Reviews

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Only show reviews with written explanations

june_iparis7's review against another edition

4.0

Well, hello. Again, I dont know how to make good reviews. This will be messy but here goes my thoughts. This book is a good one. I love the main character, Alina Starkov. In fact, I am officially adopting her. Welcome, my child! She's like a mixture of Mare Barrow (from Red Queen) and a little bit of Adelina (from The Young Elites). Also, I love the Darkling!! (ha what a surprise!) he reminded me of Maven Calore (one of my problematic cinnamon rolls ugh but he's really so fucking shitty in Glass Sword I can't stomach it). At least the Darkling has intentions to protect the Grisha than just being hungry for power (like Maven, but still the end does not justify the means). Anyway, I don't get why it is necessary to put a mean bitch who is insecure-so-she-starts-hating-the-mc (aka Zoya) in the story? like it reminded me of some chic lit or fiction which involve high school wherein it looks like having this kind of character is a rule or something lmao it's tiring. Oh another thing. Mal Oretsev sure is a likeable character but he lacks something (in other words he's just sugar and everything nice; no spice). There are times where you just wanna cringe when he speaks. But for me, it's really hard to despise his character (apparently a lot of ppl hate him and idk why???) P.S. I also like Bhagra, actually.

Overall tho, this book is amazing and I would totally recommend it to anyone who is also a fan of Red Queen and The Young Elites. :)

tencutepuppies's review against another edition

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4.0

(3.75) I wanted to at least read the first book in this series before the show came out, and was happy with how fast this one went by. I think I went in with way lower expectations than necessary, so it surpassed them. I knew the basics of what happened, and I read the Six of Crows duology so I obviously know the world. But while it was pretty tropey and the characters were somewhat flat (especially when compared to Leigh Bardugo’s later works), the worldbuilding was lovely and the plot was twisty enough to keep me interested the entire way.

I’ve heard that Alina is annoying, but I don’t think she is this far. Those comments could just come from her terrible love life choices, though. Is she the most interesting protagonist ever? Not by a long shot. But so far, she’s acted realistically and seems to be the most fleshed out person in the story, so I have no problem with her.

Mal...I don’t know. I mean, I know I’m supposed to hate him according to how everyone else roasts him to a crisp, but he was tolerable this book. I dare say I may have even liked him in parts close to the end, especially when he deserted his squadron to go on the run with Alina. All I can say is I’m very excited for Mr. I Am Become A Blade to get his infamous tattoo.

The Darkling is exactly as I expected. What can I say? I’m always weak for a powerful, dark-haired lunatic. I mean, with a title like “the Darkling” it’s shocking no one suspected his malicious intent earlier. But whatever. I’m still a fan.

Genya is a queen. I loved her in Crooked Kingdoms, I loved her in what little I read in King of Scars. I can’t wait to see her story with David develop.

On to the next book now.