Evie Reads

Series: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publication Year: 2012
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tags: 🦄🌎
Spice: 🫑

I will start by saying I was not emotionally prepared for these books. I didn’t look into what genre they were or when they were published, I only knew that they were mentioned by multiple people that liked reading fantasy books, so they were on my enormous book list. I started reading them because after reading Knave and the Moon, I needed something entirely different. This series did not disappoint in that regard.

I should’ve figured out early on that these were young adult, or probably looked into it before starting, but alas, I did not. So as I read the first book, I felt like I was walking through sludge. It was a much slower pace than I was used to, creating a world without much dialogue. It felt like we spent the entirety of the first book within the main character’s head. This was exhausting for me.

If I had read these when I was 19, when they came out in 2012 – I would’ve loved them. The main character is 18, she is going through a LOT of growth and development, becoming a strong, fearless woman. But this is not where we meet her. She is meek, afraid, uncertain of herself and very reliant on her one outgoing friend for social interaction. This feels familiar for young me 😂.

So now, I’ll 100% recommend these books to teenagers. It’s a story of letting your circumstances make you stronger, not being buried by them or allowing them to harden you to others. Alina Starkov is an orphan, completely alone in the world, until Mal Oretsev arrives. They are inseparable. He is pudgy, goofy and mischeivous. She is loyal, shy, and enthralled with him. We love chracters like this.

World Building

This is obviously just the first layer to this story. Leigh Bardugo has created the Grishaverse – a world where Grisha have magic and the oz’kazat’sya or normal mortals do not. The Grisha are separated into groups based on powers and training starts in childhood, when powers start to manifest.

There is so much lore baked into this world. There’s saints and legends that become real, underground cave systems and dark creatures created by evil.

It took me until about 80% of the way through the second book before I was really hooked. That was new for me. I’m usually not one to keep reading if it takes me that long, but I knew I wanted to finish this trilogy and give it a fair chance.

Characters

I started out really annoyed with Alina and her inability to stand up for herself. It took about that long in the series before she really developed a backbone and fought back. There were a lot of men who wanted things from her and she was constantly trying to please them and everyone else. It took a long time for her to realize she needed to do what was right for HER and what she knew was right, instead of just listening to the advice of men who thought they knew best. That’s when I finally started rooting for her more.

I love a book whose villain makes me uncertain of myself. Do I really hate you? Or do I feel sympathetic towards you despite your actions? There’s villains that are completely irredeemable, but I appreciate an antagonist who truly believes what they’re doing is right, though they are misguided. It gives me hope that they can be redeemed and keeps me interested.

In the end, I was genuinely sad that the Darkling died. I knew that was what needed to happen to culminate the story, there was really no other way to defeat the darkness he had created in Ravka, but it made me sad nonetheless. He was truly trying to help the Grisha in a world where they were hated simply for being different, for having magic and being feared for it. We got to learn his backstory and his mother’s, which made him so much more sympathetic. It truly felt conflicting.

Relationships

The relationship development between Mal and Alina was frustrating in the beginning. There was some of the “miscommunication trope” involved, which I loathe. JUST TALK TO EACH OTHER AND BE DONE WITH THIS!! It’s the worst. Eventually, Alina got it together, but you also never fully knew who she was going to end up with either.

Oh, Nikolai. He was by far my favorite character. The charming, rogueish prince. He was a mechanical genius, even without Grisha powers. Inventing flying ships and naming them after birds, planning multiple steps in advance and shocking everyone with his foresight.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I really enjoyed this world with the Grisha powers and the war.

I’ll be giving this to my kids to read when they’re teenagers and recommending it to all my friends’ kids. There is no spice on the page, which is technically called closed door and there’s only really one instance of that. It’s a sweet romance intertwined with war and magic and a super cool world! I wish I had read it when I was 18.