A review by reading_mermaid
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

medium-paced

3.0

I have so many feelings and problems with this book, I don't know where to begin.

Its definitely ridiculous and entertaining and slightly too long. Nearly every living character from the previous 2 series made an appearance, but ultimately felt shallow and bleh (sorry, I couldn't think of a better adjective), as the storyline felt spread too thin. The Shu Han and Fjerda storylines were my favorite. And I did love that
Nikolai and Zoya end up together, although it still doesn't make any sense to me making her queen.
It also bugged me that the rules around tailoring seemed incredibly inconsistent.

I have a huge problem with the military propoganda/moral gymnastics of
building weapons of destruction, going so far as sacrificing David, who was the only one to speak out against it,
that dominates much of Nikolai's story. I also disliked
the re-emergence of the Darkling and allowing him to be named as a Saint because he was afraid of being forgotten, in exchange for his "sacrifice", which really wouldn't have been necessary if he never created the Fold. The only reason he came back from the dead seemed to be more about being able to write more books in the future than adding anything material to the current story. His chapters contained mostly nothing and the fact that he got to use his victims to regain his powers and manipulate them into solidifying his legacy as a saint......I feel like Bardugo wants us to pity him, maybe even root for him a little, but at the very least, treat him with banal humor.
 

At some point this evolved into a hate read for me and I skimmed a lot of the text to get to parts that actually moved the plot. If these were just fluff fantasy novels, I would laugh at the preposterousness of it all and leave it at that. But Bardugo introduces a lot of horrific, charged plots points into her stories and I don't think she has the range or the experience to take them on in a meaningful way. 
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