Days of Blood & Starlight

It's been so damn long since I finished a book that I think I forgot how to write a review. sigh

This book was, honestly, a slog. And I don't say that in the way that it was a dull, boring, or poorly-paced book. Laini Taylor is a master at what she does. Her characters, her scenery, her fairy tales are beautiful. But Days of Blood & Starlight is a very dark chapter in this trilogy and it was hard to get through.

After regaining her memories of her previous life as a chimaera, Karou accepts a role among Thiago's dwindling chimaera forces as the resurrectionist. It's a job that only she can do, as she's the only surviving apprentice of Brimstone, the former resurrectionist, who died alongside the chimaera's leader, the Warlord. She wants to believe she's doing the right thing by her people, but the situation is beyond oppressive. Aside from the fact that she occupies a human body and is living among demons, their last memory of her is her betrayal. No one trusts her, she doesn't trust anyone, Thiago is hovering around her, using every abuse tactic in the book to isolate, gaslight, and make her totally reliant on him, and she's beating her body up to conduct feats of extraordinary magic and win an impossible war.

Laini Taylor's gift at writing will never not shine through in any story. But there's very little glitter and gold here. Mik and Zuzana provide a little bit of lightheartedness, but textually and metatextually, but it's small. Even the chapters involving the victors - Akiva, and the angels - are gloomy. It's a frightening, militaristic culture that Akiva and his two closest siblings seek to escape and possibly overthrow. After a while, I found myself wanting to sit down and read this book less and less.

I think my problem was, more than just the heavy tone of the book, was that I felt everything coming, even from a long way off. I knew where the dynamic between Thiago and Karou was inevitably going to go (he hates her, once had her beheaded, also lusted after her pre-beheading, it's not difficult math), I knew that Akiva's ideas of a coup d'etat were not going to end well, and I knew some serious dramatic, dangerous stuff had to happen for Akiva and Karou to move past the serious roadblocks that were in their way. And I just wasn't looking forward to any of it. There are times when a book hurts you, but you keep reading because the hurt is a good hurt. This wasn't a good hurt.

The teases for the next book are interesting. The apocalypse. Angels versus demons in full force, potentially aided by human weaponry. Also, mysterious angels from another land and Akiva possessing crazy magical powers. I'm sure Laini Taylor would do it beautifully, but I don't know if I'm up for it.

This review is terrible, I'm sorry. I'm giving this three stars because from an intellectual perspective, I know it was good. I will never not find Karou interesting, I love the way Taylor built the culture of the angels, and her prose and style will always be stunning to me. I just can't say I was entertained.