Review: Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2) by Laini Taylor

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Published: November 6, 2012
Pages: 528
Source: For Review from Hachette Book Group Canada
Rating: 5 Stars

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.
In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.
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?

In short: Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor was not an easy, light read - but it was absolutely a meaningful and powerful one.

Oof. Days of Blood and Starlight was not an easy read by any means. It took me a fair bit longer to get through than a book of its size would normally take (and it's quite a thick book as is). Now that's not to say that I didn't LOVE this book because as you can see by my 5 Star rating, I absolutely did, but it was emotionally draining and HEAVY. But the good kind of emotionally draining and heavy. The kind that is meaningful and worthwhile and powerful - a lot like my favourite non-HP series, Chaos Walking, which also contained some pretty serious themes involving the side-effects of war.

So yes, while Days of Blood and Starlight is not a book that you can easily breeze through, it was SO worth it. There are several reasons why it took me a while to work my way through the text: it's partly because there are a lot of different POVs in this book to keep track of (and some of these perspectives are from previously unknown characters), partly because Laini Taylor weaves these deliciously complex sentences that you just want to read over and over again, and partly because of the aforementioned dark and heavy subject matter. But I don't want people to assume that because this book was so long, the pacing must have been slow, because I don't feel that's the case - I was never bored while reading Days of Blood and Starlight. Just as with its predecessor, I was ENTHRALLED.

And as much as I enjoyed Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I have to say that I loved Days of Blood and Starlight even more, which is something that rarely happens to me with sequels in trilogies. This is because I was not a huge fan of the romance in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, which I felt was a little superficial and not developed enough. This was not an issue with Days of Blood and Starlight, but I won't say why so as to avoid spoilers. Let's just say I was completely satisfied with Karou's new realization and attitude - she admits how rash she was in her prior decisions and that alone is enough to get me to consider going back and rerating Daughter of Smoke and Bone as 5 Stars rather than 4.

And speaking of Karou - for I have not given her nearly as much love in this review yet as she deserves - she is AWESOME. Oh Karou. Poor Karou! She has to deal with so much in this story, some real difficult situations, and for a lot of these situations, she's alone with no one on her side. And it made me sad because she is such a wonderful person and she deserves happiness! But she does not break; she hardens and endures. She does what she can for the survival of the chimaera. And thankfully she does get to see some of her friends again and it was such a relief! The inclusion of Zuzanna and Mik, especially, was a welcome one as they provided some much needed light-hearted hilarity among so much darkness.

Overall, Days of Blood and Starlight was definitely one of my favourite reads of 2012 and Laini Taylor has secured her place as one of my favourite authors. I can't get over what a talented wordsmith she is! I am in awe of her beyond beautiful writing, her ability at crafting complex plotlines and surprise twists, and her brilliantly insane creativity. Read this series!

Previously, my review of Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

Other Reviews:
For What It's Worth
Nori's Closet
Wishful Thinking

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