Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor. Little, Brown; 2014. 448 pages. Ebook.
I loved this book. I really, truly did.
The backstory (skip if uninterested): I first heard about it a couple of years ago when it first came out, thought it sounded interesting... but then quickly forgot about it and moved on. I don't think it particularly stuck out to me at the time. Then, as the years progressed, I kept seeing and hearing more and more about this book, and I added it back to my "to read soon" shelf. I finally picked it up (and bypicked it up, I mean checked it out from an online library - heck yeah, love those things) on my Kindle. I don't really like reading on my Kindle, but I had absolutely no problem making it through this one.
However, I find it necessary to clarify: just because one may love a book, it does not mean that there were not elements that I did not enjoy. Okay, clarification over.
The review:
Laini Taylor is a serious master wordsmith. Her writing is a lyrical, flowing masterpiece. She knows exactly how to craft her sentences and words to create a perfect scene or emotion. With Taylor, simple says a lot. I can honestly say that her writing did not appear cliche'd in any manner, and truly seemed unique. It really helped with the creation of the world she has created, a world that is truly entertaining and remarkable. Taylor has also been able to incorporate some truly marvelous humour into her narrative that really brings color and life into the story.
Another aspect that I really enjoyed about this book was the characters. Taylor has created an extremely vibrant cast, each with their own distinct personality. They really have depth, as well, which, sadly, I have not been able to find lately in a lot of books. It was so entertaining to read the banter that went back and forth between the various characters. I also really liked the fact that her characters were so real. By that I mean that they weren't perfect. They make mistakes, they say and do stupid things, and they have realistic personalities ad reactions.
The only thing that I wasn't a huge fan of was the shifting perspectives and storylines. I tend to get confused fairly easily with books when they do this, and to be honest it just annoys me, so this bothered me a bit. However, I will say that it did not negatively impede the story or flow, and as you can see, I was still able to really enjoy the story.
I realize that this review has been slightly vague, lacking details about specific characters and such, but I really feel that this is a book that you should go into knowing the basic plot of, but not knowing too much about (not that it's bad if you know a lot). I honestly did not know much, and it just seemed to make it much more enjoyable for me.
So if you, like me, have been putting this book off for a while, don't do it any longer. Pick it up as soon as you can and just allow yourself to get sucked into this truly remarkable world. I've been in a little bit of a reading rut lately, and it's been hard for me to lose myself in a book like I used to. With this book, however, it was so easy. Go grab a copy, and don't put it down.
