A review by twentycharm
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

4.0

4 stars. It was slightly confusing at the beginning, as the terminology of the Grishaverse was still foreign to me. But I would say that it was a well deserved set-up to the book, and that it started getting interesting rather quickly. My first impressions of Alina and Mal were not the best, I thought she was a basic pushover and he was a cocky bitch, but my mind was changed with a turn of events. I got excited at the introduction of Alina’s power, and highly anticipated her arrival to the castle. The Darkling was an interesting character as he was portrayed so cold and emotionless yet mysteriously human, so I yearned to learn more about him and rooted for more interactions between him and Alina. Honestly, I somehow believed the book would be about him and Alina, and completely brushed Mal aside despite Alina’s constant mentions of him. I had my mind set on the book’s ending, where Alina and the Darkling would demolish the Fold and live happily ever after. Thankfully (or perhaps not so thankfully), the story was more complex than that. I had thought this book was going to be some cutesy love triangle, but when the Darkling’s true motive was exposed, I knew it was about to become much more than that. Having read quite a number of other YA novels, I will say that this storyline wasn’t all that bad in terms of basicity. Bardugo set up a whole new world with many different challenges that Alina had to face, and I think it was very well written. Maybe I was just too excited to get to the ending, but I felt that there was a bit of redundant information here and there, especially during Alina and Mal’s trek to find the stag. Although I understand that it was somewhat crucial for the development of their relationship and characters, I just felt tired reading about the woods for so long. All in all, this story was able to evoke many emotions in me and I admire Bardugo’s use of unique descriptive language. She never seemed to repeat anything, and I think that keeps a near-400 page book fresh for its readers. // S/N: fancy language aside, I enjoyed this book a lot and I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy. I gave it a rather low score as I didn’t want to set the bar too high for my consequent reads, but I may adjust accordingly afterwards. Lowkey rooted for Alina and the Darkling because he seemed really hot to me. Alina’s character design is so intricate and deep, I liked hearing her thoughts throughout the story. Also, upon hearing that Bardugo’s inspiration for the book was trying to create a “tangible” darkness was sooo cool, I hadn’t thought of the Fold that much but it was actually such a good idea. //