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Daughter of Smoke and Bone | Days of Blood and Starlight | Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Publication (dd/mm/yyyy): 08/11/2012
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Pages: 512
Pages: 512
Source: Publisher
Genre: YA (14+)
Genre: YA (14+)
My thoughts
I've always despised reviewing second books (plus) in a series. Just how much should I be allowed to disclose before the alarm bells in my brain go off, alerting me to the fact that SPOILERS ARE EVIL!? I will preface this review by saying that it if you read Daughter of Smoke and Bone it should be no question as to whether or not you continue the trilogy with Days of Blood and Starlight. Seriously, the cover alone should be convincing enough! Or what about the ending of DoSaB?
Days of Blood and Starlight begins unexpectedly: in the point of view of Zuzana, Karou's best friend (and best best friend ever!), and in true Zuzana POV fashion, the tone is light and kind of quirky and fun and unusual and just a great way to start off this book. Zuzana and Mik have amazing chemistry, great dialogue, and are one of my favourite secondary character couples. And the humour. They have that going for them.
So this book starts off a little similarly to DoSaB. Laini Taylor has a real talent for building up mystery and revealing bits and pieces in a satisfyingly gradual pace. Not too fast (info dump = BOO!) and not too slow (too secretive = BOO!). It is extremely hard to talk about any specifics with the plot, since it's all just better to learn as you read the book for yourself, but it's all there: action, emotions, atmosphere, great dialogue, delectable prose, characters that stick, a plot that escalates and builds and is so ENGAGING through and through.
I love how the aftermath of Karou and Akiva is handled in this book. I think the emotional turmoil that rests in Karou's mind in regards to Akiva, with whom she had lain and dared to dream a better world, was so very realistic. I really liked how both characters ended up individually; they are not the same "people" they were in Book One. And still. They both dare to dream of a better world, and that bonds them. Their presence and energy are magical, and it is their shared dream that sparks off some potential... hope, as the ones closest to them switch sides and begin to share that dream, or something thereof.
I am very much still a big fan of Laini Taylor’s writing style. It is different to what I am accustomed to, especially in YA literature, but it is a good kind of different. Consistent with Daughter of Smoke and Bone, this book is written in third-person past.
If you were impressed by Laini Taylor’s world-building, character-progression, plot-development and suspenseful, beautiful, unique writing style, you will not be disappointed with Days of Blood and Starlight! The stakes are higher, the blood count is rising and the pressure is building. I am itching to start reading Dreams of God and Monsters – my only regret is that I can’t finish these books quicker (big books)!
Quotes
First line: Prague, early May. The sky weighed gray over fairy-tale rooftops, and all the world was watching. Satellites had even been tasked to surveil the Charles Bridge, in ccase the . . . visitors , . . returned. Strange things had happened in this city before, but not this strange. At least, not since video existed to record it. Or milk it.
Favourite quotes:
"'It's like, luck friction. One's flint and one's steel, striking together to make fire.' (372)
"Bodies are only dead weight--we're all just vessels, after all--but knowing that was one thing; leaving a body behind was another. Karou understood that well enough. It is bodies that make us real. What is a soul without eyes to look through, or hands to hold? Her own hands trembled and she clasped them to keep them still. (466)
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AUSTRALIA: Angus & Robertson | Booktopia | BookWorld
INTERNATIONAL: Fishpond | Book Depository
I have received this review copy in return for an honest review.
