This is a story about a girl named Karou and her struggle to understand who and what she really is. Karou is a young art student who lives in Prague. Her hair is blue, she has some strange tattoos on her palms and she has no memories of her past. She does't have a family or some other human relatives. Her friend Zuzana and an ex-boyfriend, Kazimir or Kaz, are her only relations in this world.
Click here to see the rest of this review...
Her true family lives in an underground world and she goes there from time to time and helps them by running some strange errands. She collects or buys animal teeth from all over the world and brings them to Brimstone, a ram-horned creature. The underground creatures are called chimera and they are fighting a very old war against the seraphs from another planet. Brimstone is some sort of wizard and he can recreate and bring back to life his dead warriors through the power of magic and with the help of those teeth that Karou collects.
One day, while bargaining for some teeth in Marrakesh, Karou meets Razgut, a fallen angel, a crippled, strange creature and Akiva, a fine looking, handsome angel. Razgut wants Akiva to take him back home on their planet from which he was banished a thousand years ago. But Akiva has other plans, he wants to kill Karou. The three creatures fight, Karou's palm tattoos being in fact some powerful magical weapons.
In the mean time, Karou tells Zuzana about the other world and about the chimeras but Zuzana does't believe her. Suddenly, Kishmish, Brimstone's messenger, shows up at her window and tells her that all the gates to Brimstone's world have been closed forever by the angels. Karou is all alone, trapped on Earth.
Akiva shows up again and he doesn't want to kill her this time. They talk and Karou finds out that she is a chimera too even if she looks human. Akiva tells her the her actual name is Madrigal Kirin and that they were madly in love in the past. She was killed for being in love with him, a seraphim and an enemy, and Brimstone revived her, gave her another name and another body, but in fact she is a chimera not a human.
He tells her that he closed the gates and he killed Brimstone because he wanted to end the war forever. Karou is shocked by the discovery and she runs away in order to find a way to get back to her chimera world and her old family.
Best part of story, including ending:
I like the fact that this is a very dynamic, upbeat story, very easy to read and young people can learn a lot from it.
Best scene in story:
Akiva and Karou fight in the sky above the astonished faces of the good people of Prague who don't know what hit them.
Opinion about the main character:
I don't like that she ends up hating and rejecting Akiva for what he did. Ending the war was their plan all along when they were together and in love.
