A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Looking for Alaska by John Green
You’re likely to have heard of or read some of these more popular titles (i.e. The Perks of Being a Wallflower which is, by the way, to be made into a movie with Miss Emma Watson) so I’ll tell you a bit about one of the lesser known.
While a lovely young adult librarian from a local public library did a brief book talk to some of my students, she skimmed over Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor. My interest was piqued when I heard this newly published book was set in Prague in the present day, an atypical locale for this genre. Most young adult books are either set in some place average to most YA readers (i.e. suburbia) or another world entirely. Also, being a fan of central Europe and having visited Prague once in a brief whirlwind of a weekend, I thought I’d give it a shot. So I elbowed my students out of the way to make sure I had my hands on it first. Kidding! None of them seemed interested so I pounced.
Well, it turns out Prague isn’t the only stage of this highly imaginative novel though it does add an old world and cold feel with its snow-covered, cobblestone streets. Things seems fairly normal as the book opens. Karou is a 17 year old art student in Prague. She is a bit edgy with bright blue hair and numerous tattoos, but to all of her friends, Karou just seems like an average student with a hint of mystery. In her sketchbook, she draws elaborate portrayals of beastly characters who seem half human and half animal. Her peers think she is just sketching an imaginary world. What they don’t know is these creatures really do exist (they’re called Chimera) and Karou sees them everyday when she steps through a door down one of Prague’s side alleys and into the chimera’s tiny shop.
Brimstone, the leader of the chimera, has been sending Karou on errands across the world for as long as she can remember. He deals in teeth, human or animal, and Karou finds herself trading with seedy characters from Paris to Morocco. What Brimstone does with the teeth? Even Karou doesn’t know. And where the door in the back of the shop leads? Karou's life will change when she finally finds out.
I was truly impressed by Laini Taylor's creativity (I think this is her first YA book though she's written adult fiction...I wonder if it is fantasy as well). The first half of the book keeps you on the edge. You’re dying to find out what’s behind that darn door and what is this creepy, dark business with all of these teeth. The overall tone is dark, eerie, and mysterious as you try to put the puzzle pieces together along with Karou and figure out her forgotten past and secret identity. If you’re like me, you’ll get halfway through the book and discover that more questions are arising without any answers. And when you do the math, you’ll find it hard to believe any resolve will come at this pace. So you’ll flip to the end of the book and see those three little words…to be continued. Ah ha! This is the start of a series! The other books haven’t come out, but this entire first book is setting the stage. So no resolve comes in the book. You only find out who Karou really is. And it gets a little slow in the second half of the book with a very passionate, teenage, forbidden romance drawing things out.
That being said, I absolutely recommend this book. Even if you're tired of teenage female protagonists in fantasy novels, give it a shot (at least the first half). You will be wowed by Taylor’s creativity. A quick read, Daughter of Smoke and Bone will stretch your imagination in dark ways.
*Image from Barnes and Noble.
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