A review by zhaenya
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

(started reading this right after finishing s&b s2) wow, i really just love grishaverse and everything in it. the netflix adaptation is great and did so many things right (and some things better) but i don't think i realized how much time was actually passing when i was watching the show. here, time really feels like it's moving, but unfortunately they didn't have the luxury to take their time in the show, things just had to keep going. in some cases it was a good thing, in others it really wasn't. i just can't believe it took me so long to actually sit down and finally start reading the books, it's about time.. i have this bad habit of watching movie/show adaptations first before looking for the original. but this time around, i think i don't regret waiting, if i read the books first i feel like i would be a little underwhelmed by some of the things but now the book just provided me more context and showed how things were originally. some things i didn't like, like alina having less agency in her choices (this one is a big one), mal wasn't as bad as everyone described him to be but maybe i just haven't seen all of it yet, so i guess we'll see how i feel about him by the end, i still find him quiet boring though; and some things i liked a lot more here, like having genya around more often and seeing her friendship with alina, and her actually talking about david, and baghra's interactions with the darkling too (now THAT i wish we could've seen in the show more), and just darkling being horrible, manipulative and scary in general, there's not enough of that in the show. other than that, very good! i can love and appreciate both at the same time now and that's exactly what i'm going to do!!

though it will never not be weird to me, as a native russian speaker, to see so many russian names and terms (often misused but that's not that big of a deal, it's a fantasy after all, it just makes me smile)

favorite chapter: 22, it was so satisfying to see alina take control of her own power and use it so save herself and mal, and not just using it but LIKING it, that's exactly what i love to see!
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