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A review by literalottie
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Am I being a bit harsh? Probably - but I'm frustrated. I'm frustrated at this book for wasting my time, and I'm frustrated at myself for letting it waste my time.
There's frankly way too much going on in this book, and I cared about approximately zero of it. I would just list off every single thing I disliked, but that would get incoherent very quickly, so let me just divide up my criticisms into the five POV characters and their individual story arcs (there are FIVE of them!! I love multiple POV books, but for this book that was just too many!!). This, obviously, is not going to be spoiler free.
Nikolai: Look, like everyone else who read the Grisha trilogy, I loved Nikolai. But frankly, for all his charm and wit (and oh boy, we are told a LOT in this book about how charming Nikolai is), I unfortunately just don't think he has the range to be a main protagonist. And I think Leigh realised it too, because for as much as this duology was marketed as the "Nikolai duology", there's a lot of not-Nikolai content in it. In this book, the war between Fjerda and Ravka comes to a head, but the way it's portrayed really feels toothless. There are few battle scenes in this book, and when we aren't in a battle scene the war either takes a complete backseat or we get scenes filled with painful posturing about "war bad :(" and how Nikolai and Ravka don't really want to fight the war :(. And like, I understand this is a YA novel and you can't really get as brutal as you can in adult novels, but come on. The one glimpse we get at the horrors of war is when David died, which felt more like a cheap shot at the audience's emotion than a genuinely well-thought-out plot point, especially given how much Genya and David's romance had been played up in the chapters just preceding it.
Also, we're told all about how vulnerable Ravka is, and how much of a disadvantage they're at, and yet for a book that's meant to be all about the war, there seems to be a lot of downtime where the war just doesn't happen. Honestly, I don't know how Ravka managed to not get rolled and curb-stomped by Fjerda at the beginning of this book, they truly seem so incompetent. There's even time for a little escapade away to Ketterdam to visit some of the SoC gang and have a whole heist that gets breezed through in a few chapters and feels like an excuse to go "hey! Remember the crows?! You love them, remember?!". Basically, it, along with the little SoC3 teaser at the end, felt like fanservice. Six of Crows is your masterpiece, Leigh Bardugo!! Leave it alone!!
Zoya: Yeah, I don't like Zoya. I thought that this duology gave her some much needed character development, but I still don't feel any kind of love towards her character. Which is a shame, because honestly she feels like more of a protagonist in this book than Nikolai does! Anyway, she's a dragon now - I know this directly continues on from the previous book, but I don't remember the exact details of that plotline, and I didn't care enough to work it out. Her chemistry with Nikolai felt non-existent to me. She then becomes a Saint, and then the Queen at the very end. Um, what? I thought it was made pretty clear throughout the duology that she's much more suited to the general/miltary leader role rather than the royalty role, which requires a certain degree of diplomacy that Zoya definitely doesn't possess. I don't know, I was bored with her plot line, and when I wasn't bored it was because I was actively not enjoying it.
Nina: Along with the whole "war bad" preaching we get from the Ravka side of things, Nina's entire motivation in this book is "war IS bad, but I can fix Fjerda uwu" and it sucked, because pretty much everyone we meet from Fjerda sucks. Jarl Brum? Sucks. Prince Rasmus? Sucks. Hanne? Doesn't suck, but purely exists as a new romantic interest for Nina and the romance just falls flat. The way Nina's storyline was all resolved was very underwhelming and it feels like she's probably been written out of any future Grisha books (except maybe as a cameo character, which judging from this book Leigh Bardugo absolutely loves), which is a shame because I did genuinely like her.
Mayu: Boring. The Shu Han storyline could have been a really interesting plotline full of political intrigue, and the crumbs that we got from it in the previous book were actually my favourite part of that book. Unfortunately, here it's relegated to a brief side plot in the second half that is half-baked and narrated by a character I have no reason to care about.
"The Monk": Goodfuckingbye. The Darkling should've just stayed dead. I didn't need a POV from him. He gets brought back to life at the end of the next book, then shocker! He's still evil, manages to escape after pretending he's going to help as a ploy (because of course he was fucking lying he's the biggest fucking villain in this series you bunch of idiots). Then he fucks off and is evil for a bit, then comes back at the end for a REDEMPTION ARC??!?! And yes, I know it's not technically a redemption arc because none of the other characters actually forgive him blah blah, but he does go on about "paying for his crimes" and yada yada yada and goes into eternal suffering to save Ravka yada yada yada. Good riddance. Side note: The Blight was another plot point that could've been scrubbed from it's book because it's completely brushed aside until it needs to be brought up as this great threat that could destroy the world. But oh well, good thing the Darkling really took one for the team here. RIP Yuri I guess.
Rant over. At least I'll always have Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, my beloveds <3
There's frankly way too much going on in this book, and I cared about approximately zero of it. I would just list off every single thing I disliked, but that would get incoherent very quickly, so let me just divide up my criticisms into the five POV characters and their individual story arcs (there are FIVE of them!! I love multiple POV books, but for this book that was just too many!!). This, obviously, is not going to be spoiler free.
Nikolai: Look, like everyone else who read the Grisha trilogy, I loved Nikolai. But frankly, for all his charm and wit (and oh boy, we are told a LOT in this book about how charming Nikolai is), I unfortunately just don't think he has the range to be a main protagonist. And I think Leigh realised it too, because for as much as this duology was marketed as the "Nikolai duology", there's a lot of not-Nikolai content in it. In this book, the war between Fjerda and Ravka comes to a head, but the way it's portrayed really feels toothless. There are few battle scenes in this book, and when we aren't in a battle scene the war either takes a complete backseat or we get scenes filled with painful posturing about "war bad :(" and how Nikolai and Ravka don't really want to fight the war :(. And like, I understand this is a YA novel and you can't really get as brutal as you can in adult novels, but come on. The one glimpse we get at the horrors of war is when David died, which felt more like a cheap shot at the audience's emotion than a genuinely well-thought-out plot point, especially given how much Genya and David's romance had been played up in the chapters just preceding it.
Also, we're told all about how vulnerable Ravka is, and how much of a disadvantage they're at, and yet for a book that's meant to be all about the war, there seems to be a lot of downtime where the war just doesn't happen. Honestly, I don't know how Ravka managed to not get rolled and curb-stomped by Fjerda at the beginning of this book, they truly seem so incompetent. There's even time for a little escapade away to Ketterdam to visit some of the SoC gang and have a whole heist that gets breezed through in a few chapters and feels like an excuse to go "hey! Remember the crows?! You love them, remember?!". Basically, it, along with the little SoC3 teaser at the end, felt like fanservice. Six of Crows is your masterpiece, Leigh Bardugo!! Leave it alone!!
Zoya: Yeah, I don't like Zoya. I thought that this duology gave her some much needed character development, but I still don't feel any kind of love towards her character. Which is a shame, because honestly she feels like more of a protagonist in this book than Nikolai does! Anyway, she's a dragon now - I know this directly continues on from the previous book, but I don't remember the exact details of that plotline, and I didn't care enough to work it out. Her chemistry with Nikolai felt non-existent to me. She then becomes a Saint, and then the Queen at the very end. Um, what? I thought it was made pretty clear throughout the duology that she's much more suited to the general/miltary leader role rather than the royalty role, which requires a certain degree of diplomacy that Zoya definitely doesn't possess. I don't know, I was bored with her plot line, and when I wasn't bored it was because I was actively not enjoying it.
Nina: Along with the whole "war bad" preaching we get from the Ravka side of things, Nina's entire motivation in this book is "war IS bad, but I can fix Fjerda uwu" and it sucked, because pretty much everyone we meet from Fjerda sucks. Jarl Brum? Sucks. Prince Rasmus? Sucks. Hanne? Doesn't suck, but purely exists as a new romantic interest for Nina and the romance just falls flat. The way Nina's storyline was all resolved was very underwhelming and it feels like she's probably been written out of any future Grisha books (except maybe as a cameo character, which judging from this book Leigh Bardugo absolutely loves), which is a shame because I did genuinely like her.
Mayu: Boring. The Shu Han storyline could have been a really interesting plotline full of political intrigue, and the crumbs that we got from it in the previous book were actually my favourite part of that book. Unfortunately, here it's relegated to a brief side plot in the second half that is half-baked and narrated by a character I have no reason to care about.
"The Monk": Goodfuckingbye. The Darkling should've just stayed dead. I didn't need a POV from him. He gets brought back to life at the end of the next book, then shocker! He's still evil, manages to escape after pretending he's going to help as a ploy (because of course he was fucking lying he's the biggest fucking villain in this series you bunch of idiots). Then he fucks off and is evil for a bit, then comes back at the end for a REDEMPTION ARC??!?! And yes, I know it's not technically a redemption arc because none of the other characters actually forgive him blah blah, but he does go on about "paying for his crimes" and yada yada yada and goes into eternal suffering to save Ravka yada yada yada. Good riddance. Side note: The Blight was another plot point that could've been scrubbed from it's book because it's completely brushed aside until it needs to be brought up as this great threat that could destroy the world. But oh well, good thing the Darkling really took one for the team here. RIP Yuri I guess.
Rant over. At least I'll always have Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, my beloveds <3