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13 pages, Audiobook
First published September 27, 2011
“Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love.
It did not end well.”
Freaking amazing book.I didn't expect this to be this good.I couldn't put the book down,like literally.Everything fits perfectly ,the characters ,the story,everything.It is so unique and different from other stories.And it's actually the first book written in third person that I enjoyed because I'm not a fan of third person books.
“Have you ever asked yourself, do monsters make war, or does war make monsters?”
The writing style was beyond perfect.It's uniqueness is what makes this book so special.The way words cling together...amazing.I must say I was confused at some parts because the English that is used in this book is quite difficult to understand and there were a lot of words I didn't get but that didn't stop me from truly adoring this book from page one to the last.
“It is a condition of monsters that they do not perceive themselves as such. The dragon, you know, hunkered in the village devouring maidens, heard the townsfolk cry 'Monster!' and looked behind him.”
The ending was epic.The way things puzzle together is remarkable.The epilogue was also good,short but good.It clarified what happened after the ending.But there was also a cliff.
“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”
This book is about a girl , blue haired girl who lives two lives.A normal one with school and teachers and boring classes,and another one,filled with fantasy and strange characters,with teeth and wishes,the elsewhere.One day she meets an angel,and from that moment her life changes,both of her lives.Her early life was a mystery,a cloudy image in her heard.Her entire life she was haunted by one question "Who am I" and after meeting the angel she was one step closer to find the answer.But did she really wanted to know?
“She moved like a poem and smiled like a sphinx.”
This character is so cool.She is unique and funny and tough and freaking beautiful.I liked her dirty sense of humor.She is such a mystery.
Akiva is one of those characters you can predict somehow.He is caring and determined as a lot of male main characters.What surprised me what his sense of humor.As awkward as it sounded it actually fits him.
I highly recommend this book to paranormal angel/demons lovers.I actually recommend this book to all the readers because it is the art itself.
Once upon a time,
a little girl was raised by monsters.
But angels burned the doorways to their world,
and she was all alone.
SNAP
Such a little thing, and brittle, and the sound it made: a sharp, clean snap.
WHOLE
Snap.
Rushing, like wind through a door, and Karou was the door, and the wind was coming home, and she was also the wind.
She was all: wind and home and door.
She rushed into herself and was filled.
She let herself in and was full.
She closed again. The wind settled. It was as simple as that.
She was whole.
Like a shadow that coasts over the moon.
Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope is its own magic.
“This morning you hate men in hats, wiener dogs–”
“Weiner-dog owners,” Zuzana corrected. “You'd have to have, like, a lentil for a soul to hate wringer dogs.”
Karou wished she could be the kind of girl who was complete unto herself, comfortable in solitude, serene. But she wasn't. She was lonely, and she feared the missingness within her as if it might expand and . . . cancel her. She craved a presence beside her, solid. Fingertips light at the nape of her neck and a voice meeting hers in the dark. Someone who would wait with an umbrella to walk her home in the rain, and smile like sunshine when he saw her coming. Who would dance with her on her balcony, keep his promises and know her secrets, and make a tiny world wherever he was, with just her and his arms and his whisper and her trust. (Pg. 71, ARC edition)Isn't that just lovely? Can't you just feel the longing as if it had been your own?
Was this book perfect? Not nearly. But I still loved it, even despite the annoying 'classic' YA tropes that it was NOT immune to:
(1) insta-love (actually, it happens twice),Still, Daughter of Smoke and Bone managed to captivate me and convince me to forgive its flaws by making its kickass protagonist, Karou, the girl who I hope my future (hypothetical) daughter will hang out with.
(2) the otherwordly, basically underpants-disintegrating beauty of the male love interest - who initially, of course,
(3) tries to murder our heroine.
She had been innocent once, a little girl playing with feathers on the floor of a devil’s lair. She wasn’t innocent now, but she didn’t know what to do about it. This was her life: magic and shame and secrets and teeth and a deep, nagging hollow at the center of herself where something was most certainly missing.And most importantly, unlike the innocent all-talk-no-action young women in many a YA book, Karou does not hesitate to stand up for herself. She does not need a protector and does not hide behind the strong shoulders of the male lead; as a matter of fact, she kicks his ass, almost literally. And even in the evil clutches of required YA insta-love she maintains her identity and independence, does not automatically center her life around her romantic interest, and retains the ability - like any young woman should - to call out her romantic interest on the consequences of his actions without blindly trusting and blindly forgiving.
But something unyielding in her shrank from the promise. He might have chosen her, but that didn’t mean that she would do the same if she were faced with the same choice—against Brimstone, Issa, Yasri, Twiga. She had told Brimstone, “I want you to know I would never just leave you,” and she wouldn’t. She would choose her family. Anything else was unthinkable, though even now the idea of turning and leaving Akiva behind brought on physical pain.She is not afraid to assert her views and values and stick up for what she believes. She is not afraid to call Akiva out on his hate and, for the lack of a better word, racism.
'So basically,' she said to Akiva, trying to gather all the things he’d told her into a simple strand, 'the seraphim want to rule the world, the chimaera don’t want to be ruled, and that makes them evil.'To recap my excited bumbling - Karou is strong-willed, rebellious, bold, independent, curious, adventurous, talented, funny, and loyal. Basically, I could not help but imagine her as an older sister of Neil Gaiman's Coraline. My future (hypothetical) daughter can definitely have sleepovers at Karou's flat, that's all I'm sayin'.
He can’t see it. It is a condition of monsters that they do not perceive themselves as such. The dragon, you know, hunkered in the village devouring maidens, heard the townsfolk cry ‘Monster!’ and looked behind him.=======================================
Hope? Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.