Around the world, black hand prints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.
In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.
And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.
Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages—not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out.
When one of the strangers—beautiful, haunted Akiva—fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
***
Well, I think this book is quite good, actually. Weird, but great.
Okay, so the storyline sets in Czech Republic, which is quite remarkable because Czech Republic is not exactly the most famous countries around the world. And I guess there are so dark myths in Czech that is very worth writing. I won't dwell on it. But I think the setting of the storyline is quite fresh.
So there's Karou, which is a goodhearted sort-of-devil-girl. Not the typical heronie, because she still got her really girlish-hateful side. Well, not that "hateful", but still. Which is another "fresh" start considering my recent reads are all about dystopian novels or adult novels.
And there's Akiva, which is quite weird because he is not your typical goodhearted seraphim either. I mean, he's not a bad guy, obviously. But he's not that good either. And he loves a devil before, which is quite WTF because they are enemies in NATURE, okay? But he is not flawless, which is good because I'm so done with too-flawless boys.
What I like the most is the whole relationship. Basically, from what I read in the past, devils are not capable of love, remorse, or any emotions other than want, hatred, anger, greed, etc. And they DON'T have souls. But in this world, devils are... well, not that evil actually. I mean, obviously there are plenty up into no good, but there are good ones like Madrigal and Brimstone which is CAPABLE of love. Very astonishing, I have to say. It totally overthrow my long-last strategy of devils from TMI and TID.
And there's the multiple point of view thing, which is... very strange. And honestly, not always a good thing. Well, let's see. The book starts in Karou's point of view, which is... normal. And then without any warning, it suddenly switches to Akiva's point of view and then their povs crossed for about half a book. Relatively normal. But there's the whole time jumping thing, and this is quite annoying. Sometimes the storyline is set 17 years ago, and sometimes it's about now. And the whole part of Madrigal pov is... I can't say annoying, because it's a main part of the story. But I'm a little pissed at the Madrigal pov thing.
The world is quite new to me, with all the love-capable-devils and not-so-good angels and all the very messy stuff.
Rating: 7.5/10
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