Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Discussion: Paradigm Shifts

Title: Days of Blood and Starlight (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2)
Author: Laini Taylor
Genre: Young adult paranormal fantasy
Source: Dymocks, 3 for 2 sale (aka party time)

Average Goodreads rating: 4.29 out of 5.00 (30, 360+ ratings)
Goodreads | The Reading Room




Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love and dared to imagine a world free of bloodshed and war.

This is not that world.

Art student and monster's apprentice Karou finally has the answers she has always sought. She knows who she is—and what she is. But with this knowledge comes another truth she would give anything to undo: She loved the enemy and he betrayed her, and a world suffered for it.

In this stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed Daughter of Smoke & Bone, Karou must decide how far she'll go to avenge her people. Filled with heartbreak and beauty, secrets and impossible choices, Days of Blood & Starlight finds Karou and Akiva on opposing sides as an age-old war stirs back to life.

While Karou and her allies build a monstrous army in a land of dust and starlight, Akiva wages a different sort of battle: a battle for redemption. For hope.

But can any hope be salvaged from the ashes of their broken dream?
Discussion by Chantelle



Paradigm shift- noun
a radical change in underlying beliefs or theory

You know those books that make you redefine your notion of a satisfying reading experience, those books that simply raise your standards such that old favourites aren't quite favourites any more because your eyes have been opened to this whole new level of writing and creative goodness...

Like in middle school when you read Harry Potter for the first time, or for myself, when I discovered my love for Tamora Pierce and would spend recesses and lunches finishing her books.

Well, recently, this happened again to me again.

I read Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor (Daughter of Smoke and Bone #2).


To take a quote from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet,
Did my heart love til now? forswear it, sight!
For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night.

I liked the first book, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, but didn't feel a real urgency to read the second which was released Feb 2013 (hence the very delayed flailage). But, obviously, I read it recently, and my goodness. I'm in a book coma. It was incredible. This book exceeded my expectations in every way- in it's creativity, in it's poetic prose, in the way she effortlessly switched between storylines, in the FEELS, in the plot and world building.The passages in this book are beautiful, poignant, intense, epic and show incredible insight; so many times I'd be reading a paragraph and just be overwhelmed by how accurately Laini Taylor could articulate certain feelings... just WOW! I SHIP EVERYTHING! AND BY EVERYTHING I MEAN ZIRI! I SHIP HIM SO HARD!  Death by feels.

Has this happened to you? Which books have made you redefine your favourites list?