WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW
 |
| “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”- Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor |
Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.
When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
I don't know whether I like the title or it reminds me of a barbecue place. The other two are much better. Besides the title, the first thing that captured my attention was the pretty writing. And yes, it's absolutely gorgeous and not at all like a YA novel in the same way Six of Crows was. Teenaged characters, teenaged plot line, but adult writing. Ever since the colossal disappointment that was The Night Circus, though, I've been suspicious of pretty writing. This book was like a beautiful woman with an empty head. I say that because Taylor attempts to cover serious flaws, like her main character not having a real personality, with luscious descriptions and expertly worded quotes. The entire time I was reading, I kept thinking "it's a good thing you're pretty, because otherwise I would have DNFed you so hard right now."
Truth be told, I was getting pretty bored with it anyway. Mostly because Karou has the illusion of having a personality. I have a very simple litmus test for telling whether or not a character has an actual personality- I ask myself two questions: who are they, what do they want. At around 70 pages in, I asked myself both questions- ample enough time to get to know our heroine, no? Sure, maybe not her backstory, that's expected, but who she is. Well, we know she's a gifted artist. She likes languages. She was raised by demons. She's fairly witty- the only trait that isn't told to us outright; Taylor must think we the readers are idiots- apparently she's pretty badass, and of course, in the grand tradition of romance novel heroines, she's a possessor of out of this world beauty. You'll notice that none of these traits are negative, and I'll get there. But first we must ask: what does she want? All together now: LOVE! Fairly human need, one that I don't necessarily have a problem with; we all crave love or at the very least understanding, as George Orwell claims in 1984. I know I do. Sadly, I'm not much interested in reading about the pursuit of love over the course of a 400-something page novel, especially due to what we'll find out later. So Karou's love quest doesn't really endear me to her and frankly just made me frightened as to where this book is going.
As I mentioned before, she has almost no negative character traits, except for some informed ones, like her supposed vanity or pettiness. We do get a bit of pettiness when she uses her wishing beads to make her ex itch during a life drawing class, but other than that she's pretty flawless. I can't root for heroines like that. She's not what I would consider a Strong Female Character. Strong Female Characters I would reserve for protagonists like Katniss, who is a tough, compassionate badass, but she also has many negative traits, like her wrath or her inherent selfishness. I can root for her because of that. Karou is clearly set up to be some perfect spectacle of womanhood, and her perfection is supposed to be some sign of her origin, but there's a reason that stories typically star humans and angels are reserved for side characters or love interests. We cannot connect to flawless beings.
Of course, Karou is also "not whole". Tragic. Nothing a beautiful boy can't fix. Enter Angel Boy. He has a real name, but I refuse to type it. So Angel Boy it is. He is mysteriously drawn to the otherworldly beauty that is our MC. And that was where any and all hope I had for this plot line died. I didn't know it was going to be a romance. The summary lied to me, as well as the genre classifications. Should have listened to Goodreads. Anyway, Angel Boy is exactly what it says on the tin. An angel who happens to be part of the penis sex. Actually, he's not really an angel. I don't know where Taylor is getting this from, but her angels are merciless, cold hearted beings. Like sociopaths. Or vampires. Again, no idea where she got this from. Angels by definition are guardians, full of kindness and, yes, mercy for humanity. Maybe not avenging angels, but I doubt it. I also never got this idea of taking something that has as intense a religious connotation as angels and secularizing them. Angels have always had a deep religious connection, from Zoroastrianism to the Abrahamic religions- Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. In all four religions, they have had the same role and connection to God. Frankly, it can also be seen as offensive since this book takes something as intensely religious, something that cannot exist without God, and turns it into something secular, even to the point of decrying religion. Taylor should have created her own monsters or angel-like creatures if she wanted to do that.
Anyway, back to the review. Angel Boy is a tormented soul. Perfect. He's also pretty brood-y and enjoys some light stalking activities, as well as attempting to kill his One True Love. We find out that they're essentially meant to be together. Which is great for Taylor, since she doesn't have to show them falling in love. It's like a romance novel without the main plot, though I assume this is a commonplace in most paranormal romance novels since they like to disguise themselves with seductive plotlines to act like they're better than all those other romance novels. Good thing he's devastatingly handsome. Apparently, he even wears eyeliner, which made me flip to the publication date to see if it was 2005. And yes, I was right, any interesting storyline flew out the window for some good old fashioned paranormal romance. It's like Twilight, except with Prague and angels.
Which reminds me, I wish there was more Prague. It's one of my wish list cities, but it seems like Taylor just chose Prague because it was a pretty, historic city. With the exception of a few admittingly enchanting descriptions she does nothing else with the setting she chose. She could have researched Bohemian mythology or done so much with Czech culture but she didn't. I hate wasted settings.
There's some other issues I have with this book, like way too much exposition and overly confusing storyline but this review is long enough and I don't feel like going into it. Point is, I didn't like this book. Maybe you will, but I didn't. If you loved Twilight, go for it. If not, well, can't say I didn't warn you.
3.5-4 out of 10
Never
No comments:
Post a Comment