Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: Shaodw and Bone #1
Published September 2017 by Henry Holt and Co.
Hardcover
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Pages: 369
“Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.” -Goodreads
My Review:
I repeat, this is about the book and not the show. I am currently reading all of the books to get to watch the show.
DONT JUDGE FOR ME BEING BEHIND
Anyways…
This book was pretty good.
I have read better and I have definitely read worse.
This is how it went for me:
Beginning: Eh pretty good
Half way through: Okay this going on forver
About the last 100 pages mark: YES I LOVE THIS
Last few chapters: Oh okay, back to eh
I think that it was a little slow to start, sped up, and then had a pretty dull ending. I think it built well for the second book, but like not well enough. I like to have a good structured ending so I kind of know what the next book will start like.
This book wrapped up the ending really nicely, but the only thing I can be sure of is that I will be seeing Alina and Mal on a boat or on new land. There was no destination. No end goals, nothing. I will have to see what happens I guess.
Alina was a really cool character. I knew she was going to discover that about herself, but the way Bardugo goes about that is a little lack luster. I think that she could have had Alina conscious. Because she was trying to save Mal, I think this would have been a good point to touch on during that certain event. I did not like that we had to see others recount the scene to her. I also think her character development where she learns to control the powers is also lack luster. I would have loved some more build up and some more action in that scene. The whole night of the ball thing near the end felt very rushed and then way to easily resolved. I think that the teacher lady could have dropped more hints and the Mal fight should not have been over and forgiven as fast as it was.
Anyways, Alina was a cool character but she was not fully developed in my eyes. She stayed pretty static throughout even though I think the idea was for her to become a new person.
Mal seems like a nice guy, but we know we do not like the nice guys on this blog. He seemed sweet, but he literally disappeared for half the story. That is not his fault but I do not think we got to see a lot of him to love him.
But lets talk about who we really love: The Darkling. Ah yes, I know we are not supposed to like him, but goddamn he is really enticing. I cannot say too much with out spoiling big things, but holy hell I think I am in love and I hate it.
Ravka was a really cool map and place to look/learn about. I think that the map could have had more details like the tiny towns that Alina passed through so that we would see where the journey took them the entire time. I have heard before that it is supposed to resemble a more Russian vibe than anything else so I took that into consideration when imagining everything.
I thought this was a pretty decent book. I would have liked to see more development. That will hopefully come in the second and third book. I am excited to see where Alina’s story goes and then watch the show.
As always, thanks for reading,
A Bookie
Star Rating: 3.5