A review by gothicmoon
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous medium-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? No

3.0

To start positively, I praise Bardugo for the Darkling. I'm a lesbian and tend to find male characters boring or unworthy of the hype or generally not sexy. But not the Darkling. Every scene between Alina and he had me hoping for a kiss, hoping for something – and boy did I get it! I kept hoping he had ultimately good intentions (I still do) because he's just SO hot. The idea of him is really appealing and really sexy. He's all about black and darkness and a vampiric everlife – damn it, he's hot! Of course, he's also a manipulative, nearly undying emotional abuser engaging in a semi-sexual relationship with a minor with the specific purpose of "distracting her," dampening all his layers.

I like the idea of this world. They're bender-type people, rather similar to the world of Aveyard's Red Queen, though this book came first. I also found it supremely satisfying both times
Alina discovered her powers: first by letting go of her hopeless crush, and secondly by realising her good deed also gives her power. It's brilliant. </spoilers>

More negatively, I found the beginning boring, the middle slow, and the overall motion of things really bland. This read like Red Queen, as I mentioned before, and also many other fantasy novels. This entire book really feels like a drawn-out prelude to the series.

I also found it difficult to connect to characters on a deep scale. Alina, the main character, falls under the curse of main characters who have to be bland enough to let a story unfold through their eyes. Mal is hardly known and I'm not a fan (Only know you love her when you let her go, really?). Characters like Genya and Alina's bending master are just what they need to be to lighten or darken a scene, respectively. The first-person narration from Alina's perspective doesn't help. After reading books like Carry On and The Raven Cycle, it just feels cliché, boring, and uninspiring – I don't know any characters who aren't Alina well, and I don't know Alina herself well, because she has to be the vessel of a story accessible for all.

I had to cringe at the scene when the Darkling's mother comes and basically gives her son's evil speech for him, just spewing all his plans. It came all of a sudden and in full! A slow understanding that his plans weren't ultimately good rather than a sudden evil speech would've been preferable.
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