Daughter of Smoke and Bone
Feb. 15th, 2012 09:47![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyTaylor, Laini. Daughter of Smoke and Bone. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011.
Laini Taylor was one of the Guests of Honor at Sirens 2011, which quite fittingly had the theme of Monsters, which is how I came to own this book. I jumped it up in my reading queue becauseshveta_writes wanted to know what I thought of it. I had two reactions.
The first is that this was an enjoyable read. It's the story of Karou, a human girl who lives mostly in Prague but travels all over the world for and via the strange teeth-collecting, wish-dealing shop of her other family, a group of Fury-like creatures called chimeras who are all the home she's ever known. Karou doesn't know who she is, but her life goes to hell around her anyway when an angel and his battle-hardened brethren show up, looking to put an end to an age-old war in their other world.
Taylor writes well, sensuous and compellingly--I finished most of this book in one chunk--and she knows how to write her principal settings, Prague and Marrakesh, convincingly. A bonus of hearing her give a GoH speech is that for most of the book I was able to hear her voice narrating in my head. I liked Karou, who is courageous and resourceful, and her friends, though being a dedicated reader of CLAMP I was able to spot the major plot twist rather far in advance. The seraph Akiva and his despairing weariness of war were nicely etched. I even enjoyed the love story, and the exact details of the spoilery plot twist are interestingly conceived. I also think that Karou has a higher degree of agency in her own story than I would have initially thought, which I appreciated, although I didn't particularly care for the romance plotline even before the twist.
But you want to know why I probably won't be reading the next book (yes, there will be a next book), and here is the reason: Taylor pretty clearly buys massively into gender essentialism, and the betrayal of the chimera heroine is done, not because she's fallen in love with one of the enemy, but because her betrayor is jealous of her beautiful human-esque body. I won't pretend that I didn't have a whiff of this suspicion based on some remarks Taylor made at Sirens (and no, I don't specifically remember their content), but the book and its swooning over characters' "masculine" bodies and "feminine" charms proves the charge all on its own. I don't have a problem with the narrative in a YA book admiring bodies, or talking about sex; quite the opposite, in fact, and I did like that Karou, for all her obvious beauty, is capable of defending herself and does so--she's a fighter as well as everything else. But the larger context of the book itself seems kind of hinky, and unless I hear otherwise, I probably won't be continuing.
Laini Taylor was one of the Guests of Honor at Sirens 2011, which quite fittingly had the theme of Monsters, which is how I came to own this book. I jumped it up in my reading queue because
shveta_writes wanted to know what I thought of it. I had two reactions. The first is that this was an enjoyable read. It's the story of Karou, a human girl who lives mostly in Prague but travels all over the world for and via the strange teeth-collecting, wish-dealing shop of her other family, a group of Fury-like creatures called chimeras who are all the home she's ever known. Karou doesn't know who she is, but her life goes to hell around her anyway when an angel and his battle-hardened brethren show up, looking to put an end to an age-old war in their other world.
Taylor writes well, sensuous and compellingly--I finished most of this book in one chunk--and she knows how to write her principal settings, Prague and Marrakesh, convincingly. A bonus of hearing her give a GoH speech is that for most of the book I was able to hear her voice narrating in my head. I liked Karou, who is courageous and resourceful, and her friends, though being a dedicated reader of CLAMP I was able to spot the major plot twist rather far in advance. The seraph Akiva and his despairing weariness of war were nicely etched. I even enjoyed the love story, and the exact details of the spoilery plot twist are interestingly conceived. I also think that Karou has a higher degree of agency in her own story than I would have initially thought, which I appreciated, although I didn't particularly care for the romance plotline even before the twist.
But you want to know why I probably won't be reading the next book (yes, there will be a next book), and here is the reason: Taylor pretty clearly buys massively into gender essentialism, and the betrayal of the chimera heroine is done, not because she's fallen in love with one of the enemy, but because her betrayor is jealous of her beautiful human-esque body. I won't pretend that I didn't have a whiff of this suspicion based on some remarks Taylor made at Sirens (and no, I don't specifically remember their content), but the book and its swooning over characters' "masculine" bodies and "feminine" charms proves the charge all on its own. I don't have a problem with the narrative in a YA book admiring bodies, or talking about sex; quite the opposite, in fact, and I did like that Karou, for all her obvious beauty, is capable of defending herself and does so--she's a fighter as well as everything else. But the larger context of the book itself seems kind of hinky, and unless I hear otherwise, I probably won't be continuing.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-16 02:08 (UTC)I liked the book better when it was about Karou being an art student in Prague, and not as well when it was about Angels and Destiny and True Love.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-16 07:10 (UTC)Yeah, me too.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-19 14:31 (UTC)But, I ended up with a slightly different take on Madrigal's betrayal.
To me, the whole chimaera culture had overtones of colorism, which may have been entirely unintended, but especially with terms like 'high human aspect,' which reminded me very strongly of 'high yellow.' So in a way, I felt like Chiro's betrayal of her sister and friend was the consequence of social stratification less than jealousy.
And Chiro's frustration with Madrigal seems to come from a very specific place; Madrigal doesn't understand her privilege, so to speak, as someone with a high human aspect.
I'm...not sure Taylor intended this commentary to be read into the text, at all, but it's just something I'm thinking about as an alternate read on the narrative. I might be overthinking it.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-02-20 00:53 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-06 20:26 (UTC)What surprised me is that Brimstone, who is otherwise very wise, didn't see this. I can get Madrigal not understanding, but it seems odd that he didn't . . .
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-28 22:35 (UTC)You make an excellent point about the gender essentialism and sisterly betrayal out of jealousy. (Side note: I'd like your thoughts on how my nagas and garudas are described--if that's problematic, etc.) I was really bothered by that, too. I think I just sighed and thought, So it goes. Of course we have the sisterly betrayal. Of course. I was also annoyed by how perfect Madrigal and her life were--until the end, when she got vicious, too. (What did you think about that part?)
Speaking of Karou and her agency, I know this isn't going to happen, but I really would love to see Karou never get back with Akiva. I mean, what he did was a pretty damn big betrayal, even if Brimstone and the others can be brought back to life. I doubt that will come to pass, though.
As for the comment below about colonialism, I definitely think that was intended, and I enjoyed meloukhia's interpretation.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-28 23:33 (UTC)