Author: Laini Taylor
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Little Readers
Publication Date: November 2012
Length: 513
Series: Daughter of Smoke & Bone (# 2)
Audio or Book: Book
Reason for Discovery: Vaginal Fantasy Book Club
From GoodReads:
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war. This is not that world.
Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it. While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope. But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
Days of Blood & Starlight takes place fairly soon after Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Karou is now working with the chimera to help them in the war against the seraphim. Akiva is with his fellow seraphim; however, he is trying to help the chimera as much as he can. Akiva is desperate to make up for the wrongs that he committed in Karou's eyes. Meanwhile, Zuzana and Mik go on a journey to help their friend Karou.
*Note* This book has an attempted rape scene. There is a tiny bit of detail. *Note*
Before I discuss this book, we need to talk about the cover of this book. Isn't it lovely? I love the covers of these books. They are so gorgeous. I don't care that they aren't super relevant to the series (the first one was sort of); they are just so pretty. Okay, now that we discussed the cover, we can discuss the text.
I was quite surprised to see how similar but yet how different Days of Blood & Starlight is from Daughter of Smoke & Bone. Days of Blood & Starlight, like the first book, has fantastic world building. The world felt unique and different. Although it feels a bit like Romeo & Juliet at times, this series is new and refreshing. I am not sure how this trilogy is going to end. Again, like Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Days of Blood & Starlight is filled with beautiful lines. The writing is amazing and graceful. Every word was perfectly crafted for each sentence.
I think that Taylor did a better job balancing flashbacks and present scenes in this book than in the first. Unlike the first book, which had a massively long flashback that was important but broke up the book in an odd way, Days of Blood & Starlight scattered the flashbacks throughout the book. I felt that this really helped the book flow better. With that said, I do feel that the book was a smidge too long. I wonder if this book would have worked just as well with just Akiva and Karou's POV chapters. Granted, I love Zuzana and her chapters were cute; however, I kind of wish that the book was a tiny bit shorter.
The biggest different between this book and the first one was that this book was incredibly violent. It was a bit of a shock. The violence didn't bother me, it was just different from the first book. The only scene that I did not like was an attempted rape scene. I don't like reading about this type of scene in books. I usually leave the book feeling that these scenes were not necessary as well and that a different scene could have been written to evoke certain sentiments about a villainous character.
Another reason I think that I have been struggling to fangirl this series is that I have realized that I don't like seeing angels portrayed as evil. I have struggled with this with the recent seasons of Supernatural and the Bobby Dollar series by Tad Williams. I like to see my angels with a better ability to empathize and care. When I imagine the seraphim as a different creature, I am able to enjoy this series much more.
Overall, I did have some problems with this book (and this series); however, the writing and world building are just wonderful. I couldn't put this book down. I look forward to seeing how this series ties up.
I give this book a 4 out of 5.
Very Good |