This book - the second in a trilogy - is going to be difficult to review.
I'll have to analyse its themes while also comparing them to the themes of the previous book.
'Days of Blood and Starlight' and 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' are most certainly not the same story. This time around the themes go deeper into war territory and what war - in all its pointlessness and horror - does to people. What it does to individuals.
'Daughter of Smoke and Bone' was a love story above anything else, and it was about the blessings of a magical little thing called hope. But it narrowly avoided being a typical YA romance by throwing unexpected twists in its fantastical story and settings, and by having consequences be dire for the lovey-dovey pair. This results in a tragedy not often found in other novels of its ilk.
That tragedy continues through 'Days of Blood and Starlight', and the characters are now directly involved in their respective war zones - for the future of the world of Eretz; with Earth as a backdrop rather than a primary setting. It is not a romance, though it has love triangle vibes that - thanks to the urgency of the plot and the already doomed relationships - are minor and therefore not so annoying. Readers who might have been put off by the instant-love in the first book might be relieved that nothing of the kind is founded here.
'Days of Blood and Starlight' is a war story, and the enchanting fantasy elements are used for darkness and hate instead of light and love as was expected in the first book. Despite its battles being between the unearthly races of angels (Seraphim) and devils (Chimaera), the whole narrative reads as a very human tragedy.
All war and no love can turn people - and even angels - into monsters, more so than the actual monstrous chimaera, who are in turn becoming bloodthirsty out of a thousand-year fight for something that has become muddled and twisted over time. War becomes an addiction and a way of life if carried on for too long.
The characters carry this theme with a knife edge:
Karou - the cool, artistic and optimistic teenage girl I've come to know and love in the first book? Dead inside now, thanks to tragedy and heartbreak. Or so she appears. She is now burdened with a responsibility which is causing her pain rather than pleasure, from which there seems to be no way out but which is also her choice. Karou is more capable and serious in this installment of her story where she is the heart and hope of everything at stake. She's still reckless and impulsive, but for understandable reasons, and she can figure things out before the reader can (it was that way for me at least) - a freaking relief to see in a YA protagonist. Above all, I think, Karou shows how courageous she truly is. She comes to realise her own hypocrisies throughout the course of the book, and that she may be causing more harm than good in taking part in a war in which both sides are no better than the other. Our Karou is no longer such a naive girl, but she may still live to find a glimmer of hope in her strange existence again (she still likes to draw in her sketchbook), when all is darkness, blame and betrayal...
Akiva - I liked him more here than in the previous book. Like Karou he is also heartbroken, confused and angry. But he doesn't mope about it. He has made terrible mistakes, but he is willing to atone for them any way he can. Akiva's courage comes from not giving up. He will find a way to end the war between the angels and devils, even if it means going against everything he has been taught his whole life by his war-hungry superiors. With some help Akiva could succeed; by clinging to that bit of hope that does not seem to wish to exist for him...
Thiago (The White Wolf) - %$*%"*!!! I hate this guy. He is a chimaera army leader, but is he really on Karou's side? He obviously can't be trusted, but he may be the only help Karou can get in ending the war and fulfilling her "purpose". Thiago is intimidating and dangerous not just because of his bloodthirsty obsession with so-called victory and vengeance, but because of his ability to manipulate his soldiers into worshiping him and never going against him. To do otherwise is considered foolish - and treasonous. The Wolf can get away with murder, even among his own race, and he can switch from a persuasive and wise hero to a jealous and hateful monster in a flash.
Other characters serve their purpose well. But my personal favourites, apart from Karou and Akiva, are: Ziri, Zuzana, Liraz, and the Shadows That Live.
Storywise, 'Days of Blood and Starlight' is not as strong or as unpredictable as 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone'. However towards the end it transforms into an especially intense, suspenseful and violent experience to behold. The war elements and themes are more apparent, and the characters more fleshed-out. It definitely makes the reader wish this series was real, despite all the blood and horror and despair.
Plus, 'Days of Blood and Starlight' has got to have the most effed-up solution to a love triangle since the 'Twilight' series. And I do mean serious WTF territory. But it makes sense and is both ironic and heart-chillingly tragic. Laini Taylor has taken another YA romance trope and turns it on its head. I don't want to give any worthy surprises away in this review, so if you don't know what I'm talking about, I suggest you read the book and discover for yourself.
Now about a few negatives. Like I said, 'Days of Blood and Starlight' does take a while to really pick up with its plot threads and shocking twists, and it is slow-going. Its 500+ pages could have been shortened a bit. However this doesn't really come across as a Middle-book Syndrome fault - where things have to move slower in order to get to the big action-packed climax in the next story. It's more like the author is taking the time to develop the characters and how they are in their situations. She shows how war effects people in different ways - and once that's clear, the meat of the story really shines through.
I would have liked to have seen at least one redeeming quality to the war leaders of the seraphims (Joram) and the chimaeras (Thiago). I know they have been without peace with one another for well over a millennium, but it almost seems that those two bastards exist just for the reader to hate them because they are the villains. As it turns out, the other puppet masters are no better.
Also, the writing: it's as good as ever, though I've noticed Laini Taylor uses words like "that" and "had" too frequently. I can't remember if this was the case in 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone', and if I was just too awed by the story and creative ideas to notice any flaws in the writing style. But in 'Days of Blood and Starlight', I did miss some of the magic of Taylor's writing which she'd turned into a justified art form. And for health reasons I would advise not to play a drinking game for the amount of times the word "hope" is used. But the prose and how it flows is very good nevertheless.
In conclusion, in spite of some set-backs, in the end I was not disappointed in this sequel to one of my all-time favourite books. I was prepared to read 'Days of Blood and Starlight' with an open mind anyway, and not be taken in by hype or fangirl logic - in which the next installment in a beloved series simply MUST be better than its predecessor. That's not realistic. The ending was great and left me with many conflicting and cathartic emotions. It has a kind of karmic beauty to it; poetically linking to the ending of 'Daughter of Smoke and Bone', but not in a way that both the endings are the same. Not at all.
For such a gritty and hopeless book, hope may still exist. For peace. For tolerance. For love.
I cannot wait for the final installment of this magnificent series.
Final Score: 4/5
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