Suck it Twilight!

2.12 – Daughter of Smoke & Bone

Two friends, independent of one another, likened this to The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo and I would amend that to likening the heroine to Lisbeth Salander, as the overall plots couldn’t be more different.  This is not a murder mystery but a war mystery; a war between the Chimera and the Seraphim that will only end when one race is completely destroyed.  Karou is much like Lisbeth in the fact that she feels lonely and lost, yet has a wonderful network of support around her. She also can certainly take care of herself; and, the fact is, you root for her.

I loved the set up of the story and the setting of Prague, seeing the art and culture.  I loved that the author didn’t define everything as it was introduced, like Chimera and Seraphim, she showed us what they were instead of telling and so it all felt more real.  I love that the secondary characters were developed just as much as the mains.  I loved Brimstone (he is by far the most complex and honorable character I have found in YA since Macon Ravenwood burst through the doors of that cafeteria.) I loved that about half way through the book we got to go back and get the back-story that readers so often crave, we got to see and understand how things got to this point.  I loved the changes in time and point of view and found them pretty seamless to read.  I loved that even though the last words were literally, “To be continued…” I didn’t want to throw the book at the wall.  I felt excited to see what comes next yet also satisfied that anything that comes will be a continuation instead of a completion.  This may be a start of a new trilogy but it felt like a complete story and that is not easy to achieve

My one issue is that I have a huge concern that girls are going to start to really believe that you just walk down the street, look at someone, and suddenly realize your reason for being.  That love is an instant thing will make sense, and you will suddenly do anything for someone and they will do anything for you without any work or sacrifice. Sound familiar?

At least Karou stood up for herself and didn’t take the easy way out, and she loved her family as much as she did the boy.  But still… Really do we need to keep doing this?  I do think that the plot faltered here and became a bit tedious but then a huge time shift came and I was back on board. The soul mate thing is bothersome, but the fact is I would actually tell readers to check out this book while that other one… I still can’t do it.