A review by moonchildmelancholia
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

woah. what the fuck did i just read😭
that twist... ngl i kinda had a suspicion but getting it confirmed was still crazy.

i loved the subversion of the main character is the heir of ancient ancestor who created the whole conflict and mal being the descendant of morozova instead. crazy. but also they were just running around the whole of ravka and beyond for nothing... for two books straight! talk about wasting your time🥴

also that ending had me sobbing (internally). full on tears streaming down my face😭

alina's last conversation with the darkling while he was dying?? him begging for her to call him aleksander one last time and her doing it?? shit broke me. and then during the funeral, too? absolutely gutted.

i loved the use of the before and after chapters throughout the whole trilogy and the last one was nice closure.

i enjoyed this trilogy more than i thought i would, it was pretty entertaining and did a good job of preventing me from thinking about the impending doom that are the a levels in two weeks which i haven't started studying for yet. cheers!