor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, as any novel could possibly be. In fact, the only similarities between the two lie in Taylor's atmospheric writing, her distinct characterizations, and the general plot continuation. In all other aspects though, Laini Taylor has surpassed my wildest expectations and written a novel that I can claim, in full confidence, that is far, far better than its predecessor. I gave Daughter of Smoke and Bone 5 Stars, just as I did Days of Blood and Starlight, but in reality, this novel deserves 500 Stars.
Days of Blood and Starlight picks up not long after Daughter of Smoke and Bone ended with Karou coming to the realization that the only family she's ever known has been murdered by the only man she's ever loved. Thus, the tone for Days of Blood and Starlight is set; one of revenge, grief, heartbreak, sorrow, despair, and yet, despite all that, hope. What stands out the most, to me at least, is how real Taylor's novel is. Both Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight unfold in a sequence of events driven by fate, by destiny, and not entirely by choice, much like our own lives. While we all do have a certain amount of say in the direction our lives lead us, it is only by fate that we meet the people who will change us or affect us in different ways and no one can deny that, at the end of the day, despite all the scattered events throughout our lives, everything comes together and makes a certain degree of sense. Things happen for a reason. For me, Days of Blood and Starlight seemed to echo that very same idea. All the events in Karou's life, first as Madrigal and later as Karou, were leading her up to this point. In fact, nothing could have progressed in this manner if Madrigal had not fallen in love with Akiva, if she had not been beheaded by the Wolf, and later if Akiva had not destroyed Loramendi, the home of the chimeras.
This, I feel, is the magic of Laini Taylor's writing. Or perhaps it's the magic of her plot. Either way, her stories unfold in such a realistic manner and best of all, she ensures that all this is palpable to the reader. Karou already made a niche in my heart in Daughter of Smoke and Bone but with Days of Blood and Starlight my heart wept for her. We see Karou at her most vulnerable and, at the same time, her most strong - mentally at least. It can't be said that Laini Taylor doesn't allow her character to grow, for she does. Each and every character we come across, from Akiva to Hazael and Liraz, his siblings, to Zuzanna and Mik, all experience some type of growth and change throughout this book. Akiva, especially, becomes a truly fleshed-out being, one whose personality is no longer as flat or connected to Karou's love as it once was. Now, seeing him as an individual with regrets, grief, and aspirations of his own, it is far easier to grow to truly love him as another person and not simply as Karou's lover.
Furthermore, Laini Taylor simply outdoes herself with the world-building in this piece. Somehow, the battered, torn, and bloody land of Eratz has become such a real place in my mind that I wish to visit it and see it, for its simultaneous beauty and terror, all at once. Yet, for all its good qualities, I do have a few minor qualms with this novel, primarily, the set-up of the book itself. Unlike Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight flits between the perspectives of Karou, Akiva, Zuzanna, and a plethora of secondary characters we are unfamiliar with. While I enjoyed, for the most part, the round and full picture this type of storytelling provided us with, I also found that some small chapters could have been entirely done away with. I kept expecting them to play a greater role in the novel, and unfortunately, they didn't. In addition, the secondary (or quarterary?) characters we're introduced to have such little screen time that it's tough to feel anything much for them beyond fleeting thoughts.
Nevertheless, that is a small qualm to have with a novel so perfect in every other way. Days of Blood and Starlight exceeded all my expectations (and mine were HIGH!) and surprised me with an uncanny amount of depth and a shocking slew of plot twists that had me simultaneously thrilled and upset. Furthermore, the amount of emotion this novel inspires is noteworthy. Taylor makes you feel for Karou and Akiva and while their romance, and their interactions for that matter, is extremely minimal, the bittersweet tone of their love is still felt. Neither Karou nor Akiva is at fault here and Taylor makes us see this so clearly in this piece that now, it is impossible to know in what direction the story will head. It ends off, much like Daughter of Smoke and Bone did, with a bittersweet kind of ending that leaves you aching for more, worried for these characters, and at the same time, filled with hope. I doubt I'd trust any other writer to take on such a complex novel - for truly Taylor has transformed a simple love story and made it into an intricate piece that leaves me with the knowledge that I still haven't understood it all, not fully. Needless to say, I cannot wait for the final installment in this trilogy. If there's anything I can count on, it's this: Laini Taylor will not disappoint.
You can read this review and more on my blog, Ivy Book Bindings.
Days of Blood and Starlight picks up not long after Daughter of Smoke and Bone ended with Karou coming to the realization that the only family she's ever known has been murdered by the only man she's ever loved. Thus, the tone for Days of Blood and Starlight is set; one of revenge, grief, heartbreak, sorrow, despair, and yet, despite all that, hope. What stands out the most, to me at least, is how real Taylor's novel is. Both Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight unfold in a sequence of events driven by fate, by destiny, and not entirely by choice, much like our own lives. While we all do have a certain amount of say in the direction our lives lead us, it is only by fate that we meet the people who will change us or affect us in different ways and no one can deny that, at the end of the day, despite all the scattered events throughout our lives, everything comes together and makes a certain degree of sense. Things happen for a reason. For me, Days of Blood and Starlight seemed to echo that very same idea. All the events in Karou's life, first as Madrigal and later as Karou, were leading her up to this point. In fact, nothing could have progressed in this manner if Madrigal had not fallen in love with Akiva, if she had not been beheaded by the Wolf, and later if Akiva had not destroyed Loramendi, the home of the chimeras.
This, I feel, is the magic of Laini Taylor's writing. Or perhaps it's the magic of her plot. Either way, her stories unfold in such a realistic manner and best of all, she ensures that all this is palpable to the reader. Karou already made a niche in my heart in Daughter of Smoke and Bone but with Days of Blood and Starlight my heart wept for her. We see Karou at her most vulnerable and, at the same time, her most strong - mentally at least. It can't be said that Laini Taylor doesn't allow her character to grow, for she does. Each and every character we come across, from Akiva to Hazael and Liraz, his siblings, to Zuzanna and Mik, all experience some type of growth and change throughout this book. Akiva, especially, becomes a truly fleshed-out being, one whose personality is no longer as flat or connected to Karou's love as it once was. Now, seeing him as an individual with regrets, grief, and aspirations of his own, it is far easier to grow to truly love him as another person and not simply as Karou's lover.
Furthermore, Laini Taylor simply outdoes herself with the world-building in this piece. Somehow, the battered, torn, and bloody land of Eratz has become such a real place in my mind that I wish to visit it and see it, for its simultaneous beauty and terror, all at once. Yet, for all its good qualities, I do have a few minor qualms with this novel, primarily, the set-up of the book itself. Unlike Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight flits between the perspectives of Karou, Akiva, Zuzanna, and a plethora of secondary characters we are unfamiliar with. While I enjoyed, for the most part, the round and full picture this type of storytelling provided us with, I also found that some small chapters could have been entirely done away with. I kept expecting them to play a greater role in the novel, and unfortunately, they didn't. In addition, the secondary (or quarterary?) characters we're introduced to have such little screen time that it's tough to feel anything much for them beyond fleeting thoughts.
Nevertheless, that is a small qualm to have with a novel so perfect in every other way. Days of Blood and Starlight exceeded all my expectations (and mine were HIGH!) and surprised me with an uncanny amount of depth and a shocking slew of plot twists that had me simultaneously thrilled and upset. Furthermore, the amount of emotion this novel inspires is noteworthy. Taylor makes you feel for Karou and Akiva and while their romance, and their interactions for that matter, is extremely minimal, the bittersweet tone of their love is still felt. Neither Karou nor Akiva is at fault here and Taylor makes us see this so clearly in this piece that now, it is impossible to know in what direction the story will head. It ends off, much like Daughter of Smoke and Bone did, with a bittersweet kind of ending that leaves you aching for more, worried for these characters, and at the same time, filled with hope. I doubt I'd trust any other writer to take on such a complex novel - for truly Taylor has transformed a simple love story and made it into an intricate piece that leaves me with the knowledge that I still haven't understood it all, not fully. Needless to say, I cannot wait for the final installment in this trilogy. If there's anything I can count on, it's this: Laini Taylor will not disappoint.
You can read this review and more on my blog, Ivy Book Bindings.
January 18, 2013
Days of Blood and Starlight was always going to be a hard sell after the stark and hauntingly beautiful Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I want to address the all-important question of whether Taylor has an obsession with the letters DBS or not.
Okay, fine. Not relevant. Really….party poopers.
Most of us had to prepare ourselves for the fact that DoBaS, like most middle child books, was probably not going to be quite as good as it’s older siblings. Personally, I always hold out hope for middle child books, wanting to be pleasantly surprised!
Well, the pessimistic, miserly old grinches win out this time because DoBaS isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, but it’s certainly nothing to turn your nose up at. But, you know, if you were to turn your nose up at any Laini Taylor book then, my god, have you no soul?!
Taylor’s books have intense and varied themes. DoSaB’s themes revolved around perception, love and loss, the pain of emptiness and coming of age issues. DoBaS deals a lot with losing/regaining hope, faith in oneself, forgiveness of oneself and others.
In a lot of ways DoBaS is a different creature to DoSaB. DoSaB had limited PoV changes that largely existed between Akiva and Karou (I think – my memory is really dodgy) and DoSaB was really more Romantic up until the very end. And by Romantic I don’t necessarily mean the relationship between Akiva and Karou because I ultimately think DoBaS was more romantic than its predecessor though it may not seem intuitively so. It was more Romantic in the sense that the characters and the story are so much bigger and more mature. There’s these two amazing, independent forces of fate building up behind Karou and Akiva. The more they come into themselves and become wiser, the more they’re drawn together.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a naive, sweet innocent first love. Appealing to many, but I liked the relationship dynamics even more in Days of Blood and Starlight. They’ve both lost that naivette, grown as people. They have more baggage to deal with and the relationship they’re building feels stronger – erected on foundations off a deeper understanding of themselves and the world – and they still can’t help but love each other. After all they’ve seen, all they’ve done, all that’s been done to them – they’re still drawn to each other like moth’s to flame.
Laini’s writing is beautiful. If anything she has improved and the inherent poetry to the writing has become sharper and more poignant. Where a lot of people, including myself will get tripped up at is that pacing and structure of the novel. It is very meandering with an excessive number of POV changes. There’s a lot to follow, a lot happening all at once and the cast of characters has expanded exponentially.
But, over all, I loved it. I’m so enthusiastic for the next book. I absolutely have to know where this series is going, what’s going to happen to them and whether I’m just as naive and foolish as Akiva and Karou for hoping and thinking that they will eventually have some form of happy relationship at the end of this series.
TAYLOR MARRY ME I LOVES YOU!
This review also appears on my blog, Cuddlebuggery Book Blog.
Okay, fine. Not relevant. Really….party poopers.
Most of us had to prepare ourselves for the fact that DoBaS, like most middle child books, was probably not going to be quite as good as it’s older siblings. Personally, I always hold out hope for middle child books, wanting to be pleasantly surprised!
Well, the pessimistic, miserly old grinches win out this time because DoBaS isn’t quite as good as its predecessor, but it’s certainly nothing to turn your nose up at. But, you know, if you were to turn your nose up at any Laini Taylor book then, my god, have you no soul?!
Taylor’s books have intense and varied themes. DoSaB’s themes revolved around perception, love and loss, the pain of emptiness and coming of age issues. DoBaS deals a lot with losing/regaining hope, faith in oneself, forgiveness of oneself and others.
In a lot of ways DoBaS is a different creature to DoSaB. DoSaB had limited PoV changes that largely existed between Akiva and Karou (I think – my memory is really dodgy) and DoSaB was really more Romantic up until the very end. And by Romantic I don’t necessarily mean the relationship between Akiva and Karou because I ultimately think DoBaS was more romantic than its predecessor though it may not seem intuitively so. It was more Romantic in the sense that the characters and the story are so much bigger and more mature. There’s these two amazing, independent forces of fate building up behind Karou and Akiva. The more they come into themselves and become wiser, the more they’re drawn together.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a naive, sweet innocent first love. Appealing to many, but I liked the relationship dynamics even more in Days of Blood and Starlight. They’ve both lost that naivette, grown as people. They have more baggage to deal with and the relationship they’re building feels stronger – erected on foundations off a deeper understanding of themselves and the world – and they still can’t help but love each other. After all they’ve seen, all they’ve done, all that’s been done to them – they’re still drawn to each other like moth’s to flame.
Laini’s writing is beautiful. If anything she has improved and the inherent poetry to the writing has become sharper and more poignant. Where a lot of people, including myself will get tripped up at is that pacing and structure of the novel. It is very meandering with an excessive number of POV changes. There’s a lot to follow, a lot happening all at once and the cast of characters has expanded exponentially.
But, over all, I loved it. I’m so enthusiastic for the next book. I absolutely have to know where this series is going, what’s going to happen to them and whether I’m just as naive and foolish as Akiva and Karou for hoping and thinking that they will eventually have some form of happy relationship at the end of this series.
TAYLOR MARRY ME I LOVES YOU!
This review also appears on my blog, Cuddlebuggery Book Blog.
June 9, 2023
This book was amazing. I enjoyed the first book, but this one was leagues ahead.
The one thing I really appreciated about this story was the tone. I felt that Laini Taylor expertly captured the feeling of war. Taylor painted both sides as exhausted and frustrated, the soldiers were unable to articulate why they were fighting anymore. All they knew was blood. There was this air of hopelessness, this feeling that neither side was winning, that both were destroying themselves. But even within this desolate landscape Taylor also sprinkled in small flames of hope to keep us going.
This book was wonderfully written, and I cannot wait for the final book in the series coming out in April. Highly recommended.
The one thing I really appreciated about this story was the tone. I felt that Laini Taylor expertly captured the feeling of war. Taylor painted both sides as exhausted and frustrated, the soldiers were unable to articulate why they were fighting anymore. All they knew was blood. There was this air of hopelessness, this feeling that neither side was winning, that both were destroying themselves. But even within this desolate landscape Taylor also sprinkled in small flames of hope to keep us going.
This book was wonderfully written, and I cannot wait for the final book in the series coming out in April. Highly recommended.
October 23, 2018
YES! This was better!
Mainly because and I'm sorry to say, I don't care much about Akiva and Karou. In this we get more of the other characters and everyone needs Zuzana and Mik even if you don't know you do.
Oh and the world! The world! THE WORLD!
This felt like it's happening outside my door. Most of the action is happening in Morrocco and gosh darn it felt like home.
The food, the places, all of it is just so familiar.
The Kasbah, which are these ancient castles and homes clustered around them. They are just what I see every day and every time they are mentioned I feel alive.
I'll try to write a more appropriate review soon. It's not the brightest idea to write reviews first thing in the morning XD
Mainly because and I'm sorry to say, I don't care much about Akiva and Karou. In this we get more of the other characters and everyone needs Zuzana and Mik even if you don't know you do.
Oh and the world! The world! THE WORLD!
This felt like it's happening outside my door. Most of the action is happening in Morrocco and gosh darn it felt like home.
The food, the places, all of it is just so familiar.
The Kasbah, which are these ancient castles and homes clustered around them. They are just what I see every day and every time they are mentioned I feel alive.
I'll try to write a more appropriate review soon. It's not the brightest idea to write reviews first thing in the morning XD
August 3, 2017
I'm currently mourning that I don't own the third book :/
I like this series! I forgot how amazing the writing is and how much I love these characters. I'm really into this magic system with the animal hybrid characters; I think it's super neat. This one dragged a little, even though I like that it's set somewhere in the world that I've never read about before. It was just a little bit stagnant because pretty much this entire book was characters watching the war from the sidelines, whereas I think in book 3 they'll be more directly involved. I'm definitely interested to see how the series ends!
**trigger warning for rape**
I like this series! I forgot how amazing the writing is and how much I love these characters. I'm really into this magic system with the animal hybrid characters; I think it's super neat. This one dragged a little, even though I like that it's set somewhere in the world that I've never read about before. It was just a little bit stagnant because pretty much this entire book was characters watching the war from the sidelines, whereas I think in book 3 they'll be more directly involved. I'm definitely interested to see how the series ends!
**trigger warning for rape**
July 26, 2020
I have to admit, I wasn't worried I wouldn't love this. I loved book one, after all! But this sequel is even better. In terms of character work and romantic arcs, I'm amazed at how far Laini Taylor has come.
HOW THIS BOOK LIVES UP TO BOOK ONE
• The writing here is possibly even more beautiful. Laini Taylor's writing flows across the page to the point where instead of skipping across paragraphs as I usually do, I was hanging on her every word. It's so simple and yet so gorgeous. I'd read her grocery lists.
• This book is a complete mindfuck. Most of the twists towards the end are sheer brilliance. Taylor draws so many tiny threads into one beautiful big picture. This book makes it so you can guess all the twists, but you probably won't because they're never-before seen.
• This isn't your typical angels vs. demons story; angels aren't all good and demons aren't all bad. I loved the nuance of their conflict. There's something to be said for taking an old story and making it something new, and I loved Laini Taylor's execution of this story.
HOW THIS SEQUEL IMPROVES ON BOOK ONE
The worldbuilding here is just awesome. It's even more complex than it was in book one, with a detailed world map and more complexity.
I am shocked at how many side characters I fell in love with here. Karou's bravery and loneliness still shine brightly as ever. Her inner conflict over the Chimaera war stands out here; it's handled with nuance and grace. Liraz surprised me with her character development and nuance. Her brutality and desire to be more than a machine mix to form an extremely compelling character. Ziri's character surprised me as well; his conflict between ingrained prejudice and caring for others is very well-executed. Side characters like Hazael and Issa return, more fleshed out than ever, but possibly my favorite part was seeing little flashes from chimaera and angels caught up in a war beyond their control. Sarazal, Sveva, and Rath managed to touch my heart in the space of a few pages.
Most changed award has to go to Akiva. He's changed so much since book one, where I liked but didn't love him. Here, he's an incredibly compelling character; a character who's made huge mistakes and owns up to them.
Improbable as their relationship is, Karou and Akiva are such a compelling couple. Their scenes here were few and far between, which served only to make them more tear-worthy. The touch of instalove from book one has become a complex relationship full of moments that touch your heart. They're seriously on the track towards becoming one of my top six couples.
And of course, Zuzana and Mik are still delightful. I'm really glad Karou has girl friends and the book isn't a mess of slutshaming. These two also add a touch of humor to an otherwise disturbing story.
This book is far darker, thematically, than DoSaB. Days of Blood and Starlight is a war epic, not just the story of a demon and angel's forbidden love. Everything lovely about the first book is simply one part of a whole story. There's so much nuance to both the themes and the characters; this is a book you could analyze for hours.
Honestly, I think my feelings are best summed up my initial review being “I'm dead inside??” This book absolutely killed me, and I can't wait for book three. I know everyone has read this series already, but if you haven't, PLEASE pick it up. This is so much more than a cliche love story; it's about tragedy and war and prejudice and oh my god, please read it.
HOW THIS BOOK LIVES UP TO BOOK ONE
• The writing here is possibly even more beautiful. Laini Taylor's writing flows across the page to the point where instead of skipping across paragraphs as I usually do, I was hanging on her every word. It's so simple and yet so gorgeous. I'd read her grocery lists.
• This book is a complete mindfuck. Most of the twists towards the end are sheer brilliance. Taylor draws so many tiny threads into one beautiful big picture. This book makes it so you can guess all the twists, but you probably won't because they're never-before seen.
• This isn't your typical angels vs. demons story; angels aren't all good and demons aren't all bad. I loved the nuance of their conflict. There's something to be said for taking an old story and making it something new, and I loved Laini Taylor's execution of this story.
HOW THIS SEQUEL IMPROVES ON BOOK ONE
The worldbuilding here is just awesome. It's even more complex than it was in book one, with a detailed world map and more complexity.
I am shocked at how many side characters I fell in love with here. Karou's bravery and loneliness still shine brightly as ever. Her inner conflict over the Chimaera war stands out here; it's handled with nuance and grace. Liraz surprised me with her character development and nuance. Her brutality and desire to be more than a machine mix to form an extremely compelling character. Ziri's character surprised me as well; his conflict between ingrained prejudice and caring for others is very well-executed. Side characters like Hazael and Issa return, more fleshed out than ever, but possibly my favorite part was seeing little flashes from chimaera and angels caught up in a war beyond their control. Sarazal, Sveva, and Rath managed to touch my heart in the space of a few pages.
Most changed award has to go to Akiva. He's changed so much since book one, where I liked but didn't love him. Here, he's an incredibly compelling character; a character who's made huge mistakes and owns up to them.
Improbable as their relationship is, Karou and Akiva are such a compelling couple. Their scenes here were few and far between, which served only to make them more tear-worthy. The touch of instalove from book one has become a complex relationship full of moments that touch your heart. They're seriously on the track towards becoming one of my top six couples.
And of course, Zuzana and Mik are still delightful. I'm really glad Karou has girl friends and the book isn't a mess of slutshaming. These two also add a touch of humor to an otherwise disturbing story.
“What is it about you?” she had asked him recently. “I almost never like people, even in tiny doses. But I never get tired of being with you.”
“It's my superpower,” he had said. “Extreme be-with-able-ness.”
This book is far darker, thematically, than DoSaB. Days of Blood and Starlight is a war epic, not just the story of a demon and angel's forbidden love. Everything lovely about the first book is simply one part of a whole story. There's so much nuance to both the themes and the characters; this is a book you could analyze for hours.
Honestly, I think my feelings are best summed up my initial review being “I'm dead inside??” This book absolutely killed me, and I can't wait for book three. I know everyone has read this series already, but if you haven't, PLEASE pick it up. This is so much more than a cliche love story; it's about tragedy and war and prejudice and oh my god, please read it.
February 7, 2017
“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.”
After finishing Daughter of Smoke & Bone., I immediately picked up the second book because this is one of those series you just can’t put down until you know every possible detail about it. For once, I’m really happy I didn’t start this series when it first came out because how can you possibly wait a whole year between each new release? This is what I like to call a marathonable series.
The plot:
This book took a turn for the bleak. It was definitely darker than the first one and that might be why I took one star off. I was hoping to see at least some uplifting scenes but for the most part this book focused on war, grief and revenge.
The romance:
*Sigh*I think it’s safe to say that my ship hit an iceberg in this book but I’m hoping things get fixed between Karou and Akiva in the final book. Kakiva needs to happen!
The characters: ➨Ziri: Ziri was surprisingly my favorite character in this book. The poor guy has the biggest crush on Karou and has been in the friendzone since he was a kid.
Also, can we just talk about his body for a sec?
➨Zuzana: I’m still confused about the magic system in this world. How does it work? How come a human can learn to disappear? I need answers.
➨Thiago: I knew right off the bat that we couldn’t trust that f*cking asshole. I get it, Karou had no choice but to work with him but ughh
I’m really not sure how I feel about
➨Jael: Somebody needs to kill this thing before I do.
What I’m hoping to see in the next book:
➨ Kakiva sailing.
➨Festival: Akiva’s mother. I hope we can learn more about her story and how she
➨More explanation on the magic system.
➨
➨ Brimstone back? Maybe? Hopefully?
Thanks for reading! Please share your thoughts :D
May 19, 2022
Days of Blood and Starlight is the second installment in Laini Taylor's hugely popular Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy. The good news is that I did enjoy this one more than the first book in the series.
After finishing that one, I was actually on the fence about whether or not to even continue.
In this book, and it is one she definitely grows into as the story unfolds.
She is suffering with severe grief and because of this, her character is raw and has an overwhelming need for vengeance.
I like this Karou.
I feel like her finally knowing who she is, and what she is, allows her to gain the power she lacked in the first book. I also like how the romance takes a back seat in this one.
What this book does have is action, action, action!!! Reading it, you definitely can feel the whole story is rushing towards an ultimate battle.
Zuzana and Mik, my baes, are still here, as well as Akiva, who is busy reimmersing himself into the life of the Seraphim. Training, fighting, politics, we see it all here and meet a lot of new characters as well.
The world building continues to be VERY strong. The world we saw in the first book is built upon and built upon until you feel like you are looking at this vast empire of angels versus demons.
I listened to this one, as I did the first, and I think the narrator does a spectacular job bringing this incredible world to life.
I have already started the third book and it is even more action-packed. Overall, I am glad that I continued on with the series.
After finishing that one, I was actually on the fence about whether or not to even continue.
In this book, and it is one she definitely grows into as the story unfolds.
She is suffering with severe grief and because of this, her character is raw and has an overwhelming need for vengeance.
I like this Karou.
I feel like her finally knowing who she is, and what she is, allows her to gain the power she lacked in the first book. I also like how the romance takes a back seat in this one.
What this book does have is action, action, action!!! Reading it, you definitely can feel the whole story is rushing towards an ultimate battle.
Zuzana and Mik, my baes, are still here, as well as Akiva, who is busy reimmersing himself into the life of the Seraphim. Training, fighting, politics, we see it all here and meet a lot of new characters as well.
The world building continues to be VERY strong. The world we saw in the first book is built upon and built upon until you feel like you are looking at this vast empire of angels versus demons.
I listened to this one, as I did the first, and I think the narrator does a spectacular job bringing this incredible world to life.
I have already started the third book and it is even more action-packed. Overall, I am glad that I continued on with the series.
November 7, 2012
Original review posted on The Book Smugglers
Warning: this review contains inevitable spoilers for book 1 in the series.
Trigger warning: rape.
Laini Taylor is doing really interesting things with her series. When it comes to romance in the Paranormal/Fantasy YA landscape, more often than not the reader is presented with truly problematic pairings where rape culture is normalised and where insta-love is presented as par for de course and in lieu of actual romantic development.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a book with a very strong focus in the romance between Karou/Madrigal and Akiva. A romance that was not only forged on the insta-love Furnace of Doom but also one depicted as having the no holds barred/soul mates kind of dynamic. That love was all the more impacting because it was also an impossible romance between enemies who dared to dream about ending the war between their people. At the end of that book, we know how well this turned out (not): Madrigal was killed but eventually resurrected as memory-less Karou. Akiva, thinking Madrigal was well and truly dead, went on a killing rampage. It ended with Karou recovering her memories and realising what Akiva had done and the two breaking up, therefore subverting the usual YA romantic trope and that was AWESOME.
At one point in Days of Blood and Starlight, Karou says that their story is like Romeo and Juliet’s but instead of waking up to find that Romeo had committed suicide, she wakes up to find out that he went on to decimate not only her entire immediate family, destroy her city and then proceed to commit genocide against her entire race. Lovely.
And that’s the actual starting point here: the insta-love that doesn’t work and is not rewarded for its wtfuckery. The story then in Days of Blood and Starlight deals with the after, with the guilt, with Karou finding out that HOLY CRAP, she dared to dream of love and that’s what happens when you hook up with a fanatical dude. Because there is no denying: Akiva has lost his shit so completely and how do you come back from that?
You can’t. Because genocide: not an acceptable response to your lover’s death.
Akiva knows that. Karou knows that. And so they are apart. And in the “apart”, they come to realise that their dream of peace needs to be bigger than their dream of togetherness.
But enough with the romance because unlike what I might have led you to believe with my rambling above, this book is not about love at all, it is actually about war. Karou is back with the few surviving Chimera, working alongside Thiago, the abhorrent man who killed her, in order to create an army of monsters to avenge their people.
In the meantime, there is a lot of emotional angst here. Karou is drowning in guilt for daring to fall in love with the enemy and mistakenly equates her dream of peace and love with the ensuing mass-murders on both sides. Part of her journey is realising that the love and the dream are not the problem. Revenge is. But before she gets to this realisation, the Karou of the first book is replaced with a meek, emo-version of herself, someone who makes terrible, stupid mistakes in the name of making amends (at one point I actually expected Akiva and Karou to burst into singing “I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I am living”).
And it’s like, being complicit with genocide: not an acceptable response to your guilt.
Sorry, going back to the romance briefly: I do wonder what is going to happen. Because surely there is no way to mend this. NO WAY. There can’t be. Especially considering that yes, Akiva feels immense guilt, but his guilt comes only once he knows Karou is alive. If she was still dead, I got the feeling he would not feel this way. And I have a sneaky suspicion that because both of them have been involved with mass killings to some extent or another, in some creepy way all could be forgiven in the end because both did unspeakable things? Like in a really wonky, problematic mathematical equation in which each other’s actions are annulled like they never happened or something because… True Love. Surely, this is not where this story is going, is it?
And I can’t begin to express how fucked up this is, and how terrible the consequences are. And it becomes really clear, really soon, how their world is the shittiest place EVER. Both Angels and Chimera are immersed in this bloody war and holy crap, this book is dark, violent and emotionally draining and at points I just wanted to stop reading and get out just so I could breathe. In fact, reading some pages felt like being punched.
Laini Taylor is a brilliant writer and there is no denying that the harrowing version of Karou’s story is as engaging and beautifully written as its lighter companion (book one).
Those things said, I can’t help but to think that structurally speaking this book is a bit of a mess. There is a lot of head-hopping with random characters providing the point of view for a couple of pages then disappearing altogether from the narrative.
There is also a point toward the ending of the book where the narrative – which thus far had been linear – becomes choppy as it goes back to hours or days before a certain point in the present time just so there could be an extremely contrived “gotcha” moment.
Zuzana and her boyfriend Mik, as awesome as they are – and I mean it, I just love their love story as well as the loyalty and friendship between Karou and Zuzana – had no place in this story. Although I get the intention of adding a lighter tone to an otherwise grim story as well as giving Karou some footing in the human world, their presence in the proceedings felt forced and their comic lightness was misplaced in the midst of such portentous happenings.
Finally, part of me wonders if some of this violence isn’t a bit gratuitous, just to make a point. And then you have an extremely violent and completely unnecessary attempted rape scene. As though there wasn’t enough evidence of the violent and abhorrent nature of the attacker already so let’s add humiliating sexual violence toward its main female character as well.
Ultimately, Days of Blood and Starlight is an emotionally impacting book with a solid story and good overall plot developments. But unfortunately, it is nowhere near as awesome as its predecessor.
But, as I said before: Laini Taylor is doing really interesting things with her series. I just don’t know how I feel about them. I do remain curious to see where it goes though.
Warning: this review contains inevitable spoilers for book 1 in the series.
Trigger warning: rape.
Laini Taylor is doing really interesting things with her series. When it comes to romance in the Paranormal/Fantasy YA landscape, more often than not the reader is presented with truly problematic pairings where rape culture is normalised and where insta-love is presented as par for de course and in lieu of actual romantic development.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a book with a very strong focus in the romance between Karou/Madrigal and Akiva. A romance that was not only forged on the insta-love Furnace of Doom but also one depicted as having the no holds barred/soul mates kind of dynamic. That love was all the more impacting because it was also an impossible romance between enemies who dared to dream about ending the war between their people. At the end of that book, we know how well this turned out (not): Madrigal was killed but eventually resurrected as memory-less Karou. Akiva, thinking Madrigal was well and truly dead, went on a killing rampage. It ended with Karou recovering her memories and realising what Akiva had done and the two breaking up, therefore subverting the usual YA romantic trope and that was AWESOME.
At one point in Days of Blood and Starlight, Karou says that their story is like Romeo and Juliet’s but instead of waking up to find that Romeo had committed suicide, she wakes up to find out that he went on to decimate not only her entire immediate family, destroy her city and then proceed to commit genocide against her entire race. Lovely.
And that’s the actual starting point here: the insta-love that doesn’t work and is not rewarded for its wtfuckery. The story then in Days of Blood and Starlight deals with the after, with the guilt, with Karou finding out that HOLY CRAP, she dared to dream of love and that’s what happens when you hook up with a fanatical dude. Because there is no denying: Akiva has lost his shit so completely and how do you come back from that?
You can’t. Because genocide: not an acceptable response to your lover’s death.
Akiva knows that. Karou knows that. And so they are apart. And in the “apart”, they come to realise that their dream of peace needs to be bigger than their dream of togetherness.
But enough with the romance because unlike what I might have led you to believe with my rambling above, this book is not about love at all, it is actually about war. Karou is back with the few surviving Chimera, working alongside Thiago, the abhorrent man who killed her, in order to create an army of monsters to avenge their people.
In the meantime, there is a lot of emotional angst here. Karou is drowning in guilt for daring to fall in love with the enemy and mistakenly equates her dream of peace and love with the ensuing mass-murders on both sides. Part of her journey is realising that the love and the dream are not the problem. Revenge is. But before she gets to this realisation, the Karou of the first book is replaced with a meek, emo-version of herself, someone who makes terrible, stupid mistakes in the name of making amends (at one point I actually expected Akiva and Karou to burst into singing “I had a dream my life would be so different from this hell I am living”).
And it’s like, being complicit with genocide: not an acceptable response to your guilt.
Sorry, going back to the romance briefly: I do wonder what is going to happen. Because surely there is no way to mend this. NO WAY. There can’t be. Especially considering that yes, Akiva feels immense guilt, but his guilt comes only once he knows Karou is alive. If she was still dead, I got the feeling he would not feel this way. And I have a sneaky suspicion that because both of them have been involved with mass killings to some extent or another, in some creepy way all could be forgiven in the end because both did unspeakable things? Like in a really wonky, problematic mathematical equation in which each other’s actions are annulled like they never happened or something because… True Love. Surely, this is not where this story is going, is it?
And I can’t begin to express how fucked up this is, and how terrible the consequences are. And it becomes really clear, really soon, how their world is the shittiest place EVER. Both Angels and Chimera are immersed in this bloody war and holy crap, this book is dark, violent and emotionally draining and at points I just wanted to stop reading and get out just so I could breathe. In fact, reading some pages felt like being punched.
Laini Taylor is a brilliant writer and there is no denying that the harrowing version of Karou’s story is as engaging and beautifully written as its lighter companion (book one).
Those things said, I can’t help but to think that structurally speaking this book is a bit of a mess. There is a lot of head-hopping with random characters providing the point of view for a couple of pages then disappearing altogether from the narrative.
There is also a point toward the ending of the book where the narrative – which thus far had been linear – becomes choppy as it goes back to hours or days before a certain point in the present time just so there could be an extremely contrived “gotcha” moment.
Zuzana and her boyfriend Mik, as awesome as they are – and I mean it, I just love their love story as well as the loyalty and friendship between Karou and Zuzana – had no place in this story. Although I get the intention of adding a lighter tone to an otherwise grim story as well as giving Karou some footing in the human world, their presence in the proceedings felt forced and their comic lightness was misplaced in the midst of such portentous happenings.
Finally, part of me wonders if some of this violence isn’t a bit gratuitous, just to make a point. And then you have an extremely violent and completely unnecessary attempted rape scene. As though there wasn’t enough evidence of the violent and abhorrent nature of the attacker already so let’s add humiliating sexual violence toward its main female character as well.
Ultimately, Days of Blood and Starlight is an emotionally impacting book with a solid story and good overall plot developments. But unfortunately, it is nowhere near as awesome as its predecessor.
But, as I said before: Laini Taylor is doing really interesting things with her series. I just don’t know how I feel about them. I do remain curious to see where it goes though.
January 26, 2023
Ahhhh this was so good!! 🤩🤩 I went in with high expectations bc I really enjoyed Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but it was great that it fulfilled them! There really isn't any better feeling than a sequel living up to a great first book 😌😌🤌🤌
“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.”
Days of Blood and Starlight is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, following that book's explosive ending. This book continues Karou and Akiva's journey as war rages on. This book is definitely a lot more bloody and violent than the first book- and it's such a great story!
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.
Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.
This was not that world.”
Starting with the characters. I really liked the characters in here! 😃 Karou is a great protagonist- she feels very layered and is super easy to root for. I loved seeing her journey and the ways she dealt with challenges thrown at her. She's great 💕
Akiva is also a good character. I do feel very attached to him after the first book- but I feel like he got a lot less page time in here!? There was a lot more focus on Karou and other characters, so I feel like he didn't go through TONS of development. However I still like him! 😊
But my all time favourite character is Zuzana! She's honestly such a vibe and I LOVE her personality 😚😚 Reading her chapters and parts with her in was always so entertaining, and it's also so sweet seeing her and Mik together! They're so cute omg 😍😍
Next, the writing. Ugh I love Laini Taylor's writing sm!! 😍😍 It's honestly the perfect balance between gorgeous descriptions, emotion and action, and it's also so easy to read! I feel like I read her books a lot quicker than others, and it's just such a great time. I've only read 2 of her books, and I'm already sure she's gonna become an autobuy author! Really excited to try her other series at some point 🙌
Lastly, the plot. I did enjoy the plot! I feel like the romance really took a backseat in this instalment, giving way to loads of action. Which was great! I enjoyed having more action and also seeing more worldbuilding. It kept me captivated all the way through ✨
If I had to say anything negative, I would say:
• The plot could drag at some points, so maybe it could've been a little shorter?
• Wish Akiva could've had a bit more development
• I also wanted a tiny bit more romance- I understand that more action was needed to advance the plot, but there was, like, NO romance. And I want to see more of them 🥺🥺
“Your heart is not wrong. Your heart is your strength. You don't have to be ashamed.”
Overall, such a great read!! 😩😩 Having such a good time with this series 🥰🥰 I would definitely recommend if you want:
✔ Amazing writing
✔ Angels and demons!
✔ Well-developed characters
✔ Great worldbuilding + unique magic
✔ Themes on war and its terrible effects
Hopefully I'll be able to read the third book soon!! 💗
~ 4 stars
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy:
1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone- ★★★★☆ 😘
2. Days of Blood and Starlight- ★★★★☆ ❤
3. Dreams of Gods and Monsters- tbr
❤ - favourites
😘- amazing romance
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had such a great time with this!! 🤩🤩 A captivating second book in what has proven to be a very enjoyable series 💖💖
RTC!
“A dream dirty and bruised is better than no dream at all.”
Days of Blood and Starlight is the sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, following that book's explosive ending. This book continues Karou and Akiva's journey as war rages on. This book is definitely a lot more bloody and violent than the first book- and it's such a great story!
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying.
Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon’s secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel—a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness.
This was not that world.”
Starting with the characters. I really liked the characters in here! 😃 Karou is a great protagonist- she feels very layered and is super easy to root for. I loved seeing her journey and the ways she dealt with challenges thrown at her. She's great 💕
Akiva is also a good character. I do feel very attached to him after the first book- but I feel like he got a lot less page time in here!? There was a lot more focus on Karou and other characters, so I feel like he didn't go through TONS of development. However I still like him! 😊
But my all time favourite character is Zuzana! She's honestly such a vibe and I LOVE her personality 😚😚 Reading her chapters and parts with her in was always so entertaining, and it's also so sweet seeing her and Mik together! They're so cute omg 😍😍
Next, the writing. Ugh I love Laini Taylor's writing sm!! 😍😍 It's honestly the perfect balance between gorgeous descriptions, emotion and action, and it's also so easy to read! I feel like I read her books a lot quicker than others, and it's just such a great time. I've only read 2 of her books, and I'm already sure she's gonna become an autobuy author! Really excited to try her other series at some point 🙌
Lastly, the plot. I did enjoy the plot! I feel like the romance really took a backseat in this instalment, giving way to loads of action. Which was great! I enjoyed having more action and also seeing more worldbuilding. It kept me captivated all the way through ✨
If I had to say anything negative, I would say:
• The plot could drag at some points, so maybe it could've been a little shorter?
• Wish Akiva could've had a bit more development
• I also wanted a tiny bit more romance- I understand that more action was needed to advance the plot, but there was, like, NO romance. And I want to see more of them 🥺🥺
“Your heart is not wrong. Your heart is your strength. You don't have to be ashamed.”
Overall, such a great read!! 😩😩 Having such a good time with this series 🥰🥰 I would definitely recommend if you want:
✔ Amazing writing
✔ Angels and demons!
✔ Well-developed characters
✔ Great worldbuilding + unique magic
✔ Themes on war and its terrible effects
Hopefully I'll be able to read the third book soon!! 💗
~ 4 stars
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy:
1. Daughter of Smoke and Bone- ★★★★☆ 😘
2. Days of Blood and Starlight- ★★★★☆ ❤
3. Dreams of Gods and Monsters- tbr
❤ - favourites
😘- amazing romance
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had such a great time with this!! 🤩🤩 A captivating second book in what has proven to be a very enjoyable series 💖💖
RTC!
Want to read
January 28, 2012
Exactly what I felt like after reading the publication date.
...EDIT...
Ooh. Days of Blood and Starlight. Nice title.
December 20, 2018
"And on Akiva's face, gratitude vied with the emptiness that Liraz had started thinking of as his death wish look. She remembered a time when Akiva had laughed and smiled, when in spite of the violence of their lives he had been a full person, with a full range of emotion. He had never had Hazael's sunshine demeanour - who did? But he had been alive. Once upon a time."
A fantastic continuation of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. I loved being back in the world of Seraphim and Chimera.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
Karou is left reeling from the revelation of what happened to Brimstone and the rest of her family, after regaining her memory and learning about her past as Madgrial. She returns to Eretz to live with the other Chimera and carry on Brimstone's work, while under the thumb of Thiago - the white wolf. Whom I hate with the fire of a thousand suns just FYI.
Meanwhile Akiva is back with his brother and sister, fighting in the war, nothing but weapons in this never ending fight. The leader of the Seraphim has some terrible plans, and Akiva wants to do whatever he can to stop them.
We get more of Zuzanna and Mik! I love these two :) I love how Laini managed to incorporate them into the fantastical world of Angels and Monsters. Plus the ending of book 2 sets us up to dive straight back into the action, so I need book 3 now!
A fantastic continuation of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. I loved being back in the world of Seraphim and Chimera.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
Karou is left reeling from the revelation of what happened to Brimstone and the rest of her family, after regaining her memory and learning about her past as Madgrial. She returns to Eretz to live with the other Chimera and carry on Brimstone's work, while under the thumb of Thiago - the white wolf. Whom I hate with the fire of a thousand suns just FYI.
Meanwhile Akiva is back with his brother and sister, fighting in the war, nothing but weapons in this never ending fight. The leader of the Seraphim has some terrible plans, and Akiva wants to do whatever he can to stop them.
We get more of Zuzanna and Mik! I love these two :) I love how Laini managed to incorporate them into the fantastical world of Angels and Monsters. Plus the ending of book 2 sets us up to dive straight back into the action, so I need book 3 now!
September 16, 2020
Creo que todo lo que diga se puede considerar SPOILER, así que están advertidos.
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1. ¡Nunca me imaginé que Karou relevaría a Brimstone como resucitador! :O
2. NECESITO INTERACCIONES BONITAS ENTRE KAROU Y AKIVA QUE ME HAGAN FANGIRLEAR, POR FAVOR. Es que no hubo ni una, ¡ni una! T_T
3. Thiago me daba mucho asco, de verdad. Petulante, abusivo y encima pretendía violar a Karou... DESGRACIADO. Ughhh, es que se queda corto todo lo que pueda decir de él. ¡Menos mal lo mata!
4. Y Ten tampoco se queda atrás, vaya asco de loba.
5. ZUZANA Y MIK, akdsjhldalsjdasld. Son la cosa más adorable del mundo entero, son preciosos, achuchables y... AMOR PURO. Las pruebas, la manera en la que empezaron a salir, la valentía de los dos al ir a ayudar a Karou <3
6. Hubo un punto en el que pensé que el turíbulo que le trajo Akiva a Karou contenía el alma de Brimstone, no la de Issa. Me decepcionó un poco :'(
7. Yo sé que Ziri tiene las mejores intenciones del mundo con relación a la causa quimérica y demás peeeeeeero... ¡DEJA DE PENSAR QUE VAS A PODER ESTAR CON KAROU! ¡NO, NO, NO Y NO! KAROU ES DE AKIVA Y AKIVA ES DE KAROU. PUNTO.
Y dicho todo esto, necesito el último libro... YA.
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1. ¡Nunca me imaginé que Karou relevaría a Brimstone como resucitador! :O
2. NECESITO INTERACCIONES BONITAS ENTRE KAROU Y AKIVA QUE ME HAGAN FANGIRLEAR, POR FAVOR. Es que no hubo ni una, ¡ni una! T_T
3. Thiago me daba mucho asco, de verdad. Petulante, abusivo y encima pretendía violar a Karou... DESGRACIADO. Ughhh, es que se queda corto todo lo que pueda decir de él. ¡Menos mal lo mata!
4. Y Ten tampoco se queda atrás, vaya asco de loba.
5. ZUZANA Y MIK, akdsjhldalsjdasld. Son la cosa más adorable del mundo entero, son preciosos, achuchables y... AMOR PURO. Las pruebas, la manera en la que empezaron a salir, la valentía de los dos al ir a ayudar a Karou <3
6. Hubo un punto en el que pensé que el turíbulo que le trajo Akiva a Karou contenía el alma de Brimstone, no la de Issa. Me decepcionó un poco :'(
7. Yo sé que Ziri tiene las mejores intenciones del mundo con relación a la causa quimérica y demás peeeeeeero... ¡DEJA DE PENSAR QUE VAS A PODER ESTAR CON KAROU! ¡NO, NO, NO Y NO! KAROU ES DE AKIVA Y AKIVA ES DE KAROU. PUNTO.
Y dicho todo esto, necesito el último libro... YA.
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