Days of Blood & Starlight (Daughter of Smoke & Bone, #2) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Feb 05, 2012 D.G. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, reviewed, fantasy, awesome-narration, favorites

If the first book was light and hope, Days of Blood and Starlight is pain and sorrow, grief and despair, darkness and death, guilt and a heartbreak so vast that sometimes it would overwhelm me in an agony that was almost physical. This is not an easy book to read and it couldn’t have been easy to write. It’s the best portrayal of war I’ve been in YA because even though it’s fantasy, it’s very real. This is not sanitized violence like in video games; there is blood, hurt and revulsion, with soldi If the first book was light and hope, Days of Blood and Starlight is pain and sorrow, grief and despair, darkness and death, guilt and a heartbreak so vast that sometimes it would overwhelm me in an agony that was almost physical. This is not an easy book to read and it couldn’t have been easy to write. It’s the best portrayal of war I’ve been in YA because even though it’s fantasy, it’s very real. This is not sanitized violence like in video games; there is blood, hurt and revulsion, with soldiers in both sides wondering if there will ever be an end in sight while their leaders plot atrocities in the name of victory.

I had to take this book in a small doses because I really didn’t see how things could improve. It seems that the destiny of these people was to kill each other until the end of time and frankly if that’s what I wanted to see, I would have watched the news. But then a tendril of hope emerged in the story, frail and almost invisible, which grew in strength as more and more characters realized that there must be another way:

These weren’t her folk but…they were. And maybe that meant that anyone could be anyone’s, which was a sort of nice thing to think with the world falling apart.

Mercy breeds mercy as slaughter breeds slaughter. We can’t expect the world to be better than we make it.

The growth in both characters was a thing to behold. At the beginning of this book, both Karou and Akiva are broken and by the end, they still are. They haven’t come to terms with the past but they are not paralyzed by the scope of their guilt. By degrees, they realize that they cannot change what happened but they can change the future, that their dream is still possible even if it’s not in the form they dreamed it. I don’t know if there’s any future for them but the surprising developments of the story tell me there will be a future for their people.

Don’t be afraid that the book is all darkness. We are saved from a thoroughly depressing read by Zuzana and Mick, which are, hands down, the best secondary couple in YA, EVER! They were the lightness, the laugh, the music and the love that both characters and readers desperately needed. Neither the Chimera nor the Angels have ever lived in peace but Zuzana and Mick are their example that a bright future is possible.

The book was by no means perfect. The narrative was slowed down by changes in POV and long winded thoughts in the middle of action scenes. Sometimes I felt like screaming…get over it already! I really hope that Ms. Taylor curbs this tendency because this time it just affected the pacing of the story, any more could tip her narrative from imaginative and descriptive to self important and maudlin.

Overall, this was a wonderful book and I’m already counting the days until I can see how it all ends.

Check out this review and others at www.badassbookreviews.com ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2012 Thenia rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2014, r-ab, reviewed, series, paranormal, magic

Enjoyable book, yet wordy and slightly drawn out.

I grew increasingly annoyed with Karou as the story went on, since her stupidity exceeded the understandable level caused by her grief. (view spoiler) ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 26, 2014 Jesslyn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cat-epic-fantasy, cat-urban-fantasy, cat-series-completed, cat-ya-fantasy, auto-buy-series, cat-series-not-a-cliffhanger, audiobook-whispersync-companion, z2014-kindle-reads, cat-too-good-for-words, cat-alt-reality

I liked the end better this time.

1 like · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2015 Kari rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2015reads, gryffindor-mmp

This book holds up well to the first in the series. This story tells more of the history of why the Angels and chimaera are fighting and we get glimpses of how life is for some of the different groups of people such as the silversword guards and the harem/concubines. At first I wasn't sure why these pov's were being told but now after finishing the book I realize how genius this is as it gives the us, the reader, a different perspective on how to view the various main characters within the story ...more

Like · see review

Mar 01, 2015 Marla rated it liked it

Shelves: series, fantasy, magic, audiobook, girl-power, paranormal, demons, angels, war, zz-2015

Such a slow book and not enough romance. So 2 stars for the first half of book and 4 stars for the last quarter. Just nothing really happened in the first half of the book. Sigh. But obviously the ending kept me on the edge of my seat.

Likes:
* Ziri, Madrigal's Kirin friend in his original body
* Tall incompetant "Break Blades" guards
(view spoiler) ...more

Like · see review