Zuzana and Mik, my baes, are still here, as well as Akiva, who is busy reimmersing himself into the life of the Seraphim. Training, fighting, politics, we see it all here and meet a lot of new characters as well. Karou is living with the evil freaking Thiago and the other chimaera. They are all hateful and evil with the exception of a few. But I won't go into that without giving away some major spoilers that you need to read for yourself. OMG! I highly recommend this book to all the readers.Read the first one first.And I'm looking forward to read the last one.I heard it is even better! I have also seen one completely earnest, sad, beautiful production of Romeo and Juliet. The actors playing the couple were living together in real life, and they had this palpable spark between them that made the star-crossed fate truly tragic. The lighting was intimate, like the production in Slings and Arrows once it turns beautiful ( here at 2:50) and the couple was still dumb and cursed, but I may have teared up a couple of times because they were beautiful and hopeful. Issa is the guardian for Brimstone's shop. Whenever a customer looking for Brimstone's services enters the shop, he or she has to wear one of Issa's snakes as a pre-emptive measure.

This story really brought out all the emotions in me: frustration, despair, wonder, pride, vengeance, giddiness, grief, suspense, anger and love! Or, worse than snoring, as Taylor so beautifully showed in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, he has the capacity in him to commit genocide and kill every one you ever loved. It is beautiful because that changes the entire game; it changes the entire person he is. He is not the person dreaming of peace and respect for all creatures. He is the person killing them.

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living—one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers’ arms to take their turn in the killing and dying. Once upon a time, an angel and a devil held a wishbone between them. And its snap split the world in two.’

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is a naive, sweet innocent first love. Appealing to many, but I liked the relationship dynamics even more in Days of Blood and Starlight. They’ve both lost that naivette, grown as people. They have more baggage to deal with and the relationship they’re building feels stronger – erected on foundations off a deeper understanding of themselves and the world – and they still can’t help but love each other. After all they’ve seen, all they’ve done, all that’s been done to them – they’re still drawn to each other like moth’s to flame. This book took a turn for the bleak. It was definitely darker than the first one and that might be why I took one star off. I was hoping to see at least some uplifting scenes but for the most part this book focused on war, grief and revenge.

Comments:

In a lot of ways DoBaS is a different creature to DoSaB. DoSaB had limited PoV changes that largely existed between Akiva and Karou (I think – my memory is really dodgy) and DoSaB was really more Romantic up until the very end. And by Romantic I don’t necessarily mean the relationship between Akiva and Karou because I ultimately think DoBaS was more romantic than its predecessor though it may not seem intuitively so. It was more Romantic in the sense that the characters and the story are so much bigger and more mature. There’s these two amazing, independent forces of fate building up behind Karou and Akiva. The more they come into themselves and become wiser, the more they’re drawn together. I loved that this book gives us a plentiful dose of Mik and Zusanna. The two love birds bring some lighthearted comedic relief to the book, and definitely help to lighten up the mood with their fun and witty banter. I liked how determined Zusanna is to find her friend, even if it means believing the unbelievable. It was also nice to see their romance in full bloom. The pair are a shining beacon of light and love amidst the chaos. But it was so much fun with the days that Zuzana and Mik were there. There was so much laughter in with all of the horrific stuff. I really want those guys as my best friends too. Along with Karou and I want my own Akiva! Most changed award has to go to Akiva. He's changed so much since book one, where I liked but didn't love him. Here, he's an incredibly compelling character; a character who's made huge mistakes and owns up to them. This book is far darker, thematically, than DoSaB. Days of Blood and Starlight is a war epic, not just the story of a demon and angel's forbidden love. Everything lovely about the first book is simply one part of a whole story. There's so much nuance to both the themes and the characters; this is a book you could analyze for hours.

She is suffering with severe grief and because of this, her character is raw and has an overwhelming need for vengeance. If Daughter of Smoke and Bone was a dream, a mirage, a masterpiece of writing and phrases and words, overlapped and edited and fine-tuned to create a perfection of romance, snark, and pulsating chemistry, all tinged with a palpable undertone of bittersweet, Days of Blood and Starlight is like a hard slap, the cold splash of water, and the startled opening of ones eyes into the bleak, war-ridden, fragile, and bloody reality of life. Unlike most trilogies which follow in a steady rhythm of romance or action or paranormal mystery, Laini Taylor breaks all imaginary constraints and reveals to us the completely unexpected, for Days of Blood and Starlight is as far removed from its predecessor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, as any novel could possibly be. In fact, the only similarities between the two lie in Taylor's atmospheric writing, her distinct characterizations, and the general plot continuation. In all other aspects though, Laini Taylor has surpassed my wildest expectations and written a novel that I can claim, in full confidence, that is far, far better than its predecessor. I gave Daughter of Smoke and Bone 5 Stars, just as I did Days of Blood and Starlight, but in reality, this novel deserves 500 Stars. I love how Laini blurs the lines between good and evil in ways that I have not yet seen in YA. Aside from a few exceptions, there is no clear hero in this story, no one is without sin, let no stone be cast by any of the characters. While I do believe that love shall overcome all obstacles, there is no guarantee that love or life will actually survive and conquer all. Laini sets up a climatic scene in the end that promises an epic battle of the likes no one has seen before in YA. I have NO IDEA where her story will take us! And I LOVE THAT! In this emotionally intense if loosely woven sequel to Daughter of Smoke and Bone (2011), Taylor puts Karou, a chimaera resurrected into the body of a blue-haired human teenager, through severe tests of both heart and soul.After the seraphim burn all of Brimstone's doorways to the world, Karou assumes that Issa is dead. Akiva confirms this after her memories return from breaking the wishbone. The truth is that Issa and Yasri have had their souls placed in thuribles.

Finally, this one ends on a bit of a cliffhanger...again, but it isn't as horrendous as the ending of Daughter of Smoke and Bone. I was at least eased by the fact that the book concludes on a more hopeful note after such a lengthy dark journey through the trenches of war. I am most perplexed to see, though, that the next book is not slated for release until 2014! How will I last that long? Furthermore, Laini herself said she has no idea how the storyline is going to go.....I guess it will be a long wait! 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. In this book, Karou is thrust into the role left vacant by Brimstone and it is one she definitely grows into as the story unfolds.

DREAMS OF GODS & MONSTERS

It is kind of interesting that when we talk about war and genocide, we round the numbers so cleanly. We shove individuals off the statistics because one million makes a catchier number than 999,876. Or, maybe, we just estimate because it's not possible to even know how many people died. It is certainly not possible to estimate how many survivors have been broken by genocide, not to mention the lives broken by racism and sexism, the slightly more chill siblings of genocide. From the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond, humans, chimaera and seraphim will fight, strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy. Creo que tuvo partes algo densas y aburridas, y las historias de algunos nuevos personajes no me interesaban para nada. Y otra cosa es que siento que le faltó esa MAGIA del primer libro. Yo me enamoré del mundo que Laini nos presentó en Hija de humo y hueso, con la tienda de Brimstone, los deseos, los dientes, la humana de cabello azul, ¡todo era tan místico y fantástico! Y este libro perdió todo eso: Se volvió oscuro y desolador, y aunque la trama se puso mil veces más intensa, extrañé mucho toda esa magia del primer libro. But then there’s YA born from the brain of Laini Taylor. I’ll read it. Nay, I’ll devour it. Breathe it in and hold it in my lungs for as long as possible before I’m forced to exhale or lose consciousness. I’m not saying that she’s exempt from using some of the above themes and tropes. Hell, I think this book has all of them. You know what makes it so different? It’s the beautiful writing, the pacing of the story, the incredible characterization, the depth to which she delves, the entire execution really.