Daughter of Smoke & Bone
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4.5 • 540 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The first book in the New York Times bestselling epic fantasy trilogy by award-winning author Laini Taylor
Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
National Book Award finalist Taylor (Lips Touch: Three Times) again weaves a masterful mix of reality and fantasy with cross-genre appeal. Exquisitely written and beautifully paced, the tale is set in ghostly, romantic Prague, where 17-year-old Karou is an art student except when she is called "home" to do errands for the family of loving, albeit inhuman, creatures who raised her. Mysterious as Karou seems to her friends, her life is equally mysterious to her: How did she come to live with chimaera? Why does paternal Brimstone eternally require teeth especially human ones? And why is she "plagued by the notion that she wasn't whole.... a sensation akin to having forgotten something?" Taylor interlaces cleverly droll depictions of contemporary teenage life with equally believable portrayals of terrifying otherworldly beings. When black handprints begin appearing on doorways throughout the world, Karou is swept into the ancient deadly rivalry between devils and angels and gradually, painfully, acquires her longed-for self-knowledge. The book's final pages seemingly establish the triumph of true love until a horrifying revelation sets the stage for a second book. Ages 15 up.
Customer Reviews
Good enough
Concept was more interesting than execution, but still an entertaining enough read to finish the book. Probably won't be reading the sequels.
I have no words
This series has one of the most original plots I have ever read. I have a hard time finding things I truly love but this book was a rollercoaster of emotion and I loved every second. I truly didn’t want to finish it. Highly, highly recommend.
Absolutely fantastic!!
Totally worth the build up to how the main characters reunite. The world building is phenomenal and it was a breath of fresh air to travel around the world and back to a place rarely used a setting in all the books I’ve read. Literally took me 15seconds to decide to buy the sequels.