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A review by threebluesocks
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
By this point in the series, you know what you're getting into. I was incredibly pleased with this book both in the way it followed up on previous plot points and the way it introduced some new ideas about the world and characters. I absolutely love Hanne's story, and I'm looking forward to seeing further development (alongside Nina!) in future books. The larger rule of the Shu Han is also very exciting and really works for the way the overarching story is developing with a more global perspective. It was also great to see our remaining Crows make an appearance! I'm absolutely in love with the way their intimidating reputation (which is absolutely earned!) contrasts with how every single major heist we've ever seen them pull has these giant moments where things go wrong. These kids are chronically unable to successfully execute a plan and yet things more or less work out every time and it kills me <3
Other positive aspects of this book in no particular order: dragons!!!, Nikolai being both very noble and incredibly baby, nice twin/sibling/family motif, the Fjerdan miracle thing is so funny to me, David is top tier cute in this one, the Darkling continues to make me seethe with rage and I'm thoroughly enjoying it, aaaaand putting Hanne here once more because I am in love :)
The only major issue I had with this book (and King of Scars since I'm probably not going to put a separate review on it) was the mechanics of jurda parem. Maybe it's because this book has a different strain than what we saw in SoC/CK and it just wasn't well explained, but I feel like it works completely differently in this duology than what we saw with Nina in SoC. Obviously it's not ideal to be dosed with it as a Grisha since withdrawal is likely to kill you and you'll do pretty much anything for another dose, but it shouldn't introduce any immediate suggestibility in a person until the high begins to wear off, right?
Anyway, smaller list of bits I wasn't thrilled with: lots of characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy that I really needed more information about up-front since I haven't read that trilogy in about 3 years, I don't think having whole chapters from the Darkling's perspective was great for his perceived threat level (when I can see inside his head he's just... a guy), I continue to wish Novyi Zem had any sort of major appearance in these books considering how massive it is especially since Shu Han finally got some attention, and I would really like to see Zoya figure out other Grisha powers a bit more (and maybe share this knowledge??? Girl, there are other people who could benefit from expanding their horizons, please share).
Other positive aspects of this book in no particular order: dragons!!!, Nikolai being both very noble and incredibly baby, nice twin/sibling/family motif, the Fjerdan miracle thing is so funny to me, David is top tier cute in this one, the Darkling continues to make me seethe with rage and I'm thoroughly enjoying it, aaaaand putting Hanne here once more because I am in love :)
The only major issue I had with this book (and King of Scars since I'm probably not going to put a separate review on it) was the mechanics of jurda parem. Maybe it's because this book has a different strain than what we saw in SoC/CK and it just wasn't well explained, but I feel like it works completely differently in this duology than what we saw with Nina in SoC. Obviously it's not ideal to be dosed with it as a Grisha since withdrawal is likely to kill you and you'll do pretty much anything for another dose, but it shouldn't introduce any immediate suggestibility in a person until the high begins to wear off, right?
Anyway, smaller list of bits I wasn't thrilled with: lots of characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy that I really needed more information about up-front since I haven't read that trilogy in about 3 years, I don't think having whole chapters from the Darkling's perspective was great for his perceived threat level (when I can see inside his head he's just... a guy), I continue to wish Novyi Zem had any sort of major appearance in these books considering how massive it is especially since Shu Han finally got some attention, and I would really like to see Zoya figure out other Grisha powers a bit more (and maybe share this knowledge??? Girl, there are other people who could benefit from expanding their horizons, please share).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and War
Moderate: Death and Suicide
Minor: Dysphoria