On the Same Page: Days of Blood and Starlight

HUZZAH!! It’s finally here! Friends, Alyssa from Books Take You Places, Brittany from The Book Addict’s Guide, and I have been waiting to start this new feature and share it with you all! In case you can’t tell from the button over there, it’s called On the Same Page and it’s pretty fun (for us, and hopefully you, too!).

So, some quick background: The three of us were reading books together all the time, so we decided to make it a THING where we read one book together a month and then put together a post each about that book. It’s been in the works for months, honestly. But the most fun part of On the Same Page is that we’re not necessarily going to be doing a traditional review–although we certainly might. We’re going to try and change it up and post different things to talk about each book we read. I’m SOO excited about this, I can’t even tell you. So without further ado, WELCOME! Our first book is…

Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

For this readalong, I went with the audiobook, since I’ve already read and reviewed DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT. One of the things I notice always when I’m reading, but somehow I notice it more when I’m listening to audiobooks, is the way I visualize things and people. So I’ve trolled the interwebs and found some pretty amazing images, either photos of real places or artwork, of things that appear in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT. This is in no way comprehensive, friends, but it was fun to search for images that reminded me of things in this book that are so imaginative and vivid.

Obviously, what are these books without Karou? Nothing. In DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT, she’s struggling deeply with Akiva’s betrayal and his role in the destruction of Loramendi. She’s allied herself with the remains of the chimera people, led by the infamously horrible Thiago. Brimstone, her father figure, is dead, and what was once her beloved family is gone. Karou has taken over Brimstone’s role of Resurrectionist, but it’s a tight rope she’s walking. Thiago is leading what’s left of his people in rebellion against the Seraphim, who in Eretz have claimed victory at last over the chimera. I always love Karou, and I continue to love her here, even when she’s being stubborn. (Ahem. Mostly about Akiva.)

I love how this picture captures her hair, without a doubt her most striking feature. Although I can’t remember if she had the tattoo on her shoulder? Is that a thing that my brain forgot?

One of the reasons I love this picture is because of the eyes. Karou always talks about Akiva’s eyes and the way they are the color of fire. That makes these eyes perfect, not to mention the fact that this guy is pretty legit-looking. He doesn’t look as broody as Akiva is for most of DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT, though. Poor Akiva is depressed, dealing with heaps of self-loathing, and through a series of events early in the book, under the impression that Karou is dead, and so he’s grieving. I loved seeing Eretz and Astrae through his eyes and the eyes of his siblings, Hazael and Liraz, whom I grew to love so much. And I loved how determined he became to make amends.

SIGHHHHH ZIRI. Friends, we meet a number of new characters in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT, but perhaps none were so heartbreaking and heartwarming as Ziri, the last Kirin. He was a boy when Madrigal was executed for her relationship with Akiva, and has in some way been crushing/loving her since before then, when he was one of the only survivors, along with Madrigal, of the murder of the Kirin. He still possesses his original body and bears no hamsas. He is also strong and brave and kind and gooey on the inside. He is a great friend to Karou and is just plain fabulous. I cannot WAIT to see how things progress for him in book 3.

The hamsas that all resurrected chimera bear don’t necessarily play a huge role in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT, although you can never say they don’t matter when they have such a debilitating effect on Seraphim, but I just loved this picture so much. It’s so beautiful. It’s exactly the way I picture it in my mind.

It KILLS me that I couldn’t find more pictures of things that looked like the way I picture Astrae or Loramendi. Kills me! It’s so hard to find images of fantasy settings, especially ones so vividly described as Eretz. But we spend a very decent chunk of time in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT with various different groups of people in Eretz, particularly in the Former Freeholdings, where the chimera citizenry is running for its life from Seraph patrols ordered to kill them on sight. Their only hope of survival? Reaching the Hintermost, the mountain range in the south. This image almost perfectly resembles the way I imagine this place. (It’s actually New Zealand.)

Ok, so cheating a little bit here. Since Karou isn’t in Prague, there really isn’t any scene in the Poison Kitchen. BUT! Zuzana and Mik are in Prague, and she mentions Poison Kitchen, and I just basically died when I saw this picture. THE GAS MASK! AHHH!

So like I said before, the main action of DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT doesn’t take place in Prague like a lot of DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE did. But Zuzana and Mik, whom I ADORE ADORE ADORE and who not only play larger and more awesome roles in the main storyline but also have a wonderful storyline of their own, are in Prague a bit. It’s just a magical-looking city, friends. I’ll never look at those bridges the same way again.

It’s so pretty at night! This reminds me of Karou and Akiva. Even though they aren’t together in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT, I can’t think of them without thinking of them being together in Prague.

I bet this seems super random, having a picture of the Ural Mountains here. But in the world of DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT, there’s that portal to Eretz in the sky right over them. Akiva uses it because it’s a portal that no one in Eretz knows about, and the portals wind up being very important when the Seraph leader of the elite angel army, The Dominion, finds out about the portals. He becomes VERRRY interested in them. Jael, the aforementioned leader of The Dominion and the brother of the Seraph Emperor, Joram, is one of the big bads, and it’s not looking good going forward.

Ouarzazate (I can’t remember how it’s spelled in the book–audio! Curses!!–but this is how it’s spelled in real life) is the nearest Moroccan city to the kasbah where Karou is holed up with the chimera forces. She goes here to shop for clothes and food, and later it serves as the setting of pretty legit reveal near the end, as well as one of the very sweetest scenes in the whole book.

If Akiva spends most of his time in Eretz with the rest of the Misbegotten, hunting down chimera (or in Akiva’s case, saving them), Karou lives in an old, abandoned kasbah with Thiago and the rest of his rebellion. His grand plan involves Karou resurrecting all of his chimera in new, fiercer winged bodies, all in the name of vengeance. There is an uneasy peace between Karou and the rest of the chimera. They keep her only because they need her resurrection skills even though they still see her as Madrigal the betrayer, the angel-lover. There are some difficult scenes between Karou and Thiago at the kasbah, but also some lovely ones with Karou and Ziri and a few other characters besides. Laini Taylor does a great job making you feel like all of these places, whether they are actually real or not, are alive.

So those are my DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT pictures, friends! I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but I think it’s a decent start! If you haven’t read DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT yet, I can’t recommend it enough. The audiobook is excellently narrated by Khristine Hvam, and I recommend that as well.

Most of all, I hope you come back around next month for On the Same Page’s second book! In the meantime, go forth and check out Brittany and Alyssa‘s posts about DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT!