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1-Page Summary of Daughter Of Smoke And Bone
Overall Summary
Daughter of Smoke and Bone (2011) is a fantasy novel by author Laini Taylor. The narrative follows seventeen-year-old Karou through a fantastical war between angels and demons. It was well received, especially for its vivid imagery and originality. It was a finalist for the Andre Norton Award, which is one of the top honors for fantasy writing. Its themes include love across the ages, betrayal in relationships, and false memories.
Karou is a student in Prague who has blue hair, tattoos, and martial arts skills. She likes to explore the city with her best friend Zuzana. Karou also has trouble getting all her school work in on time.
Karou is a young girl who was raised by Brimstone, an ancient wizard-demon with the body of a dragon and the head of a ram. As his daughter, she’s happy to steal human teeth for him in exchange for small magical objects that grant wishes. Eventually though, her work becomes boring because it involves dealing with grave robbers and gamblers.
Karou has been living with other creatures called chimaera for the past 17 years. They are mystical beings whose bodies have parts of humans and animals. Karou is forbidden from exploring Eretz, a land that her guardians live in. One day, she finds all portals to Eretz have been locked and scorched; the handlebar also has a black handprint on it. This means that Karou cannot return to Brimstone or any of her other guardians who raised her.
She learns that a man named Akiva is the one who locked her into Eretz. He tries to kill her, but she manages to escape and find another door back out of Eretz. She runs into Brimstone soon after, but he’s angry with her for venturing too far into this world and destroys the only way home.
Back on Earth, Karou wasted no time in looking for a way to get back to Eretz. She searched for portals that the seraphim hadn’t destroyed and found one in Morocco. There she met Razgut, who agreed to take her through it if she gave him a wishbone from her neck. After getting Zuzana’s puppet show ready, Karou went back home but was surprised by Akiva there instead of at school. They fought each other until he recognized the necklace around her neck and realized who she really was: Brimstone’s daughter! In return for not killing Karou anymore, Akiva promised not to say anything about it because he knew how much knowledge would hurt her.
Throughout the story, we learn that there has been a war between Seraphim and Chimaera for 1,000 years. The Chimaera were trying to bring back one of their own who had died in battle by collecting human teeth. In shocking news, it turns out Karou is one of those reincarnated chimaeras who was formerly known as Madrigal Kirin and used to have an affair with Akiva (a seraph). She was executed as punishment for her betrayal.
Akiva helps Karou regain her memories of her past life by breaking the wishbone necklace. Suddenly, she remembers everything. In vivid detail, she sees herself as a full chimaera: she had a human torso and head, but deer legs, bat wings, and a sizeable horn. She encountered a wounded Akiva on the battlefield; something about him moved her to pity, and instead of killing him or leaving him to die like everyone else would have done in that situation (since he was an enemy), she tended to his wounds and helped him heal.
Karou’s family was killed. Akiva also burned the portals that could be used to bring more teeth from Earth to Eretz, so that no more Chimaera can be reanimated by them.
Karou is torn between her love and hate for Akiva. She considers killing him but instead travels to Morocco with him, where she starts a new life in her old home.
