Days of Resurrection and War

In The Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor, Karou lived a strange life only to realize her origins were even more strange: she was a chimera who was secretly resurrected into a human body (instead of the cropped together bodies the Resurrectionist usually created) after her execution for loving a member of the chimeras only enemy: the angels. In Days of Blood and Starlight, Karou's guilt and pain make her become the one who can recreate bodies for captured souls: she is the resurrectionist.

As Karou takes over for the Resurrectionist, a chimera she loved dearly, she realizes her job is pressured by the needs of a war she feels responsible for creating. Chimera souls are trapped on the battlefield and brought back to her to create bodies for them to be perfect soldiers. Even still alive chimera are killed and their souls trapped so Karou can build them better bodies to fight the angels with. While hiding in Morocco, they build an army, but Karou is always singled out as the one who started the war with her relationship with Akiva, an angel and the chimera's sworn enemy. Only Thiago, the very person who executed her in her past life when she was originally caught with Akiva, will talk to her, but Karou doubts his good intentions. Still, she carries the weight of her fallen people whose souls they couldn't save upon her shoulders, and if she must work for Thiago, it is the least she can do.

Akiva watches the brutal chimera slaughters in their world at the orders of the angel emperor. Innocent, harmless chimera are slaughtered for no other reason than to eradicate the entire species. Now that the angels know the chimera secret of resurrection, they know how to prevent the soldiers' souls from being collected. But a new enemy has cropped up- an unforeseen group of guerillas who swoop in, kill angels, and mutilate their corpses as a message. Now the emperor doubles his efforts in the field, but Akiva has started a new campaign of his own: he is going to save as many chimera as he can in the name of Karou. When the angels learn there is a new Resurrectionist practicing, Akiva is afraid to get his hopes up that it might be Karou. But who else could be restoring the bodies of fallen chimera soldiers? Together, they are the star-crossed lovers doomed to love each other and fight for each other in a world that doesn't want them to love one another. But the world is bigger than the two of them, and no one knows that fact better than Karou and Akiva.

Laini Taylor wrote a stunning first novel in this trilogy, and her second novel is just as mind-blowing. This was a phenomenal follow-up that will keep you glued to it, so if you pick it up, make sure you have time to read it cover to cover! I couldn't put this book down for so many reasons, but in particular, for the many twists and turns Taylor creates that I never saw coming. In fact, the ending is so shocking I am dying to get my hands on the last book! Another reason is the chimera. They are such an interesting and varied species and the resurrectionist's job creating these amalgamations of different animals and humans is fascinating. Death just doesn't seem permanent when someone can easily make you a new body, but when it does become permanent to a species that hasn't had to deal with that before, it is devastating. This was so sad and fascinating to read about, I couldn't stop myself!

These books are very complex, and so I would suggest saving them for an older, stronger reader. If a student is a serious fantasy reader, they will probably already have the skills to unravel a new, unfamiliar world and truly enjoy this book. However, this is not a series for a younger or weaker reader, as it really is complex and difficult to piece together at times. For me, that complexity was brilliantly executed, so I wouldn't give this to a younger reader before they are ready for it and ruin the story with a series that they aren't ready for. Because when they ARE ready for it? They will be just as enamored as I am!

Star-Crossed Angels and Chimaera

I don't know about you, but I have no idea what a chimera/chimaera was. So I had to look it up. At first, I was like, "Hey. Why is that goat riding atop that silly lion?" Then I realized the goat was part of the lion. Interesting. Creepy, but still interesting. A little more time spent on Google Images, and I found a number of different creature cross/mutations that were just the right amount of neat (yep, sometimes I regress to the adjectives of a 12 year old girl from the 1980's) and creeper. So who wouldn't want to read a book about them, right? Oh yeah. Especially when it is a book that has gotten as much hype as Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone has.

Karou is human, but she wasn't raised by humans. She attends art school in Prague and lives like a regular student/starving artist, but she was raised by Brimstone and a few other chimaera in Brimstone's shop. As she got older, Brimstone trusted her with his errands... going through his magical portals all over the world to gather the teeth he traded for wishes. The type and amount of teeth traded gave the bearer different strengths of wishes. Scuppies, tiny little wishes, are all Karou really gets to use, but the consequences for strong wishes are more than most can handle. Karou knows she is safe with Brimstone, but she has no idea what the teeth are for and her curiosity eats away at her.

On one of Karou's routine errands for Brimstone, she realizes something has happened when there is a scorched hand print on the door back to the portal. When she is attacked by an angel (something she never knew existed), she fights for her life and through a previously unknown power that shoots out of her hands like burning white fire, is abel to escape. She gets back to Brimstone's shop, and when everyone thinks she is recovering, she finally succumbs to the years of curiosity and enters the door she has never seen opened. Inside she finds something so fantastic and surprising she forgets to be scared- she has entered a whole different world, complete with two moons instead of one- a world where the chimaera live. What she doesn't expect to uncover are years of secrets, long-lost, star-crossed loves, and a deadly vendetta that spans centuries. Now Karou and the angel are drawn together to learn about their connection and the role they play in the greatest war not of this world. The war where angels and chimaera have fought and died for as long as anyone can remember. But is there a life beyond the war?

Oh holy fantasy land! Taylor came up with a new world full of beasts, wars, mythology, and whole new worlds. And it is amazing! The whole ancient feud wrapped up in angels and mythological beasts was phenomenal. I couldn't stop reading this book. No wonder it was the only YA book on the Amazon Best of 2011 list! But the interesting thing I couldn't stop thinking about was the Romeo and Juliet connection. Karou and the angel were from two different warring worlds, but they couldn't stop thinking about one another. Their love was so great it moved past the battlefields, usurped death, and helped them find each other even after an execution. I was dying for them to be together!

This is a pretty beautiful fantasy, but I suspect it might be too intricate and abstract for your typical concrete thinker. In fact, I can see many of my students enjoying certain parts, but getting lost in the language and strange names and losing sight of the beauty of this story. I would save this story for a strong reader with a love for fantasy and other worlds. And don't hesitate to pass this on to adults you know, even if they don't regularly read YA novels. This is a pretty intricate fantasy that will appeal to readers of all ages. But only one question remains... What would you wish for?

Dark, Disturbing, and Magnificent

I'm not even sure how to review this book. It was so dark and terrifying, yet so enthralling, I can't even bring myself to talk about it. I know it was written as a young adult novel, but it defies all boundaries and rules the genre set down. Rotters by Daniel Kraus defies all boundaries, adult, young adult, and everything in between. If you go into this book thinking you know what is going to happen, you are going to be sadly mistaken!

Joey's mother dies in a freak accident and he is shipped off to live with his father who he never met. When he gets to the filthy hovel his father calls a cabin, Joey knows live has changed forever. His father disappears for days, and with no food in the cabin and no money, Joey is literally starving. When he is caught trying to steal money out of a locker to buy lunch after days without a meal (or seeing his father), he confesses his living situation to the principal. They put him on free lunches and summon his father to come to the school as soon as he returns. When his father finally comes back home and goes to the school, it is clear they forced him not to leave Joey alone, and Ken Harnett is not happy about it.

Harnett starts getting anxious and slips out at night occasionally. After snooping around the cabin, Joey assumes his father robs recently deceased people's homes. He follows Harnett one night and discovers something so gruesome he can barely process it: Harnett is a grave robber. He digs up graves and steals the valuables, expertly replacing every piece of dirt or tuft of sod so no one knew he was there. Joey is oddly interested and insists (blackmails) Harnett into taking him on the next dig. On his rookie run, Joey is in for the lesson of his life that changes his very sense of being.

After working for a time with Harnett, they head off to witness the relocation of an entire cemetery: an event that brings all the Diggers together, despite their strictly observed territories. It is here that Joey meets the other Diggers and starts to learn about the mysterious culture and rules surrounding them. The Diggers are a mix of strange men, some who take solace in books, one looks like a deranged Santa Claus, but they all have something in common... they are all loners. For Harnett to not only have an apprentice, but for that apprentice to be a son is a defiance of all Digger rules. The superstitious group grudgingly accepts Joey, but one Digger is feared and avoided by all: Baby. Raised as brothers, Baby and Harnett have a tumultuous history, but Baby's rapid downward spiral into drugs, delusions, and a deranged psychosis makes everyone nervous about his presence. When Baby takes an interest in Joey (and even thinks Joey is his son at times), things begin to get dangerous. But nothing can compare to biggest desecration of the most important grave in Joey and Harnett's life. Can Baby be stopped? How far will he go in his madness? Do the Diggers deserve redemption?

This book will not only break down every boundary of humanity and society you think you know, it will also take twists and turns you didn't think possible. Joey is your normal, average kid who ended up in a crappy situation, but his move changes his very being, making the Digger in him seep deep into his bones. He becomes a different person, not just one who is bullied in high school and has a crush on the Queen Bee, but one who sees people at their most vulnerable- their final resting place. It makes him more of a loner, willing to acknowledge that the Digger's solitary life doesn't just protect the Digger, but also the people around them.

I don't know how to describe my feelings for this book because I almost feel dirty or embarrassed to have liked it! It was one of those creepy stories that you can't help but get sucked into, but can you really admit you liked it? It was so morbid and disturbing that I really don't think I have every read another book like it. This book is a true original, and you won't be the same after the first pages you flip through. Just like Digger life changed Joey, it will change you too.

For the sole reason of content, I would save this book for an older reader, maybe 11th grade and up. It is very mature and deals with some really heavy ideas and societal norms. Discussions about desecration of graves and eternal resting places are sure to come up, but the problem is this book precludes those discussions from being black and white. It will change every way you think about things you always thought were clearly right or wrong. There is some mature language, but that isn't the reason to save this book for a more mature reader, it is the shear morbid content that requires it. I suggest reading this book before you share it with a student so you know who is up for the strange and disturbing ride. You will love this book, but you won't know how to feel about the fact that you love this book!