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A review by vermidian
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
4.0
I'm gonna be honest, I read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom before I read this, so it's been really interesting filling in the blanks in my knowledge. I'm enjoying these books in their own right. While not quite the masterpieces that the Six of Crows duology is, I enjoyed Alina's perspective. It was an interesting thing, switching from the multiple perspectives in the later books to the single perspective in, I assume, this first trilogy.
The one thing that I really love about Leigh Bardugo's characters is that they feel *so* real. Their depth of character: their wants, their needs, their reactions, their flaws - all of it just lends to these characters that feel like they could leap off the page and fit into the real world. Alina feels real, with her unrequited romantic interest, her wonder at aspects of the world, her fears of not fitting in and of not being enough, etc. Her tasks might be super human, but she feels so very human herself.
The plot is interesting. Obviously I don't want to spoil things, so I'll keep it vague, but I enjoyed it. I did find the plot points to be a little predictable, especially in comparison to Six of Crows (so if you haven't read that yet, you are absolutely in for a treat), but I really didn't mind it. It was a great story and I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.
The one thing that I really love about Leigh Bardugo's characters is that they feel *so* real. Their depth of character: their wants, their needs, their reactions, their flaws - all of it just lends to these characters that feel like they could leap off the page and fit into the real world. Alina feels real, with her unrequited romantic interest, her wonder at aspects of the world, her fears of not fitting in and of not being enough, etc. Her tasks might be super human, but she feels so very human herself.
The plot is interesting. Obviously I don't want to spoil things, so I'll keep it vague, but I enjoyed it. I did find the plot points to be a little predictable, especially in comparison to Six of Crows (so if you haven't read that yet, you are absolutely in for a treat), but I really didn't mind it. It was a great story and I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy.