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A review by sgbrux
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
3.0
I must admit that I was awfully wary heading into this book. While King of Scars—for the most part—left me feeling fairly good about the development of Nikolai, Zoya, and Nina (even though Nina's storyline felt VERY disjointed from the rest of the book), I still wasn't quite sold on that other major plot development that took place at the end of KoS.
So, how did it all pan out?
I'm...disappointed. I didn't get the closure I was looking for as I read the final sentence, and in many ways, it felt like LB was leaving the backdoor unlocked to capitalize on future opportunities with writing more in the Grishaverse. I've commented to a couple of people now that I wish these books would have ended with Crooked Kingdom, and I stand by that. I'd rather use my own imagination to play out what happened with our beloved characters. As it stands now, it seems very likely LB intends to cash in on everyone's favorite crew, the Crows, with perhaps more to come there.
I didn't get closure for my favorite character in the whole series, there was a death that happened that didn't feel necessary, the reunion scene that happened in chapter 9 (which I've been anticipating forever) fell flat, and then there were cameos that came into play for the sake of happening. I wanted to love those scenes, but I didn't.
Being a fan of epic fantasy containing elements of political intrigue and uprising, I couldn't get into those things with this particular duology. There were too many themes hit on pretty hard relating to religious fanaticism that I don't wish to read in fiction at the present moment. I read as an escape from the ugliness of current events, and these themes were so intermeshed in the books that I had a difficult time of being swept in—I quickly disengaged. Maybe it was the style of writing with these themes? I honestly don't know, but it didn't work for me.
Furthermore, while I grew to like Zoya in the other books, I felt many of the things that were examined in her backstory here felt disingenuous. It was like LB took this as an opportunity to align Zoya's background with how she is portrayed in the Netflix adaptation. It just felt...forced? I wonder if she drafted this book at the same time she was working on the show script.
I've seen other readers comment how they don't understand why every character in a series has to be matched up with another romantically. My thoughts echo theirs. It's okay to be alone and to be perfectly happy that way.
If she does write more in the Grishaverse, I won't be reading them. It makes me kind of sad seeing as how I consider myself a huge Grisha fan, but I'll likely just stick with the show from here on out.
"We're all monsters now." And I'm the grumpy one it seems.
So, how did it all pan out?
I'm...disappointed. I didn't get the closure I was looking for as I read the final sentence, and in many ways, it felt like LB was leaving the backdoor unlocked to capitalize on future opportunities with writing more in the Grishaverse. I've commented to a couple of people now that I wish these books would have ended with Crooked Kingdom, and I stand by that. I'd rather use my own imagination to play out what happened with our beloved characters. As it stands now, it seems very likely LB intends to cash in on everyone's favorite crew, the Crows, with perhaps more to come there.
I didn't get closure for my favorite character in the whole series, there was a death that happened that didn't feel necessary, the reunion scene that happened in chapter 9 (which I've been anticipating forever) fell flat, and then there were cameos that came into play for the sake of happening. I wanted to love those scenes, but I didn't.
Being a fan of epic fantasy containing elements of political intrigue and uprising, I couldn't get into those things with this particular duology. There were too many themes hit on pretty hard relating to religious fanaticism that I don't wish to read in fiction at the present moment. I read as an escape from the ugliness of current events, and these themes were so intermeshed in the books that I had a difficult time of being swept in—I quickly disengaged. Maybe it was the style of writing with these themes? I honestly don't know, but it didn't work for me.
Furthermore, while I grew to like Zoya in the other books, I felt many of the things that were examined in her backstory here felt disingenuous. It was like LB took this as an opportunity to align Zoya's background with how she is portrayed in the Netflix adaptation. It just felt...forced? I wonder if she drafted this book at the same time she was working on the show script.
I've seen other readers comment how they don't understand why every character in a series has to be matched up with another romantically. My thoughts echo theirs. It's okay to be alone and to be perfectly happy that way.
If she does write more in the Grishaverse, I won't be reading them. It makes me kind of sad seeing as how I consider myself a huge Grisha fan, but I'll likely just stick with the show from here on out.
"We're all monsters now." And I'm the grumpy one it seems.