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Review: Smoulder by Brenna Yovanoff

Smoulder by Brenna Yovanoff
Published by Simon and Schuster



Everything is made of steel, even the flowers. How can you love anything in a place like this?

Daphne is the half-demon, half-fallen angel daughter of Lucifer and Lilith. Life for her is an endless expanse of time, until her brother Obie is kidnapped - and Daphne realizes she may be partially responsible. Determined to find him, Daphne travels from her home in Pandemonium to the vast streets of Earth, where everything is colder and more terrifying. With the help of the human boy she believes was the last person to see her brother alive, Daphne glimpses into his dreams, discovering clues to Obie's whereabouts. As she delves deeper into her demonic powers, she must navigate the jealousies and alliances of the violent archangels who stand in her way. But she also discovers, unexpectedly, what it means to love and be human in a world where human is the hardest thing to be. 


***
I don't think I could sum up this book even if I tried or compare it to anything else on the YA market. It is really uniquely strange in a twisted and quirky way. If you love Dark fiction you will be hooked.

From the outset this book is so weird. The setting of pandemonium is really quirky and the character are are half demons and act like it. There is no holding back at all when they do all the horrible things you'd expect half demons to do to one another

The main story follows Daphne as she goes out into the world to find her brother Obie. On the way she meets Truman and from there on out they go together to try and to get to the bottom of his disappearance.

My favourite thing about this book was the demon baby with metal teeth. She was both alarmingly odd and wonderfully cute and by far my favourite character.

I really struggled with the split narrative on this one. I understood where I was when Daphne was speaking but got totally confused when it switched to the third person following Truman. I actually felt for me it spoiled those sections for me and stopped me fully engaging in the story.

I did enjoy the pace of this book once the story got going and especially towards the end but did wish things had happened a bit sooner.

So while I don't think this was totally the book for me I do think if you are into the genre you will love it.

Comments

I have this on my wish-list :D I think I will hold off buying it after your review & contemplate lol
I really enjoyed this one.
I'm really intrigued by this one, especially as I really enjoyed The Replacement. Split narratives can annoy me as well, so I shall bear in mind what you've said before I read this one!