Spoilers ahead!
Once upon a time, an angel and a devil fell in love. It did not end well.
While Karou might seem like a normal teenage girl-- aside from the unexplained disappearances, naturally blue hair, and uncanny ability to speak nearly any language-- her story is one that even she does not know. Raised by strange, otherworldly creatures who collect human teeth for an unknown reason, Karou has accepted that she may never understand who she is. That is, until she meets Akiva-- a beautiful angel who holds her heart in his palm before they even speak their first words. What is drawing her to him and why does she feel as though they've known each other much longer than mere days?
When tragedy strikes, Karou learns that Akiva may hold not only the answers to finding her family, but also to the secret of her true identity.
Once upon a time, a little girl was raised by monsters. But angels burned the doorways to their wold, and she was all alone.
I gotta be honest, this book wasn't for me. I have no doubt, though, that if I had read it years ago when it was first published that it probably would have been one of my favorites. Back then I was obsessed with books about fallen angels like Hush Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick (still in love with this one), Angel Burn by L.A. Weatherly, and Fallen by Lauren Kate. I just think that I've changed quite a bit as a reader and have veered away from that genre a bit. I think my biggest issue was that the romance was immediate-- there was almost no courting, no banter, no getting to know each other. It's a star-crossed lovers type of relationship, which I'm sure a lot of people really enjoy! I'm just a reader who's more interested in seeing the process of two people falling in love, as opposed to an immediate connection. Obviously, this is 100% a personal preference, so I wanted to state that before I get into the rest of it! And YES, it is totally possible to still compliment a writer's work even if it didn't suit your fancy! Because my opinions are exactly that: OPINIONS!
"Have you ever asked yourself, do monsters make war, or does war make monsters?"
I'll start off with the worldbuilding-- Taylor is brilliant at this; never once throughout my whole read did I not have a perfectly clear idea of the world she was creating for me. I'm a reader who likes to picture everything in their head, as if it were a movie. It wasn't even until I finished the book that I realized how meticulously crafted and thought-out everything was. From the way she describes real-world Prague to the way she describes fictional Loramendi and all its inhabitants. Not even to mention the plot she creates with war and resurrection and strange, dark, wild magic. An everlasting war ensues between beasts and angels: the monsters are using dark, pain-inflicting magic to keep their troops alive while the didactic angels-- who think they're the most morally upright creatures around-- are actually turning the beasts into slaves and killing them simply because they are beasts. Taylor gave some vulnerable and soft tendencies to some of the monsters, and cruel, harsh tendencies to some of the angels. It is no longer dark versus light or good versus evil, it is a war filled with grey.
"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."
I feel as though I still don't really know who Karou is-- I'm not sure if that's a specific choice on Taylor's part, or if I am just unable to grasp her. Or perhaps I have different hopes or expectations for a main character. A massive part of it, I'm sure, is that Karou has two different identities in this book. First we meet her as a teenager in Prague with blue hair and a monster family. Then we find out she lived a past life as a beast with horns and animal legs. Though there is definitely overlap in their personalities, I still can't quite decide what attributes I would give her-- is she funny, kind, harsh, bold, brilliant? I see glimpses of those qualities in her, but I don't fully know who she is yet. As a lover of character development, I would love to find out that she really comes into her own in the rest of the series, and maybe someday I'll find out... Akiva as well has the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing going for him, but right now it seems that his most prominent traits are his beauty and his love for Karou. Is that enough for me in a love interest? Years ago I probably would have said yes, but as of late I've learned a lot about what I want from male characters, and I don't think Akiva is quite there yet.
"Love is a luxury." "No. Love is an element."
If there's anything this book taught me, it was who I am as a reader/consumer. I hadn't realized how much my tastes have changed over the years, and what kinds of characters I now seek out every time I open a new book. And again, just because this book wasn't one of my favorites doesn't mean I regret reading it, either. It's been on my TBR for years and I finally did it! That's exciting! If any of this stuff sounds interesting to you, I strongly encourage you to give it a read. And as a general reminder, don't take anyone's thoughts too seriously until you've experienced something for yourself. There are a lot of people out there who like to state their opinions as facts-- don't let them get you down. Sometimes you don't figure out what you like until you find something you don't like, and vice versa!
There was no more happiness. But under the misery, there was hope. That the name Brimstone had given her was more than a whim. That this was not the end.
NEXT READ: Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
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