Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2)

by Laini Taylor

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.
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?

• ISBN10: 1306762065
• ISBN13: 9781306762069
• Publish Date: 1 January 2012
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 19 May 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[nannah]

I don't know why I'm not really feeling connected to this story or its characters. Maybe because this book is all about people warring for no reason other than they've been doing it for who-knows-how-long, and it's getting more into other PoVs when all I really want is to know Karou's thoughts.

And though I did love learning about all the other chimaera, I still felt that there was a lack of world building in Eretz, the other world. Where are the other creatures, the other life? It feels like everything is limited to chimaera or angels - and a bit of bugs. An entire world; there's gotta be other life forms populating it!!

But I think my main reason for not enjoying this book so much was that there was so much war and not so much plot. What was the main plot arc? (and I didn't appreciate the fact that there's a whole other world, and there's still alpha males in charge, women seen as property, etc. etc. etc. Why make new worlds and new cultures just to follow our awful social norms??)

There were also some transphobic comments, and important info told in summary, names thrown at the reader that weren't necessary, that all bogged down my reading experience. I think this trilogy just isn't for me!

[rakesandrogues]

Originally posted at: http://muggle-born.net/days-of-blood-and-starlight-by-laini-taylor-book-review/

Like with any other sequel, I had doubts coming into DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor. The first novel of the series, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, had been a stunner. A wonderful blend of fantasy and romance, DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE had easily been one of my favorite reads of last year. Was the sequel going to be able to live up to my high standards? It seems that I had nothing to worry about. DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor is everything that readers have been anticipating. It will not disappoint.

Karou grows so much in the span of DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT. She is such a different character from DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE, hardened by her recent experiences. She struggles between following through her obligations and following her heart. It is so easy to empathize for Karou because you grew to love her in the first book. You understand why she has difficulty in deciding what to do.

I think that the secondary characters are such a delight in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor. Taylor takes this time to flesh out the characters, and we see a side of them that we did not get to see in Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Furthermore, I loved the interpersonal relationships between all the different characters. Karou’s friendship with Zusana is one of my favorite elements of the book. The relationships in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT continue to be true and genuine.

I yearned for a little more romance, but that’s mostly just me fangirly-ing over Karou and Akiva. They are a match-made in heaven (no pun intended) and it hurts me as a reader to see them apart. The amount of romance is adequate in terms of what is going on in the story. There’s not a lot of girly squealing in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor, but I know it will just make things a lot sweeter in the later books. No matter what happens, you just know that Akiva and Karou are meant to be together.

Laini Taylor is such a talented author. The world-building continues to be richly detailed and beautifully written. She artfully weaves themes of war, loss, and betrayal in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT. Fans of Daughter of Smoke and Bone will not be disappointed with this enchanting sequel.

[empressbrooke]

I did not like this book at first. The end of [b:Daughter of Smoke & Bone|8490112|Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #1)|Laini Taylor|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1338613368s/8490112.jpg|13355552] was my least favorite part after being enthralled by the rest of it. Days of Blood & Starlight picks right back up there. Karou doesn't return to life among humans, and the narration spends quite a bit of time switching among various non-Karou characters, including some new Chimera, which annoyed me.

However, once I got far enough into it, I was dying to know more about everything. Laini Taylor keeps everything mysterious and unpredictable, and didn't see most of the plot twists ahead of time. Over and over, she would take the story one way, reveal the hint of something that made me go, "Huh, wait, what?" and then run in a totally unexpected direction.

So, it's very different from the trilogy's first book, but not in a bad way in the end. It also has the benefit of feeling important enough to escape the middle trilogy book curse of simply treading water between the beginning and the end.

[Chelsea]

Cover

I'm loving this cover. I love how nicely the series matches.

Initial Thoughts

It took me forever to get into this book. I'm not even sure why. I think I might have gotten bored at the start because we didn't get to see Karou right away. She's my favourite character and I find Akiva's parts a little boring sometimes. It got better though or I wouldn't have finished it. Once Karou came into the picture I was able to get into it more.

My New BFF

I really love Karou, the main character. I think she's a great female heroine. She's brave, strong, and fights for what she believes. She'll also do anything for her friends. I did also enjoy her best friend Zusanna. SHe was hilarious! I love how easily she accepted all the crazy things going on too. She 100% trusts her best friend. Their relationship is probably one of my favourites.

My Crush

Akiva is obviously the big crush in this book. He's an angel. Literally. But I'm not sure how much I fell in love with him. He was a great character and I did get all swoony sometimes, but he was so boring. His parts in the angel world made me want to skip chapters. I didn't really care for his brother and sister either. Everything they did was stupid. They weren't brave enough to fight for what they thought was right. It was a little silly I think. The author tried to make him the perfect swoon worthy character and it just didn't happen. I liked him more in the first book.

Writing Style

The world building was excellent. The author was good at informing the readers of the politics and inner workings of her world. I really liked that we saw fun details about the chimera race. The angels also had some politics going on, that was the only part I enjoyed from their parts. The rest of the writing was ok, some characters were amazing others not so much. It was a hit or miss I think.

Closing Thoughts

This book was really slow to get into and I wasn't all that impressed with it. It was a good book and I'll read the last one, but it wasn't as good as it could have been. A lot of potential got thrown away. I think what really happened was that everyone loves this series so much and it was a little disappointing for me. I wish I liked Akiva more and I wish the whole series was just in Karou's point of view. Maybe that wouldn't work but I was really bored with Akiva. That was my main issue. I get really upset when the characters don't turn out right.

[Stephanie]

Much better than the first one.

[girlinthepages]

This book. Oh dear, this book. Getting my thoughts out coherently is going to be difficult- this book is an absolute tome, with over five hundred pages (not that I'm complaining- the longer the better is usually my motto). Often times I find the second book in a series to be the weak point, but Days of Blood and Staright carried it's own, fleshing out the world of Eretz and the seraphim and the chimaera more fully than I ever expected.

In order to organize my thoughts, I've decided to go with the good old fashioned pros and cons format:

The Good:
1. Zuzanna! I absolutely love her, and was thrilled to see a lot more of her in this book. Karou is often hard to relate to (and why shouldn't she be, she isn't even really human), but Zuze is that fiery, adorable, completely insufferable best friend that everyone wishes they had and wishes they were. Her and Mik are the link of relatability in the story for the reader, as they are completely human, but with open hearts and open minds that allow them to integrate themselves into Karou's fantastic world.
2. Resurrection. I don't know about everyone else, but what drew me to the books initially was the mythology and Brimstone's magic. In this book the resurrection process is explained in so much more depth, about the relationship with pain and magic, tithing, souls, and gleaning, and seeing resurrections in action was fascinating each time.
3. The Seraphim. Despite how Karou and Akiva's relationship left of at the end of Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I was still fascinated by the Seraphim and how their society functions, as you all know my obsession with angel books. The angel hierarchy is explained in detail, along with Akiva's mysterious lineage, and more character development of Hazael (my personal favorite after Zusanna) and Liraz.
4. War. This is war in a realistic sense. It is not resolved in one book, with some teenage girl heroine who somehow manages to single handedly stop a paranormal war and restore peace. Karou is often on the fringes of knowledge, and her tension and anxiety is tangible to the reader. Her choices aren't black and white as well, and she recognizes that no matter how the war ends, it means the deaths of millions of innocents, seraph and chimaera. This is a bloody, emotional, realistic, heart-wrenching depiction of war and battle that exposes true character motives and loyalties.
5. Controversial Topics. ***Spoiler Ahead*** Karou suffers abuse at Thiago's hands, as she lives most of the book as his prisoner for "the greater good." She is emotionally manipulated, forced to physically harm herself (to perform the resurrections) and toward the end of the book very narrowly escapes sexual assault. Karou is not the vibrant girl with a personality to match her hair color like in the first book. This is wartime and she suffers as much or more than most, and her character goes through dips and arcs throughout the story. We see her loose and regain her strength multiple times, and her decisions are never made lightly. Taylor writes Karou as a realistic victim and has her confront tough but realistic consequences of essentially being a prisoner of war, and I applaud her of not shying away from topics such as assault, which are very real and experienced by many people in the targeted age range of the book. Seeing how Karou deals with the aftermath will be interesting. ***End Spoiler***
6. Cliffhangers! Taylor literally brings you to a point in the story when every chapter ends with a major cliffhanger and the next chapter shifts perspectives and then ALSO ends with a cliffhanger, only to move back to the first character in the next chapter. It's infuriating and wonderful at the same time because it literally prevents you from being able to find a suitable place to put the book down, you just have to keep reading!
7. The Ending. I thought the book was getting a little predictable about halfway through (Karou has a revelation that is pretty obvious to the reader from the beginning) so I wasn't sure if the rest of the book would surprise me. But it did. Oh, it did.

The Bad
1. The Pace. The beginning of the book was slow. For the first one hundred pages or so I was a little bored. It didn't have the charm of the first book, as things are much darker, and I was worried the same magic wasn't going to translate to the sequel. But I'm so glad I stuck with it because at around 200 pages in things start really picking up. This is one of the main reasons why I didn't give the book a 5/5 review, because I really wish it had gripped me right from the beginning.
2. Relevance. I think what contributed to my lack of interest at the beginning is that the novel would pan to different characters I had never met before in disjointed fragments, leaving me asking "so what?" and "Why should I care?" Later on these fragments weave together, but I still feel that there are some aspects, details, and chapters that the book could have done without.
3. Characters. There are so. many. characters. It's almost impossible to keep all of them straight, it would have been useful for the book to have an index in the back to accompany the map of Eretz in front. (Sidenote: Where does Laini Taylor come up with all of these names? They're fascinating and I'd love to know where she pulls her inspiration from!)

Overall, Days of Blood and Starlight started slow but finished strong, and has me bouncing up and down like Zuzanna in anticipation of the next one. Taylor does one of the most phenomenal and intricate jobs world-building of any YA Author I've read, and I'm definitely adding her other works to my to-read shelf as she has unparalleled sophistication and detail to her writing. If you're looking for instant gratification I wouldn't recommend this book or series, but if you're willing to wait for the series to simmer under the surface and commit yourself to learning this world Days of Blood and Starlight is definitely worth the read.

[reveriesociety_]

It's amazing how Laini makes all these plot twists! She's the master of cliffhangers! I recommend this book completely. Although we don't see much of Akiva and Karou TOGETHER, I almost didn't mind at all because of all the stuff that happened around them and the wonderful character development that they both went through. I'm dying to read the third book!

[lizarodz]

Find my original review here:
“She thought of Akiva, the night he had come to her at the river, the crushing pain and shame in his face, and love, still love - sorrow and love and hope - and she remembered the night of the Warlord's ball, how Akiva had always been the right to Thiago's wrong, the heat to the Wolf's chill, the safety to this monster's menace.”

“It wasn't disgust she felt for Karou, not anymore; it was indignation. Incredulity. A man like Akiva crosses worlds to find you, infiltrates the enemy capital just to dance with you, bends heaven and hell to avenge your death, saves your comrade and kin from torture and death, and you send him off looking gut-punched, diminished, carved hollow?"


About the cover: I like this cover much more than the one for the first book. There is something beautiful about the red painted mask that I just love.

[inlibrisveritas]

First off I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to sit down and write this review, maybe it’s the emotional turmoil that I endured or maybe it’s because I have no clue how to properly encompass all of my feelings into a seemingly logical and understandable review. Nevertheless I do remember how I feel about it, so I’ll attempt.

If you remember the first book you’ll remember some of the heartbreak and beautiful imagery Taylor gave us; this book is really no different. We get to see more of Karou’s world as it is now, which is a war torn nation about to undergo yet another unforgiving battle. I appreciated the fact that we get to see the soldiers AND those who merely live in the world carved out by those with power. This isn’t a book about a romance, this a book about war and the effects it has on those involved.

I was surprised that Karou and Akvia have very little time together in this one, but there is so much on their plates that it’s entirely understandable especially given the ending of the first book. I really want things to work out for them but every is so poisoned and intense between them and the events of this book really hurt my heart. We do get to see more of Hazael and Liraz though and I really loved the time that was spent building up their characters and motivations. I really love Liraz despite her tough exterior and I enjoyed seeing her develop as a person. I could go on and on about how much I hate Thiago…I could write a book on all the ways he is a completely and totally douche canoe (pardon my language, but sometimes characters deserve vulgar and kind of funny names). But thanks to him I got to see more of the Chimera, so there are some positives to having to put up with the White Wolf.

I love that this book is not just a filler middle book. It has it’s own action, sub-plots, villains, and character growth. There are no easy outs when it comes to this book and I firmly believe Laini Taylor wrote just so she could rip our hearts out all over again. That being said I can’t wait to read the third book and I have my fingers and toes crossed for a semi happy ending…I need someone to have a happily ever after or I might cry.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

This review is also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.

Days of Blood and Starlight is a strong follow-up to Daughter of Smoke and Bone, written with the same imagination and lyrical prose.  Taylor brings life to both plot and thoughts with her beautiful descriptions.  In one of the opening chapters, she writes: “It was one of those dreams that invade the space between seconds, proving sleep has its own physics—where times shrinks and swells, lifetimes unspool in a blink, and cities burn to ash in a mere flutter of lashes.”  Small events become momentous through Taylor’s imagery and important ones become larger-than-life.

And Taylor’s characters are fighting bigger problems than before.   War is in full swing between angels and chimera and everyone is choosing sides.  The terrible events they experience change beloved characters from book 1, including Karou, Akiva, and his siblings.  Taylor demonstrates brilliant character development as she explores how each person is the same at the core, but must adapt to and be affected by heartache, betrayal, and battle.  In addition, Taylor introduces a complex array of new characters, both heroes and villains.

Taylor represents the innermost thoughts of these characters by writing in multiple points-of-views.  There is no pattern, and at least one point-of-view is introduced only to disappear without much conclusion later in the novel.  The effect is slightly disorienting, but it does gives reader unique perspectives on the action and personal thoughts that they would not otherwise be able to experience.  The trade-off—a bit of confusion for the sake of new and important knowledge—is worth it.

Plot-wise, the book is intense and exciting, following multiple threads through war, explorations of Karou’s and Akiva’s pasts, and the difficult decisions everyone must make in order to fight for a better future.  Ultimately, however, Days of Blood and Starlight reads very much like a middle book.  There is really no beginning, climax, or end—a frustration familiar to readers invested in multiple series.  Individual scenes may be gripping, but there is still the sense of lacking when it is unclear why any scene matter or where the story in general is going.  Daughter of Smoke and Bone appears to be a series where reading all the books in a row, instead of waiting years between publication dates, would be a great improvement.

Days of Blood and Starlight is a must-read for fans of the first book, and for fans of fantasy in general.  It is original, compelling, and often profound.  There is not much romance in this one, but certainly there will be more in the future.  Its greatest flaw is leaving readers hanging, desperately wanting more.