Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke and Bone Trilogy #2)

10/10

Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a new way of living - one without massacres and torn throats and bonfires of the fallen, without revenants or bastard armies or children ripped from their mothers' arms to take their turn in the killing and dying. Once, the lovers lay entwined in the moon's secret temple and dreamed of a world that was a like a jewel-box without a jewel - a paradise waiting for them to find it and fill it with their happiness. This was not that world.

He (Akiva) said, “We can fight them together. I have an army too.”

I do hope that wasn’t much spoilery and I won’t tell you where in the book the quote is from. But it sent shivers right up and down the length of my spine, as did this entire book.

After the resounding success that was Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Laini Taylor’s sequel, Days of Blood and Starlight rises above the stakes where most sophomore novels in a series fail.

Days picks up where Daughter left off, and if you are reading this without having read either book, I’ll lay off the spoilers.

Instead of the gothic, artsy Prague which was the setting of the first book, Days of Blood and Starlight is set mostly in Morocco, amid sprawling, dusty souks and liquid-less desert and true to its title, is full of blood and starlight.

My favourite parts were the chapters at the beginning that were presented as emails sent by Karou’s best friend Zuzana (who happens to be my bias). While the emails are short, they contain a lot of detail and similar hilarity. Taylor blends the email chapter in beautifully, having Zuzana panicking on the keyboard and letting that tell the story in a fresh and wonderfully digestible way.

I have only praise for this series and for Days as well.

It is written masterfully and filled with poetic lyricism that tricks you into believing you are reading a classic. The book is melancholy and the pain of the characters is etched into the pages that after you put the book down you find yourself hovering in dark corners, muttering to yourself about the cruelty of the world.

But don’t let that put you off from reading what will become a classic in literature in the decades to come, for sure. I am eagerly awaiting book three. Mrs Taylor! Bring it on!

And look out for Ziri; the most tragic, romantic thing since Romeo Montague.