Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Shadow and Bone

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Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

203 reviews

maryjames's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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mustnotblink's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

Shadow and Bone has that fine balance of world building and character developments that really successfully sets up a universe.

In Alina we have a protagonist who is both learning more about her world that she did not know and figuring her own self out. It is a satisfying journey with revealed truths that really up the drama and get the adrenaline running. It is the ultimate ‘I don’t fit it in school’ to ‘shoved into the real world to make grown up decisions’ speed-run.

There is a bleakness to the ending, but it feels more like the overcast before the suns breaks back through than a truly dark ending.

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readwithde's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring 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? No

4.0

Ravka. A country torn in half by darkness, the Fold -- a thick wall of night full of death and monsters -- with most of its people cut off from the sea, from imports and goods needed to survive, and from weapons to defend from their enemies. To the north, Fjerda, which views the Grishas as witches to be burned; to the south, Shu Han, where Grisha are experiments to study. Across the Fold, west Ravka has become New Ravka, and has begun to pull away from the "old country" in order to fend for themselves.

In the midst of war, politics, and chaos, Alina rises to power as the first known Sun Summoner, a bringer of light that can allow many to be able to cross the Fold, or perhaps destroy it all-together.

While the book reminded me of many YA series (Hunger Games particularly), it felt fresh and distinct in telling this similar story. The war and politics reminded me of Firefly and Serenity, especially the volcra as surrogate reavers. Despite the fact that the story seemed familiar, I was hooked and delighted all the way through, and genuinely surprised by some of the events that happened.

My one biggest complaint is the lack of chemistry and romantic tension between Alina and most other characters.

It is easier to understand her love for Mal given their strong bond and history, but the story between Alina and The Darkling came out of nowhere and ended just as abruptly; it is never fully explained or addressed, and while it could have been his attempt to manipulate her, we're given very little knowledge as to why it may work. They don't flirt, they barely talk, and no reason is developed for her to like him at all or even see him as a possible relationship. It just came across as very odd to me.

Despite that blip, the worldbuilding is spectacular, the characters seem very grounded in the world, and I'm excited to jump into Siege and Storm soon.

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ma1vina's review against another edition

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adventurous 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? N/A

4.0

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catmac15's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Is it my favorite book in the grishaverse? No, not really. But is the book bad by any means? Definitely not.

I think the show does a good job of picking up the pace of Alina's time at the Little Palace while still acknowledging the struggles she went through staying there (ex. loneliness, dealing with her newfound power), the first like 200 pages of this book are kinda slow and just consist of Alina adjusting to the change of setting [at the Little Palace] but enjoyed the last 50-100 pages more because that's where a lot of the action was

and when Alina leaves the Darkling and everyone else on the ships, that's when Alina begins to question herself morally, to me that's when I truly to saw her character development come to light

It was cool to see how the first season of the show compares to this book; I honestly think any changes the show made from the book were good ones. I did read the Six of Crows duology before starting the Shadow and Bone trilogy so I know that Bardugo does end up writing the other books in the grishaverse as multiple POVs; this book would have been better to me had it been written in different POVs (ex. Mal's, Darkling's, Genya's), luckily the show does add those different POVs in (and it adds a lot more to the story).

Overall, I think this Shadow and Bone is a good book to start to the grishaverse with; it's just not my favorite book by any means.

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marleywrites's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is a great start to the Grishaverse series. This was a reread for me and I appreciated it a lot more the second time around! There were a lot of great quotes and I liked seeing stuff I had missed the first time. Knowing how it ended really let me see the clues hidden in the text. I can’t wait to continue my reread of this series. Team Malina!!

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margueritestjust's review against another edition

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lighthearted mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is a perfectly fine book - it just doesn't do much beyond that. It all felt like something I'd seen before.

I think some of the character writing felt unrealized and conflicting - mostly on Alina's end. I couldn't figure out how the character was supposed to be growing - most of the writing in this book really seemed to focus more on the world-building rather than character, and Alina seemed pretty stagnant for most of the story. She was a mapmaker, then suddenly she lives this life in this palace and perhaps it's just the fantasy reader in me but it seemed she just....wasn't making any effort to learn about her power and grow it. It also seemed weird how much of the book was built around difficult relationships or mentorships. Maybe not weird, but it did feel fairly juvenile - like oh no Zoya hates her for no reason, ugh I can't believe Botkin and Baghra are being hard on her when she has no training and doesn't seem particularly interested in learning. Zoya was in particular the most egregious - it lent a lot of Mary Sue-ishness to Alina because it's a staple of those kind of stories. If the conflict had been addressed with any of Zoya's reasonings behind it, I think it would have come across better, especially if it forced Alina to grow as a character, but there was literally NO explanation given. As a result the conflicts for most of the book just kind of....fizzled out because Alina never actually tried to address any of the conflicts.

I think that the Darkling is definitely an interesting character in the sense that the "bad boy" in love triangles usually doesn't have their bad traits explored and shown to be bad, as usually in YA books the difference between the two love interests is cosmetic and aesthetic over everything else. It's a bit bolder to explore this attraction to a villain, the villain, even, and show how much it brings ruin to Alina's life. As for writing feeling unrealized in particular, near the end

Alina's big moment of triumph and defining moment as a character is when she realizes that by showing mercy to the stag, she has claim to its power. Then she abandons the skiff with Mal and she feels guilt about abandoning the ambassadors on it, but then the Darkling shouts after her if abandoning them to the Volcra is her idea of mercy and she says in her mind that it's the kind of mercy that he taught her and doesn't seem all that torn up about it, then later feels immense guilt. Like...what? I can see what the author was trying to do, and it's an interesting, complex theme, but it's a moment that deserved a lot more clarification for it to have been carried out and had it make sense.

Having finished the book and then the first series of the television show, it's one of those rare cases where I actually felt that the show managed to complexify the themes and characters that were present in the book, though of course there were a few moments that got lost in translation to the screen. Spoilers for both the book and show below.

I think the most disappointing moment that wasn't there in translation from book to screen was the idea that because Alina had shown mercy to the stag, the power of the amplifier went to her because in that moment she has power over its life, and that, more than if it was actually killed or not, mattered to her power. This was the most interesting idea by far that had been presented in the book and on screen she what? Poked out the stump of bone in his hand and that was what freed herself? It was just.......so uninspired and so much less complex.

This is a book that has an interesting world, and interesting ideas, but a lot of it comes in middling-to-decent YA packaging. However, this was a debut I believe, and so I tried to keep that in mind when comparing it to this author's later work with the Six of Crows duology, which is just stunning. I plan on reading the next two when I can visit my library next. I'm still interested in seeing how this all ends up shaking out.

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breannajailene's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.5

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stellamcvey's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional relaxing 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

5.0

I know the Shadow and Bone books are the least liked ones out of the Grisha universe but I don’t care, I will give it 5 stars and I’m objectively right !! This book is a masterpiece and shaped my adolescence so much I feel like I’d be a completely different person without it. Shoutout to Granny and Grandad for getting me these for Christmas when I was 12. Also I’m not even sure if this is relaxing but on my 8th read it’s so comforting (like I checked off on the list) I can’t associate it with any other feeling. Anyway Malina 4ever!!!!!!!

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greenapplescented250's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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