A review by noorandbooks
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

3.0

"Fine," he said with a weary shrug. "Make me your villain."

I had low expectations going in and they were shattered. I was expecting a really one dimensional story but Bardugo's writing and word choice, especially leading up to the ending, surprised me to hell and back and. WOW.

Alina was not as bad a protagonist as you all made her out to be. Did I hate her in the beginning? I'll be honest, yeah, she had the personality of a doormat and that would still be an insult to the doormat. But as more of her began to be revealed, I began to enjoy her patheticness a but more.

And Mal? I am not a Mal apologist because Mal did nothing wrong. Ever. The end.

The characters were a bit two dimensional but I still managed to fall in love with them (Genya xoxo hit me up when you're as tired of the Darkling's bullshit as I am). And the magic OH the magic was delightful... Grishaverse my beloved.

"Mal," I whispered into the night.
"What?"
"Thanks for finding me."
I wasn't sure if I was dreaming, but somewhere in the dark, I thought I heard him whisper, "Always."