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A review by finding_novel_land
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
3.5
Oooooohhhhhh I don't want to give this 3.5 stars, but it really was the worst of the bunch so far. I'm so sorry!
After the heartbreaking ending of Crooked Kingdom, we find our beloved Nina (flirtatious babe, bringer of humour, joy, waffles and sass) heartbroken in Fjerda wielding her new bone powers and struggling to process the death of Matthias. He haunts her thoughts as she takes his body from town to town, unable to, quite literally, let him go and bury him as he requested. She is there to help rescue Grisha from Fjerda and send them to safety in Ravka, and stumbles across a place experimenting on Grisha women and the highly addictive Jurda Parem.
All fascinating right? Well, sort of 🤷♀️
For whatever reason, I just never really found myself bothered by Nina's storyline in this, which is a complete 180 on how I felt about Nina in the Crows series where she was my favourite POV. It was probably in part down to her much more subdued character which is perfectly understandable as she was in mourning, but she never seemed to get it back by the end of the book - surely part of her storyline in this book is her healing?!
So basically, this book is a 101 on how to kill a character. However, it was more than that. Nina's story is lined up next to the much more interesting story of King Nikolai trying to remove the demon The Darkling attached to him while ruling Ravka with the Triumvirate. This was much more my jam. We get to see more Genya, DAVID!!, Tolya and Tamar, and also Zoya who just confuses me no end as she was a bully and now we're supposed to like her. I just. I get it, but what? There's also a secondary plot where a guard stands in for Nikolai which I quite enjoyed. The whole plot twist with the saints being real on the fold blew my mind, but also was minorly confusing, especially the fight at the end. I'm still so confused by Elizaveta's powers, where they actually are (is it an alternate universe simultaneously existing on The Fold??) and how she was able to make things happen elsewhere (and supposedly visit other places) and?!!!?!? I think it was something to do with where they were being worshipped, but it was just a bit brushed over and out there for me to fully get behind. This also extends to bringing back the Darkling which low key freaked me out and I'm surprised I slept the night I finished this.
I think my issues with this book are summarised by the following:
- Nina's 180 personality change (which I will excuse her for, don't come for me)
- The much slower pacing of this book. I just wasn't racing through this as I have the others.
- The lack of overlap between these two stories. There was literally nothing linking them, except Zoya mentioning Nina once, and Ninafinding Brum's letter about the Fjerda plot . I wouldn't be surprised if this is why the pacing felt off, as it made both stories feel very start-stop.
There's is always a weak book in a series, and this is that one. I get why Leigh felt the need to write this duology as there are lose ends around Nina's promise to Matthias and getting to see Nikolai as King, but were it not for them both playing out during the same time period, they would have worked better as either separate, shorter duologies, or two one-off books. Let's just hope they finally meet in Rule of Wolves.
After the heartbreaking ending of Crooked Kingdom, we find our beloved Nina (flirtatious babe, bringer of humour, joy, waffles and sass) heartbroken in Fjerda wielding her new bone powers and struggling to process the death of Matthias. He haunts her thoughts as she takes his body from town to town, unable to, quite literally, let him go and bury him as he requested. She is there to help rescue Grisha from Fjerda and send them to safety in Ravka, and stumbles across a place experimenting on Grisha women and the highly addictive Jurda Parem.
All fascinating right? Well, sort of 🤷♀️
For whatever reason, I just never really found myself bothered by Nina's storyline in this, which is a complete 180 on how I felt about Nina in the Crows series where she was my favourite POV. It was probably in part down to her much more subdued character which is perfectly understandable as she was in mourning, but she never seemed to get it back by the end of the book - surely part of her storyline in this book is her healing?!
So basically, this book is a 101 on how to kill a character. However, it was more than that. Nina's story is lined up next to the much more interesting story of King Nikolai trying to remove the demon The Darkling attached to him while ruling Ravka with the Triumvirate. This was much more my jam. We get to see more Genya, DAVID!!, Tolya and Tamar, and also Zoya who just confuses me no end as she was a bully and now we're supposed to like her. I just. I get it, but what? There's also a secondary plot where a guard stands in for Nikolai which I quite enjoyed.
I think my issues with this book are summarised by the following:
- Nina's 180 personality change (which I will excuse her for, don't come for me)
- The much slower pacing of this book. I just wasn't racing through this as I have the others.
- The lack of overlap between these two stories. There was literally nothing linking them, except Zoya mentioning Nina once, and Nina
There's is always a weak book in a series, and this is that one. I get why Leigh felt the need to write this duology as there are lose ends around Nina's promise to Matthias and getting to see Nikolai as King, but were it not for them both playing out during the same time period, they would have worked better as either separate, shorter duologies, or two one-off books. Let's just hope they finally meet in Rule of Wolves.