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A review by asreadbykat
Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor
4.0
True Rating: 3.75-4/5 Stars
Content/Trigger Warnings: Torture, Violence, Murder, Sexual Assault (not completed, not explicitly graphic but given enough detail), mentions of rape, suicide (not graphic), talk of/attempted genocide, discussions of war crimes
My Thoughts
"Mercy breeds mercy as slaughter breeds slaughter. We can't expect the world to be better than we make it."
I was cautious going into this sequel. I gave "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" 3.5 stars because while I enjoyed the first half of the book, I was less than impressed with the second half. I had been hoping that this book would give me more of what I wanted: Karou, her present world, and Zuzana. I'm happy to say that while this book definitely wasn't perfect, I definitely enjoyed it more than the first book.
In this book, Karou is trying to deal with the knowledge that the man her past self loved killed the family her current self had been raised by, and thousands of her kindred. Akiva, for his part, is dealing with his own guilt at his actions. Both of them are trying to figure out how to make things right, while dealing with their respective tyrants and traumas.
First off, this book isn't perfect. My least favorite aspect was how Karou acted. I wanted a Karou who was more action-oriented, who was scared but still willing to do what she thought was right. The girl we met at the beginning of the first book. What we got instead was a girl who was allowing herself to drown in undeserved guilt for actions she hadn't remembered in a long time, and didn't try too hard to stand up for herself or what she knew was right. She just moped. And said some things only to walk them back. She allowed others to dictate her actions, when in the beginning she held all the power. It was a wasted opportunity.
I was also SO SICK of the guilty pining. I didn't expect Karou and Akiva to be all "happy ever after", there is obviously a lot of guilt and trauma to work through. But it just never ended in this book. I literally almost shouted "FINALLY" when a certain character says something to Karou about it because I wanted her to actually think.
However, this was still a very interesting read. I really did enjoy seeing the world of Eretz and the Seraphim themselves fleshed out -even though this is very obviously a 2010s YA novel because the angels are evil and (most of) the "monsters" are good. It was also interesting to learn more about some of the different chimaera, how they don't get along together quite as well as we were led to believe (with there being some friction between predator and prey types), and learning of other kingdoms. The ruler of one particular kingdom mentioned has won my undying love and I REALLY hope we get to meet them in book 3.
I also appreciated how Taylor took the time to show how the war was affecting everyone. We don't just stay in Karou or Akiva's POVs, we also get some short excerpts from other characters on different sides of the war that add some depth. Taylor didn't shy away from the violence and trauma that comes with war, the way so many YA novels do, and it was nice to see even if it was difficult to read.
Speaking of difficult to read: I am not kidding when I mention a content warning for sexual assault. The scene covers about 1 page (front and back), and while I've read more detailed ones in fanfiction, it's still very difficult and disturbing, as it should be. But Taylor also takes care later to show the trauma this event can cause.
This book has its ups and downs, and it is definitely not an easy read simply because of the content, but it was infinitely better than the first one -and not least because I got to see a lot more of Zuzana, who is officially my queen.
Content/Trigger Warnings: Torture, Violence, Murder, Sexual Assault (not completed, not explicitly graphic but given enough detail), mentions of rape, suicide (not graphic), talk of/attempted genocide, discussions of war crimes
My Thoughts
"Mercy breeds mercy as slaughter breeds slaughter. We can't expect the world to be better than we make it."
I was cautious going into this sequel. I gave "Daughter of Smoke and Bone" 3.5 stars because while I enjoyed the first half of the book, I was less than impressed with the second half. I had been hoping that this book would give me more of what I wanted: Karou, her present world, and Zuzana. I'm happy to say that while this book definitely wasn't perfect, I definitely enjoyed it more than the first book.
In this book, Karou is trying to deal with the knowledge that the man her past self loved killed the family her current self had been raised by, and thousands of her kindred. Akiva, for his part, is dealing with his own guilt at his actions. Both of them are trying to figure out how to make things right, while dealing with their respective tyrants and traumas.
First off, this book isn't perfect. My least favorite aspect was how Karou acted. I wanted a Karou who was more action-oriented, who was scared but still willing to do what she thought was right. The girl we met at the beginning of the first book. What we got instead was a girl who was allowing herself to drown in undeserved guilt for actions she hadn't remembered in a long time, and didn't try too hard to stand up for herself or what she knew was right. She just moped. And said some things only to walk them back. She allowed others to dictate her actions, when in the beginning she held all the power. It was a wasted opportunity.
I was also SO SICK of the guilty pining. I didn't expect Karou and Akiva to be all "happy ever after", there is obviously a lot of guilt and trauma to work through. But it just never ended in this book. I literally almost shouted "FINALLY" when a certain character says something to Karou about it because I wanted her to actually think.
However, this was still a very interesting read. I really did enjoy seeing the world of Eretz and the Seraphim themselves fleshed out -even though this is very obviously a 2010s YA novel because the angels are evil and (most of) the "monsters" are good. It was also interesting to learn more about some of the different chimaera, how they don't get along together quite as well as we were led to believe (with there being some friction between predator and prey types), and learning of other kingdoms. The ruler of one particular kingdom mentioned has won my undying love and I REALLY hope we get to meet them in book 3.
I also appreciated how Taylor took the time to show how the war was affecting everyone. We don't just stay in Karou or Akiva's POVs, we also get some short excerpts from other characters on different sides of the war that add some depth. Taylor didn't shy away from the violence and trauma that comes with war, the way so many YA novels do, and it was nice to see even if it was difficult to read.
Speaking of difficult to read: I am not kidding when I mention a content warning for sexual assault. The scene covers about 1 page (front and back), and while I've read more detailed ones in fanfiction, it's still very difficult and disturbing, as it should be. But Taylor also takes care later to show the trauma this event can cause.
This book has its ups and downs, and it is definitely not an easy read simply because of the content, but it was infinitely better than the first one -and not least because I got to see a lot more of Zuzana, who is officially my queen.