Daughter of Smoke and Bone (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters edit see section history

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• Karou: Karou is an orphaned 17 year-old art student living in Prague with Brimstone, the only father she's ever known, in his secret shop. Her hair grows aquamarine blue, she has hamsa eyes tattooed on her palms that have been there for as long as she can remember. She speaks many languages (not all of them human). She runs mysterious errands for Brimstone, traveling through magical doors opening around the world. Best friend of Zuzana.
• Akiva: A seraphim soldier with a secret. Half brother of Hazeal and Liraz.
• Kazimir: Karou's ex-boyfriend. An actor who leads ghost and vampire tours around Prague, betrayed Karou with Svetla.
• Zuzana: Karou's best friend. Aka "The Rabid Fairy." Art student specializing in puppetry and the only one who knows Karou's secrets. In love with Mik, a violinist.
• Issa: A beautiful Naja woman - serpent from the waist down and woman from the waist up. She can command serpents to do her bidding. Protector and family to Karou, works with Brimstone. The closest thing to to mother figure Karou has.
• Brimstone: Brimstone, aka "The Wishmonger", is the creature who raised Karou. He deals in wishes, and is also known as a sorcerer.
• Madrigal Kirin: Chimaera of high-human aspect with vast bat wings, horns and gazelle legs from the knees down. She worked as Brimstone's apprentice.
• Thiago: The Chimaera general. Aka "The White Wolf." Son of the Warlord.
• Chiro: Madrigal's foster sister; a chimaera of creature aspect, with bat wings and the head of jackal.
• Hazael: Seraphim warrior, half brother of Akiva.
• Liraz: Seraphim warrior and half sister of Akiva.
• Razgut: Decrepit and broken fallen angel who is attached to Izil like a parasite after he makes a wish for knowledge.
• Izil: Moroccan grave robber, supplies teeth to Brimstone, saddled with carrying the fallen angel Razgut.
• Avigeth: Deadly snake commanded by Issa, used to keep Brimstone's clients in line.
• Bain: Trades teeth with Brimstone for wishes that he hides.
• Profesorka Fiala: Zuzana and Karou's art teacher.
• Twiga: Part of Karou's chimaera family; has a giraffe neck.
• Yasri: Chimaera with a parrot beak and human eyes, works for Brimstone, part of Karou's family.
• Josef: Actor friend of Kaz.
• Frantiska: Friend of Svetla, Kaz and Josef.
• Mik: Violinist at the Marionette Theater in Prague, love interest of Zuzana.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.”

• “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.”

• “Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.”

  Brimstone

• “Yearning for love made her feel like a cat that was always twining around ankles, meowing 'Pet me, pet me, look at me, love me'. Better to be the cat gazing coolly down from a high wall, its expression inscrutable. The cat that shunned petting, that needed no one. Why couldn't she be that cat? Be that cat!!! <Karou> wrote, drawing it into the corner of her page, cool and aloof.”

• “That you wish the ENTIRE WORLD would end so you don't have to wake up one more day in your crappy house - which, by the way, has no art in it whatsoever - feed your surly kids, and go to a mind-numbing job where someone is sure to have brought doughnuts to make your ass even fatter. THAT is how much your life has to suck to want the Apocalypse.”

• “Papilio stomachus: fragile creatures, vulnerable to frost and betrayal.”

• “She should be leopard, don't you think? Sleek and lazy, fur hot from the sun, and not too lean. A well-fed leopard-girl, lapping from a bowl of cream.”

  Issa

• “She thought Zuzana's tininess was perfect. Like a fairy you found in the woods and wanted to put in your pocket. Though in Zuzana's case the fairy was likely to be rabid, and BITE.”

• “Hey! My body may be small, but my soul is large. It’s why I wear platforms. So I can reach the top of my soul.”

  Zuzana

• “'It's not like there's a law against flying.' 'Yes there is. The law of gravity.'”

  Karou & Zuzana

• “I hate tights." "Well, let me add them to the list. This morning you hate, let me see, men in hats, wiener dogs - " "Weiner-dog OWNERS," Zuzana corrected. "You'd have to have, like, a LENTIL for a soul to hate wiener dogs.”

• “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.”

  Madrigal

• “Happiness. It was the place where passion, with all its dazzle and drumbeat, met something softer: homecoming and safety and pure sunbeam comfort. It was all those things, intertwined with heat and the thrill, and it was as bright within her as a swallowed star.”

• “Once upon a time, there were two moons, who were sisters. Nitid was the goddess of tears and life, and the sky was hers. No one worshiped Ellai but secret lovers.”

• “All right," sighed Madrigal. "To the baths, then. To make ourselves shiningly clean." Like vegetables, she thought, before they go into stew.”

  Madrigal

• “"Would you want to be me?" Hurt and confused Madrigal said, "I don't understand." "No, you wouldn't," said Chiro. "You're beautiful."”

• “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.”

  Izil

• “Because how fun, right?" Zuzana had rubbed her hands together in mock glee. "Oh, boy the Apocalypse!”

  Zuzana

• “The scandalous rodent-loaf!”

  Issa

• “The invaders are always the bad guys. Always.”

  Karou

• “Creamy and leggy, with long azure hair and the eyes of a silent-movie star, she moved like a poem and smiled like a sphinx.”

• “A man once said, '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.”

  Izil

• “You were true to her, even if she was not to you. Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength.”

• ““I don’t know many rules to live by,” he’d said. “But here’s one. It’s simple. Don’t put anything unnecessary into yourself. No poisons or chemicals, no fumes or smoke or alcohol, no sharp objects, no inessential needles—drug or tattoo—and… no inessential penises, either.”

• “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.”

• “loneliness is worse when you return to it after a reprieve—like the soul’s version of putting on a wet bathing suit, clammy and miserable.”

• “A man once said, ‘Battle not with monsters lest you become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”

• “do monsters make wars or do wars make monsters?”

• “light as air and bright as danger”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “Wishes are false. Hope is true. Hope makes its own magic.”

  Highlighted by 65 Kindle customers

• “You were true to her, even if she was not to you. Never repent of your own goodness, child. To stay true in the face of evil is a feat of strength.”

  Highlighted by 53 Kindle customers

• “I don’t know many rules to live by,” he’d said. “But here’s one. It’s simple. Don’t put anything unnecessary into yourself. No poisons or chemicals, no fumes or smoke or alcohol, no sharp objects, no inessential needles—drug or tattoo—and… no inessential penises, either.”

  Highlighted by 50 Kindle customers

• 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.

  Highlighted by 46 Kindle customers

• ‘All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.’ Mark Twain,

  Highlighted by 46 Kindle customers

• For the way loneliness is worse when you return to it after a reprieve—like the soul’s version of putting on a wet bathing suit, clammy and miserable.

  Highlighted by 45 Kindle customers

• “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.”

  Highlighted by 44 Kindle customers

• “A man once said, ‘Battle not with monsters lest you become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.’ Nietzsche,

  Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers

• 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.”

  Highlighted by 34 Kindle customers

• “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.”

  Highlighted by 29 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Prague
• Morocco
• Paris
• Idaho
• Eretz
• Elsewhere
• Poison Kitchen: A cafe in Prague
• Brimstone's Shop

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• scuppy: The smallest denomination of wishes.
• shing: The next denomination of wish.
• lucknow: The third denomination of a wish.
• gavriel: The second most powerful wish.
• bruxis: The most powerful denomination of wishes. The only way to secure a bruxis is to pull all of one's own teeth.
• revenants: what the resurrected were called

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Days of Blood and Starlight.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Laini Taylor (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Nebula (Finalist, 2011: Andre Norton Award)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PZ7.T214826 Dau 2011
• Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Sexual Content: Heavy (no detail); Profanity: Moderate.There are also some scenes of violence.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Teens › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Magic & Wizards
• Books › Children's Books › Literature › Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Official US website
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone: Official UK website; includes book trailers.

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history