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Community comment are the opinions of contributing users. These comment do not represent the opinions of Fraser Valley Regional Library.
Feb 23, 2018PimaLib_ChristineR rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
So, I came to this book after reading Strange the Dreamer, and maybe I just shouldn't have. Taylor is at the top of her game in that book, and unfortunately, that means that Daughter of Smoke and Bone suffers in comparison. Taylor plays on some of the same ideas, a race of "angels," someone finding a hidden side to themselves, but it does't play out nearly as cleanly here. Karou has grown up in a small shop with her family, creatures that trade teeth for wishes. Now in college in Prague, she is still called back to spend time with her family, and collect teeth for them. The door that lets her enter the shop of teeth can let her out wherever she needs to be, until she finds the shop empty one day and sneaks out the other door, the forbidden door. When she's found by Brimstone, her "father" he promptly ejects her onto the streets of Prague. It's difficult to build a world when the only part of it we see is a single room. Taylor is most successful at portraying the "normal" side of Karou's life as an art student in Prague. She makes the city come alive, a mixture of fairy tale charm and punk aesthetic. The action is interesting, as Karou travels to try to find a way back into the world of her family, but all of it felt like it could have been compressed and been the first half of a really good novel.