Karou with the blue hair, the carefree art student, the collector of languages, and ever mysterious. Little do her friends know the truth about her life: she is an orphan, raised by monsters or chimera. The little doorway between their two worlds, the passage into Elsewhere, is her secret. It links her two lives. There is no way to get to Elsewhere unless the door is opened to her from the inside, but there is always someone waiting to answer her knock. There is Issa, the snake woman; Kishmish, the messenger and pet; Twiga, giraffe necked; and Brimstone, the Wishmonger...her stand-in father. He is even more mysterious than Karou: collecting teeth in exchange for wishes. He sends her on errands to pick them up from all over the world, never telling her the purpose of her bounty. There is a distance between them. There are secrets he will not share with her, places he will not allow her to go.
In Prague where she attends art school, she has finally found a place to call home. She has friends, and even previously a boyfriend (scum), and her monster family to visit. Everything seems to be coming together...until she starts seeing the burned handprints on the doorways to Elsewhere. She means to tell Brimstone about it...
One night she returns to Brimstone's shop, after her first encounter with the Angel: their fight is rather one sided, and she barely manages to escape back through the portal. Arriving there, she is desperate for answers. Where is Brimstone? But he is through the forbidden door...and so she does the unthinkable, and she opens it. There she finds another world, completely unlike her own. There are bodies of chimera everywhere, all dead...or are they? When one grabs her wrist, she knows for certain. Brimstone rescues her, but at what cost? He handles her roughly, and shoves her back through the portal, back into her world...alone. She knocks, but the door doesn't open.
Battered and broken, she doesn't think things can get much worse. She hobbles home, barefoot. She avoids everyone for the weekend, and tries to heal. Who can she possibly go to for help? Zuzana comes to check on her, and there is no choice: she has to tell her the truth. Suddenly, Kishmish is flying towards her, on fire! He's carrying Brimstone's wishbone, the one he always wore around his neck, and a scroll burned beyond recognition. Rushing to the portal, she finds the doorway has been turned into an otherworldly inferno. She knows then, her chance at returning to Elsewhere has been stolen away.
Karou is hardly going to accept a fate that prevents her from ever seeing the only family she has ever known. She begins to investigate Brimstone's old contacts looking for a clue, any clue. She sees the Angel again, but this time he is different: softer, kinder, unwilling to fight her. Why the sudden change? The energy between them is changed too. There is something familiar about him as well, but how is that possible?
Who is this Angel in front of her, and how will she manage to reunite with her family? Taylor weaves a compelling story entertwining two worlds, and creating interesting characters you want to get to know. Readers will be drawn in to the evolving story. I must admit, I had hoped it wouldn't end with romance, but I'm a cynic.
"Home. The word always had air quotes around it in her mind. She'd done what she could to make her flat cozy, filling it with art, books, ornate lanterns, and a Persian carpet as soft as lynx fur, and of course there were her angel wings taking up one whole wall. But there was no help for its real emptiness; its close air was stirred by no breath but her own. When she was alone, the empty place within her, the missingness as she thought of it, seemed to swell," (Taylor pg 53, 2011).
If you liked this, check out:
Taylor, Laini. (2011). Daughter of Smoke & Bone. New York: Little, Brown.
I was completely into this book and I can't wait until I read the second book. Awesome vivid imagery a detail.
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