Ratings

Content Ratings based on a 0-5 scale where
0 = no objectionable content and
5 = an excessive or disturbing level of content

Guide to Rating System

LANGUAGE

VIOLENCE

SEXUAL CONTENT

ADULT THEMES

Ratings Explanation

Language: About 40 instances of common swear words and about that many additional religious exclamations or references (80 total). Much of the language occurs in conversations between the heroine and her best friend. Laini Taylor has a knack for clever banter between the two friends, but it is often peppered with swearing and profanity.

Violence: Karou fights with Akiva. He cuts her with his sword and she stabs him with a piece of wood. She is attacked by a chimaera. Hand to hand combat between Karou and a man. He shoots at her and she holds  him at gunpoint. Akiva relates the story of  the destruction of a city and the execution of most of its inhabitants, blood runs down the streets. Many are killed in the war between seraphim and chimaera. Some battle scenes. A chimaera is beheaded. An angel is tortured and his blood stains the clothes of the chimaera warlord. The reader “hears” his screams, but there is no description of the actual torture. There is a pain tithe for using magic. Someone has to suffer each time it is used.

Sexual Content: Karou’s boyfriend poses nude for her art class. He drapes himself over a daybed with his knees apart. Her friend refers to his “boy parts”. It is stated that the seraph emperor visited a different concubine each night, “breeding bastards to fight the war.”  Several sensual kisses. Madrigal is “pure” (a virgin) and thinks about sex with Thiago. She wears a very revealing dress and he wonders what is underneath it. Madrigal and Akiva “lay entwined atop their clothes” and he kisses her everywhere. It is understood that they have sex.

Both Karou and Brimstone refer to her loss of virginity. She regrets having given herself to Kaz, who was not true to her. Brimstone counsels her not to put anything unnecessary into her body: chemicals, alcohol, smoke, inessential needles and “no inessential penises, either.”  He continues, “Stop squandering yourself, child. Wait for love.”  Karou regrets her decision to get involved with Kaz and suffers the consequences of embarrassment and an aching heart which resulted from her poor judgement.

While there is not a lot of explicit sexual activity in the book, there is a feeling of sensuality through parts of the story. Characters are longing, aching, kissing and discovering.

Adult Themes: Karou knows that the teeth she collects for Brimstone come with a price. Elephants, birds, wolves, etc have been killed to harvest the teeth. Akiva’s world is at war. “War is all. If they’re not fighting it, they’re providing for it, and living in fear, always. There is no one without loss.” Resurrection by means of magic. Sexual relationships.

Synopsis

“Part of being friends with Karou was resignation to never really knowing her.” But 17-year-old Karou, an art student in Prague, doesn’t really know herself either. And she often has the feeling that she should be doing something else. But what is the something else? Is it connected to her chimaera father, Brimstone, who sends her on errands all over the world to collect teeth from unsavory dealers? And for what purpose does Brimstone need all of the teeth?

On one such errand to Marrakesh, Karou encounters Akiva, an otherworldly, beautiful angel with fire-colored eyes. As soon as she sees him, her brain registers Enemy and her body readies for battle, but she also feels an incredibly strong connection to him. As Karou eventually learns about Akiva and his world, the story of her own life unravels, and she finally finds the answers and the love she has been searching for all her life. The consequences of knowing, however, may be more than she is capable of  dealing with.

Oh wow, this is a well crafted book and there are many things I really liked about it. Laini Taylor has a way with  language and she creates an experience of reality mixed with fantasy that takes the reader seamlessly between the two worlds. I also enjoy the language of conversation and Karou’s dry sense of humor, always deflecting questions about her personal life with levity. I appreciate Brimstone as Karou’s father figure. He is wise, always expecting the best from Karou, and he counsels her well.

The writing is great and the story is really engaging, but there is some content that I am uncomfortable with for the younger end of the young adult spectrum. Of course there are many YA books with FAR more content than Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but if the content is an issue, just be aware.  I would recommend this book for a mature high school student and older.

Some discussion topics could include:

What makes a “monster”? Once you get to know and like someone on the other side of a battle, does that change how you feel about the battle?

Be careful what you wish for. Wishing has an interesting role in this story and Brimstone teaches Karou that real power is in hoping, not wishing. “Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.”

I LOVE that she worked a Mark Twain quote into a fantasy novel! ” ‘All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.’ Mark Twain, you know. He had a fine mustache. Men of wisdom so often do.” Ignorance and confidence… sounds like a great intro for a conversation with a teenager!

Can hope really cross boundaries, conquer hate, and make its own magic?