Scan barcode
A review by megbreyer
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
4.0
I really enjoyed this one and felt it was a lot faster of a pace than Siege and Storm. I loved seeing the side characters and their further development, like beauty of David and Genya (my whole heart), the growth of Nadia and Tamar, the warming of Zoya, and of course, Nikolai’s journey.
I did think the final battle scene was a bit anti-climactic — the Darkling, who had survived for thousands and years and plenty of Alina’s efforts to kill him, was killed by a mere stab wound? He survived the cathedral collapsing on him and didn’t survive this? Also, for as much as it would’ve crushed me to see Alina cope with Mal’s death, I didn’t like that he was resurrected. The basis for that was odd, and honestly seemed like something Alina made up to explain the weird fact that he came back to life. I am happy that they got the life they wanted, though my heart hurts for Alina because she truly loved her power.
Not sure who I actually shipped Alina with, though. Never the Darkling, because he abuses her throughout the trilogy and quite frankly only wants her for his own benefit (whether that’s her power or the fact that she is supposed to be his “balance”). I thought her and Nikolai had great chemistry, though it was hard because through her perspective you see how much she loves Mal, even when he sucks.
Time to read SoC and watch the show :)
I did think the final battle scene was a bit anti-climactic — the Darkling, who had survived for thousands and years and plenty of Alina’s efforts to kill him, was killed by a mere stab wound? He survived the cathedral collapsing on him and didn’t survive this? Also, for as much as it would’ve crushed me to see Alina cope with Mal’s death, I didn’t like that he was resurrected. The basis for that was odd, and honestly seemed like something Alina made up to explain the weird fact that he came back to life. I am happy that they got the life they wanted, though my heart hurts for Alina because she truly loved her power.
Not sure who I actually shipped Alina with, though. Never the Darkling, because he abuses her throughout the trilogy and quite frankly only wants her for his own benefit (whether that’s her power or the fact that she is supposed to be his “balance”). I thought her and Nikolai had great chemistry, though it was hard because through her perspective you see how much she loves Mal, even when he sucks.
Time to read SoC and watch the show :)