Daughter of Smoke & Bone
Ratings359
Average rating4
Provo sentimenti contrastanti riguardo a questo libro. Non so se dargli tre o quattro stelle, quindi vada per un 3.5 stelle.
Cosa mi è piaciuto di questo libro:
- lo stile dell'autrice che nonostante i difetti è riuscito a catturarmi e a tenermi incollata al libro per sapere cosa c'era dietro al mondo che aveva creato
- le dinamiche che legano i rapporti tra le creature e i mondi
- e anche la storia, dai. non mi ha fatto impazzire, però tutto sommato mi è piaciuta.
Cosa non mi è piaciuto:
- chimere e serafini sono due figure mitologiche che, a parer mio, cozzano un po' tra loro. O fai angeli e demoni, o chimere e qualcos'altro.
- trama: misera. Più che un romanzo, io lo definirei una storia, una di quelle storie da papà castoro raccontate prima di andare a dormire, che, ripeto, comunque è riuscita a catturarmi. La trama è pressoché assente, poiché in questo primo volume la domanda a cui vuole rispondere è “chi è Karou”. Per farlo l'autrice torna indietro nel tempo, quindi quasi metà libro è un flashback e perché la trama si muova dobbiamo aspettare, suppongo e spero, il secondo volume.
- troppo romance: la seconda metà del libro tratta della storia d'amore tra i protagonisti. Ci sta, è anche carina, ma è come se fermasse il fiume della storyline che invece necessitava di andare avanti. mi spiego meglio...
- buco nella trama: SPOILER ALERT
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Karou ritorna a Marrakesh alla ricerca di Razgut e insieme stanno per andare a un portale nel cielo. Tant'è che Karou dice testuali parole: “Sì. andiamo adesso”. Fine del capitolo, ma in quello successivo lei è a Praga dalla sua amica. I mean, ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!
Dopodichè c'è tutto il flirt con Akiva e si torna a questo punto nell'epilogo dove lei va solo con Razgut perché ha mollato Akiva. NO! non si fa così!
FINE DELLO SPOILER
Concludendo, leggerò anche il seguito per sapere come continua la storia. Lo consiglio? Sni. A voi la palla, per così dire ;)
Yesss. This had the perfect mixture of ass-kicking teenage girl (blue-haired and living in Prague, of course), fantasy, angst, romance and heartbreak. Enough fairy tale to weave it all together but not break the spell. Not perfect, but I loved it.
Wow.... Just wow. I haven't been this touched by a book in years. Laini Taylor has crafted so much beauty, emotion and depth in a seemingly effortless art. I'm struggling to find the words to describe or explain how I'm feeling after finishing this novel but the tears, the jaw-aching grin and overwhelming sensation of happiness will have to be enough. Thank you, Laini, for this gem that I will always treasure. And welcome to my “favourite authors” list!
woooooooooooooh . ok . amazing worldbuilding. romance and flashbacks . ^^^^^
Oh wow, I didn't really know what this was about when I grabbed it? I knew it had some good buzz & also the audiobook was approximately the same length as the trip I was taking, so I took it. Like if I had realized it was about angels and chimera and shit I probably wouldn't have taken it? But it would have been my loss because this was really great. And the audiobook was exceptional–really good accents and monster voices. Like in retrospect when I think about summarizing the plot I like... kind of still don't really care about angel wars and soulmates and shit, tbh, but I think Karou is a really engaging character and I'm definitely going to read [b:Days of Blood & Starlight 12812550 Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, #2) Laini Taylor http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1337964452s/12812550.jpg 17961723]. Or better yet, see if we can get the audiobook of it for our library.
Resenha do blog Sincerando.com, escrita por Sarah Sindorf
“Karou desejava ser o tipo de garota completa em si mesma, que se sente bem com a solidão, serena.”
Karou vive em Praga, tem cabelos azuis e cursa Arte. Tem um ex-namorado chato e uma melhor amiga companheira e engraçada. Até aí entramos numa personagem normal de livros que estamos acostumados a ler. Entretanto, o verdadeiro lar de Karou é a loja de Brimstone, um demônio quimera que realiza desejos. E seu cabelo azul? É natural.
Karou não conhece os pais e desde que se lembra foi criada na loja com Brimstone e outras quimeras, mas não sabe nada de sua história e nem porque Brimstone precisa dos dentes que ela e várias pessoas levam à sua loja. Sua vida é bem corrida, pulando entre um dia normal na faculdade e amigos para uma caçada em vários países, correndo vários períodos por dentes de várias espécies.
A loja de Brimstone tem portas espalhadas pelo mundo todo e começam a aparecer misteriosas marcas de mãos queimadas nelas, e as quimeras se tornam mais tristes e nervosas. Ao mesmo tempo, Karou tenta lidar com problemas no mundo humano, e com seus desafios interiores. Karou se divide entre os dois mundos, e sente o tempo todo como se devesse estar em outro lugar, fazendo outra coisa. Depois de uma semana especialmente trabalhosa, Karou se depara com um ser que ela não sabia que existisse, um anjo, Akira. E sua vida muda totalmente.
A sinopse me deixou extremamente curiosa. Apesar de ser bem mais curta do que a divagação acima, é intrigante. Comecei a ler e fiquei desesperada para terminar. A história é muito intensa e movimentada. Karou é uma personagem misteriosa e independente, mas que tem um toque de confusão que faz com que se torne apaixonante. E existe um grande mistério por trás de sua história que nos obriga a descobrir qual é.
Ri, chorei, torci, fiquei com raiva. Passei por inúmeras emoções durante a leitura. E tem continuação. E não foi traduzida. A pior coisa para um leitor. E pior que continuação. Trilogia. E agora caio na mesma situação de sempre: esperar. Vou lendo outras coisas enquanto isso, tentando distrair, e imaginando o que houve com os personagens até lá.
Muito boa a leitura. Um dos livros que me prendeu bastante e me fez ficar perdida na história. Karou, Akira, as quimeras, são personagens muito complexos e interessantes, e existe um enredo por trás desse que nos faz querer saber mais. Tenho certeza que a espera pela continuação será recompensada.
Link da resenha: http://www.sincerando.com/2013/04/feita-de-fumaca-e-osso.html
I was surprised by this book, in a really great way. This is a beautiful piece of story telling and a wonderful addition to any book shelf. Do not be turned away by the YA it is worth the read at any age.
Impeccable writing style. The setting was clear, imaginative, and beautiful. The characters were unique. I liked Karou, Brimstone, and the shop full of teeth. The second half of the narrative slows down a bit but the mystery of the characters and their past is what kept me reading.
Love love LOVE this book!
If you have not read this book, stop what you are doing and go read it immediately! :)
I loved the characters, it was exciting, the storyline was unique ... And I can't wait to read the next one!
What a fantastic read! This book exceeded every single expectation I had for it. It was nice to have a book like this with something other than vampires and werewolves. This was a beautiful story with awesome characters. I had a hard time putting it down. I hope the second book is as great as this one.
This book had a lot of steep highs and lows for me. From the beginning though I was convinced it was going to be all highs. There is an atmosphere, an energy to Laini Taylor's writing that doesn't just draw you in, it makes you want to be there. It's exceptionally rich and evocative. I like that she writes about arty kids, in all their effervescence and quirk as well as pretentiousness and tendency for appropriation (yes, I'm looking at you Mik, take off the fucking eyepatch). It might annoy some people I'm sure, but for me it reminds me of the friends I used to have and all their flighty ambitions. Taylor created an environment for the main character that felt so nostalgic yet new, shiny but still mysterious.
She also writes romance in one of the few ways I can handle it, though only just barely - completely and utterly over-the-top. Here love is not so much a story of partnership and personality, but treated almost consistently in the abstract, and its fairly upfront about that. We don't really know anything about why Karou and Akiva love eachother, other than destiny or some shit like that, but that's not really the point. Their story, their romance was, in its origin, a rebellion, an act that they hoped would sew the seeds of change. That isn't always something that works for me, but when you meet sex with defiance (and yes, people have sex in this book, huzzah!) well then I'm all ears.
But that can make getting pulled into the characters a little difficult. I didn't care about Akiva at all. It didn't matter how torrid his backstory was, or how metatextually beautiful he was, he came off whiny and brooding pretty much like every other YA love interest. At least he wasn't possessive, so that's a plus, but he did try to kill her.
When it started going into the flashbacks my interest kind of crashed. Learning about the chimaera, particularly Brimstone and his work, brought it back for a little while and then we went into the rather predictable tragic love story. A very sweet, captivating tragic love story, but still utterly cliche. I suppose its a good sign that I like Karou more than Madrigal, as she is the "older" version of her. She's more aggressive, not as afraid to be flashy and enjoy her own beauty. It's refreshing to have a heroine like that, whereas Madrigal felt like a Mary Sue with horns and wings, which is pretty Mary Sueish anyway.
And then that's pretty much it. I was a bit startled to realize that Daughter of Smoke and Bone kind of doesn't stand on its own in terms of story arc. It serves as a kind of prologue - here's your characters, here's why they're important, we'll get to actual things happening a bit later. I don't know how I feel about where the series will go my favorite aspect was Brimstone, and he's dead , but if there's some Thiago getting his furry fucking behind whipped then I will undoubtedly be compelled to continue.
The more I think about it the more I've grieving for how good the first part of this book was. The imagery alone is almost overwhelming - Karou's chimaera family, the burning doors, Akiva crashing down into the streets of Marrakesh. Even the fight scenes were pretty well done. I know the movie rights have been picked up, and I've got my fingers crossed for Guillermo del Toro to get his hands on it.
Abstracts are cool, even when it turns a character into more of a symbol. Romance with a big sweeping capital R is fun. For a little bit. And to be perfectly honest, I really kind of like purple prose, its like a comfortable blanket to me. Unfortunately, it all wasn't able to hold together all the way through, but the good stuff is definitely there. And it's certainly better than a lot of other stuff out there.
This is an absolutely beautiful book. It's no secret I read a fair amount of YA, and while I try to stay away from the really crappy ones, sometimes I read some that are pretty fluffy. This is NOT one of those books. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is full of lyrical prose, fully fleshed out and intelligent characters and a blow-you-away world of beauty and mysticism. It depicts a Prague that feels real and timeworn (especially in comparison to The Book of Blood and Shadow, 2 stars) and the other world Taylor has created with dueling species and unique mythology is possibly the best YA fantasy world I've yet seen. And don't even get me started on the love story. Yes, this book has the obligatory angsty romance but there is NOTHING eye roll inducing to be found between these pages and I'm not ashamed to say that I caught myself swooning multiple times. Hands down this is a winner, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to lose themselves completely to the awe of a lovely and magical book.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. The characters were entertaining and interesting, and the take on the traditional ‘angels' and ‘demons' was fantastic. The lack of religious bias was great, something I was worried about upon reading the synopsis on the cover. I was not, however, in love with the writing style. The story is excellent and unique, but I found myself skimming along more then reading. I'll be checking it's sequel out at the library when it's released as I do want to know what happens, but this isn't one I would buy.
Set in the hauntingly, magical city of Prague Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is about Karou, a peculiar girl with blue hair she claims to grow naturally out of her head, with tattoos of eyes on her palms that she has had long before she can remember, and sketchbooks filled with beasts of all kinds that are as beautiful as they are frightening, beasts that all of Karou's friends think come straight from her imagination but are as real as the wish beads Karou wears around her neck. Daughter of Smoke and Bone is about an art student, who has no idea where she came from, whose earliest memory is Brimstone, a chimera whose mysterious work involves the collection of teeth and the creation of wishes. Whose workshop can be accessed through doors positioned all over the world and whose shop doesn't seem to be in the real world at all but Elsewhere.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is about a threat to Karou's way of life that may finally reveal who Karou truly is, but at a price that may take away everything she loves.
Through her rich and sensory writing style Laini Taylor really succeeded in taking a concept that, in my opinion, was overdone to the point of being mundane and turning it into a distinctive and noteworthy story. Her talent for description and world building was what won me over in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, a story that could have been ordinary if written by the wrong person but ended up being wonderful.
This was such a beautiful book, a book that, in my opinion, really sets the bar for paranormal YA. All of you who think you love your books about angels and forbidden romance or those like me who have been disappointed with all the angel books you've come across pick up Daughter of Smoke and Bone because it will be such a delightful surprise and have you wishing that you had found it sooner.
Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a novel that deserves to be read slowly to appreciate the detail and effort put into it, but if you find yourself whipping through it I won't blame you.
Smoke and Bone is the kind of book you don't expect to like but I ended but loving it, can't wait for the second one to come out.
This YA fantasy sucked me in completely.
The seraphim and chimaera (a strange hybrid of animal/humans) are at war and have been for centuries.
Karou and Akiva's romance is addictive.
And the cliffhanger ending? Guaranteed to have me reading the sequel.
Enjoyable.
I loved the beginning half of this book, it was absolutely beautiful and awesome. That bridge scene was amazing, but I disliked everything that came after it. Everything after page 265 depressed me, I did NOT like the ending to this book.
Wonderfully enchanting and dark. What a world! I absolutely cannot wait for more.