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lainiereads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
SO GOOD SO GOOD SO GOOD!!!!!
I had no clue what happened in this book before I read it, except that it had Nikolai and Zoya, and that people loved them. And both of those things were true. Plus, other great characters, and a lot of crazy plot twists, AND amazing quotes??? Perfect.
The style of this story was so much more similar to the Shadow and Bone trilogy than the Six of Crows duology, and the only explanation I can provide for it is that the main location was Ravka again, and the tone of the story was more serious and grim than the heists of the crows.
I did think that this book felt mostly like a set up for the next one, so I am really looking forward for the action in Rule of Wolves (which I also know nothing about). There was a lot of time spent as exposition for the main conflicts to come, but I still could not have predicted that the book would have ended the way it did. Leigh always knows how to keep me on my toes.
Also, the dialogue was amazing, as always. I mean, this story revolves around some of the funniest characters in the entire grishaverse, so what do you expect if not constant witty retorts? Like with the previous books, I found myself laughing out loud one chapter, and holding my breathe the next.
I definitely recommend this book to fans of the Bardugo's other works, and I really look forward to reading Rule of Wolves. Since this one felt a bit like a set up for its sequel, I am hoping to get a new favorite out of that one. :)))
I had no clue what happened in this book before I read it, except that it had Nikolai and Zoya, and that people loved them. And both of those things were true. Plus, other great characters, and a lot of crazy plot twists, AND amazing quotes??? Perfect.
The style of this story was so much more similar to the Shadow and Bone trilogy than the Six of Crows duology, and the only explanation I can provide for it is that the main location was Ravka again, and the tone of the story was more serious and grim than the heists of the crows.
I did think that this book felt mostly like a set up for the next one, so I am really looking forward for the action in Rule of Wolves (which I also know nothing about). There was a lot of time spent as exposition for the main conflicts to come, but I still could not have predicted that the book would have ended the way it did. Leigh always knows how to keep me on my toes.
Also, the dialogue was amazing, as always. I mean, this story revolves around some of the funniest characters in the entire grishaverse, so what do you expect if not constant witty retorts? Like with the previous books, I found myself laughing out loud one chapter, and holding my breathe the next.
I definitely recommend this book to fans of the Bardugo's other works, and I really look forward to reading Rule of Wolves. Since this one felt a bit like a set up for its sequel, I am hoping to get a new favorite out of that one. :)))
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Violence, and Grief
Moderate: Body shaming, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, and Misogyny
esmeralda's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
I pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book. I really fell hard for all of the characters - although I must say that I am still unsure how I feel about The Darkling. :)
Having Nina as a character is wonderful, although personally I am slightly disappointed (if unsurprised) by her choices.
Having Nina as a character is wonderful, although personally I am slightly disappointed (if unsurprised) by her choices.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
ellieprb05's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Grief
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Violence
Minor: Miscarriage
megloveswords12's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Violence
Moderate: Pregnancy
betweentheshelves's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Not my favorite Grishaverse novel (that still goes to Crooked Kingdom), but I like seeing what's happening with some of the characters after that! I'll admit, there's definitely a cliffhanger here and I've heard that Rule of Wolves is even better. My library copy needs to get in now so I can read it!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Violence, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, and Miscarriage
lilencius's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
that aside, I enjoyed the writing style in this book. I really liked Nikolai's and Nina 's, specially, perspectives! Those were really fun! I'm looking forward to see Nina's sapphic romance blossom!! Zoya's perspective felt a little flat for me sometimes, and I think it's because I don't really have connection with her character, but I really appreciated the flashback to her backstory during the beginning of the second part of the book. That was really well written and I really enjoyed it, it really showcased the author's talent!
I am definitely reading the second one, but I'm not really excited about where the plot is going. I still think it has potential, though!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
queenmackenzie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
What an exciting new series! Leigh Bardugo has certainly come a long way from her first book, Shadow and Bone, which had a great premise and a very exciting world, but was full of worn-out tropes and somewhat shallow characters. This new duology follows Nikolai, now King of Ravka, trying to bring an age of peace to his country, but is beset by nations on all sides, and by the darkness within. Three years have passed since the Shadow Fold was destroyed and the Darkling defeated by Alina Starkov, but whatever force Nikolai was infected with has reared its head again, and at night the king turns into a shadow creature that longs for human flesh. Zoya and the rest of the Grisha Triumvirate – comprised of the familiar faces of Genya, David, Tolya, and Tamar – are doing their best to keep this hidden and find a way to cure it, but things are getting out of hand.
At the same time, miracles seem to be sprouting up all over Ravka, and a new group called the Cult of the Starless Saint has arisen and are demanding the Darkling be made a saint. Their leader, Yuri, is brought into the palace by Nikolai to try and placate the crowds, and the king quickly realises that he might be able to use Yuri’s knowledge to rid himself of the monster within him. This will take Nikolai and Zoya back to the Unsea, to the place in which the Darkling first created the Fold and was then defeated centuries later.
‘Ravka was his first love, an infatuation that has begun in his lonely boyhood and that had only deepened with age. Whatever it demanded, he knew he would give.’
I’m not always a fan of when a series brings back a villain that has already died, but in this case the Darkling hasn’t actually returned and it is his memory, his actions, and the remnants of his power are what hangs over Ravka and over Nikolai. I appreciated this because it shows the long-term effects of this great good vs evil war; the darkness may have been defeated, but unlike the sweet fairytale ending of Ruin and Rising (in which Alina and Mal get to retire to a cottage and the kingdom seems happy) the problems don’t magically disappear because the villain has died. In the same way, though the Crows managed to free Kuwei from the Fjerdans and the knowledge jurda parem is in the hands of the Grisha, there are still threats to the Grisha’s lives, still the danger of kidnapping and murder by the Fjerdans or by the Shu for their experiments. I really like the way this series brought in so much more of the politics of the Grishaverse.
We see this in Nina’s storyline as well. She is undercover in Fjerda, working to smuggle vulnerable Grisha out of the country to offer them safety and build up Ravka’s Second Army. Even in a place that hates Grisha, though, effigies to Sankta Alina are spouting up, and tension is building between soldiers and villagers, especially in a town to the north where a factory has been set up, and where Nina can hear the voices of the dead calling to her. Nina’s points of view were heartbreaking; she is not only in Fjerda on a mission, but she has been trailing the body of her love Matthias (kept intact by Fabrikator magic) and is looking for a place to lay him to rest in a country that branded him a traitor. Throughout her chapters there are moments in which she hears Matthias’ voice in her head, and it’s as if they are still having a conversation, and that hit me hard. It’s also a bit of a shock to the system to see a character that previously has been so cheerful and full of life even in hard circumstances, become so grey, which is augmented by the way her powers were changed by jurda parem so that she no longer sense life but death.
‘For a moment, Nina had stood alone with death on the docks, two weary travellers, long time companions.’
There are also a few new characters introduced in this story, and I enjoyed all of them, as well as getting to know Zoya more. She is a complex character, which we see hints of in the first Grishaverse trilogy, but Bardugo really develops her in this new series. Her and Nikolai’s relationship, built on the desire to improve their country and the trust they have in one another was really nice to read, and there are parts of her arc that definitely went in unexpected directions!
In fact, the last thing I’ll say is that one of the things that really elevated this book for me, along with the development of the world, the politics, the banter, and the characterisation, was the plot twists. There was more than one moment that had me raising my eyebrows in surprise at the turn of events, and I thoroughly enjoyed that feeling. Now my only tragedy is that Rule fo Wolves is only out in hardback and I can’t ruin my collection of grishaverse paperbacks, so I’ll have to wait a while for the conclusion to the story. Or maybe I’ll buy the ebook to read it in the meantime.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Body horror, Violence, and Blood
valyn_grebe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, and Grief
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Sexism, Slavery, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy
blakethebookeater's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
*deep breath* READ THIS BOOK. READ THIS SERIES. GO DO IT RIGHT NOW.
https://youtu.be/_dH-mSya8uY
okay. let me calm down for a sec, but holy shit this book is amazing.
So this books interweaves the end of the Grisha trilogy and the end of the Six of Crows duology while also still being a standalone duology (I would highly recommend reading both prior series first however). It follows King Nikolai as he grapples with his country at war on multiple fronts while dealing with the darkness inside him, his general Zoya as she assists him in running the country, and also Nina as she processes recent events and also goes undercover in order to smuggle Grisha out of Fjerda.
Nikolai and Zoya are together most of the book, so it ultimately feels like there are two main stories: Nikolai & Zoya and then Nina. And that's perfectly fine. The bouncing between the two plots felt perfectly natural and I LOVED everyone's POV in this book, but especially Zoya and Nina. This book really felt like Leigh being like "oh you don't like angry, complex female characters? BOOM here's two of them and they're not Mary Sues and they get to be messy and complex and powerful and you will LOVE IT" to all the stans who bitched about Alina from the first trilogy.
This plot also went in some WILD CRAZY directions that I did NOT see coming AT ALL. And when an author does that to me, I really have to tip any hat to them because it is very hard to surprise me anymore.
Overall I loved this book with all my heart, and the characters were just so wonderful and I really hope Netflix lets the show get to these plot lines because they are honestly TOP TIER.
5/5 stars
https://youtu.be/_dH-mSya8uY
okay. let me calm down for a sec, but holy shit this book is amazing.
So this books interweaves the end of the Grisha trilogy and the end of the Six of Crows duology while also still being a standalone duology (I would highly recommend reading both prior series first however). It follows King Nikolai as he grapples with his country at war on multiple fronts while dealing with the darkness inside him, his general Zoya as she assists him in running the country, and also Nina as she processes recent events and also goes undercover in order to smuggle Grisha out of Fjerda.
Nikolai and Zoya are together most of the book, so it ultimately feels like there are two main stories: Nikolai & Zoya and then Nina. And that's perfectly fine. The bouncing between the two plots felt perfectly natural and I LOVED everyone's POV in this book, but especially Zoya and Nina. This book really felt like Leigh being like "oh you don't like angry, complex female characters? BOOM here's two of them and they're not Mary Sues and they get to be messy and complex and powerful and you will LOVE IT" to all the stans who bitched about Alina from the first trilogy.
This plot also went in some WILD CRAZY directions that I did NOT see coming AT ALL. And when an author does that to me, I really have to tip any hat to them because it is very hard to surprise me anymore.
Overall I loved this book with all my heart, and the characters were just so wonderful and I really hope Netflix lets the show get to these plot lines because they are honestly TOP TIER.
5/5 stars
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical trauma and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Violence, and Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Child death
kaylamoran's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Better than Shadow and Bone, but not as good as Six of Crows. I'm glad Leigh stuck with the multiple perspectives set up, as I much prefer it. However I will say that one of the storylines was much less interesting than the other ones, at least for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, and Medical content