Mystery and Romance in 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone'

The covers of Daughter of Smoke and Bone has a black and white picture of a girl, the title in pretty, hard to read font, and a bright blue mask made of feathers on the girl which alludes to the scene in which Karou dances at a masquerade ball. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is both symbolic and literal to the book because the main character discovers her body is made from teeth and burning incense and her caretaker’s name is Brimstone which roughly translates into burning stone. The book has a recurring forbidden romance theme, but also maintains a bit of mystery and a hint of tragedy. Daughter of Smoke and Bone deals with mystery as Karou tries to figure out why Brimstone makes her go out and get teeth and why something’s been burning handprints

on all the portals that lead to Brimstone’s office.In the story Karou, who was once a chimera, falls in love with a seraphim and can’t be with him for many reasons. The books were written by Laini Taylor, who has also written works such as Faeries of Dreamdark, The Drowned, Lips Touch: Three Times, and the topic of this book report Daughter of Smoke and Bone . All of her works have won many awards, such as, Oregon Spirit Book Award, Amazon #1 Teen Book of 2011, and NPR Best Young Adult Fiction 2009.

The major character in the story is Karou. She is seventeen years old and has blue hair, which isn’t really surprising if you’ve seen a picture of Laini Taylor. Karou attends art school in Czech Republic with her friend Zuzana who is short, around the same age as Karou, is known for her stubbornness, and comes from a family of puppeteers. Karou’s love interest is Akiva, a seraphim with “eyes like fire”, tan skin, and dark hair. He is a soldier who has a lot of regrets and doesn’t actually believe what he’s fighting for. Brimstone is an ox-like chimera who raises Karou. He’s very kind, but also very strict There are many other characters and a few other people’s stories mixed in. If you put the story in chronological order it begins with Madrigal not wanting to marry Thiago, the general of the Chimera army, when she saves Akiva, even though she’s not supposed to because he’s a Seraphim. Akiva then sneaks into the Chimera capital to see her, and they fall in love. Then, they get caught and Madrigal is sentenced to death but Brimstone, who Madrigal has been working for, takes her soul out of her body and replaces it with Madrigal’s lifelong friend, Chiro. Chiro volunteers for the task because she turned Madrigal in, but nobody tells Akiva, who is forced to watch who he thinks is Madrigal die. Madrigal, who is in Chiro’s body sets Akiva free. In order to protect Madrigal, Brimstone puts her memories on a wishbone necklace that she wore, and made her a new body, disguising her as an infant human. Then he named her Karou, the Chimera word for hope, and raised her in his office, and as she gets older he sends her out to collect teeth for him. When she’s seventeen he sends her out on an errand in Marrakesh, she runs into Akiva, who has been burning the portals Karou uses to travel to and from Brimstone. Akiva thinks she’s a human that has been corrupted by Brimstone. They fight but Karou’s quirks remind Akiva of Madrigal and stop him from killing her long enough for Karou to get back to the portal. When she arrives at Brimstone’s office and doesn’t find him there, she goes through the back door, that she has never been allowed to go through, she discovers Eretz, the world where Chimaera and Seraphim live. She is discovered by Thiago, who has just woken up from a resurrection. Thiago becomes enraged when he sees Karou’s hamsas, eye tattoos on the palms of Chimera who’ve been resurrected, but Brimstone steps in and saves her.

Brimstone is also angry with her and sends her out into Prague and seals off the portal. Karou seeks comfort in her friend Zuzana, and while they’re hanging out Kishmish, a bird chimera who delivers messages to Karou for Brimstone, flies to her in flames holding a wishbone necklace Brimstone wore, and dies in her arms. In order to get back to her family Karou enlists the help of Razgut, a banished angel who knows another portal to Eretz. First, she must go all over the world stealing the magic coins that Brimstone pays his suppliers with. The first thing she uses the coins for is the ability to fly and then the power of invisibility, and returns one last time to Prague to see Zuzana. While in Prague, she runs into Akiva again, and they have an epic mid-air battle. Karou flashes her hamsas, which make Seraphim sick, at Akiva and he becomes too hurt to fight. Karou takes him to her apartment to hide him, and to find out if he knows anything about what happened to her family. Akiva lies and says he knows nothing but in actuality he’s the one that killed them. He does admit to burning all the

portals to cut off Brimstone’s supply of teeth. Karou and Akiva strike up a agreement to not kill each other and they spend the day together with Zuzana, Karou’s friend, and Mik, Zuzana’s boyfriend, as Karou says her goodbye’s without actually telling them goodbye, knowing Zuzana wouldn’t let her leave without a fight. Karou and Akiva have agreed to travel to the portal with Razgut together, when Akiva sees her wishbone necklace he realizes who she is, when he asks Karou about it, she dismisses it as a necklace Brimstone used to wear, but Akiva recognizes it as Madrigal’s.Akiva’s half-siblings and comrades, Liraz and Hazael, show up to kill Karou since she’s a servant of Brimstone’s. Akiva sends Karou to the first place they saw each other, and he stays behind to make sure his siblings can’t follow her. Akiva soon joins her in Morocco and together they break the wishbone and Karou receives all of her memories from when she was Madrigal. Akiva then reveals that he was the one to kill Karou’s family after which she runs and he lets her go. Karou goes to Razgut who leads her to the portal where they each go their separate ways. One lesson that you could take from this book is to trust your family, if they tell you not to go through a door, don’t do it.

Over all I give this book five stars, I loved how all the stories that just seem like filler actually connect with the main plot.

My favourite part about it’s about the part of greek mythology that isn’t well known. The book was very interesting but some may find it a hard read due to all the little details that become big details in the later books. If you enjoy this book I would highly recommend reading the rest of the series, Days of Blood and Starlight and Dreams of Gods and Monsters. Some books you might like from other authors include Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi, Awake at Dawn by C.C. Hunter, and Shadowshaper by Daniel

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