Scan barcode
A review by kaadie
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Shadow and Bone was a reasonably enjoyable read. It contained an interesting world with a well constructed villian and a relatively unique reiteration of the fantasy-scape. However, it also contained many of the more negative hallmarks of YA fantasy. The main character was naive, insecure, self-involved and painfully unsure of herself. She spent far too much time preoccupied with petty squabbles with mean girl tropes and her pretty poor love interests.
The main character has a rare and essential ability and for majority of the book was more intent on using her abilities to impress a man as opposed to exploring her talent and making use of it for herself. She has the ability to make light literally shine out of her and she felt more proud of the fact that a centuries old man was interested in her (smh); cough cough grooming. What a creepy choice to make the Darkling a love interest.
The character had very little agency and was really just buffeted from place to place. Where were her motives and desires? She had all of this power and influence and hardly ever made use of it. She really was just happy to go with the flow and believe that the people in power could be trusted for the most part. I suppose she is young and a peasant so she was raised to think highly of nobility but really?
I just feel that the author defaulted to tried and true YA character tropes and story lines. So guaranteed success but a relatively uninspired derivation of everything else currently available.
Still, it's relatively fast-paced and very easy to read.
The main character has a rare and essential ability and for majority of the book was more intent on using her abilities to impress a man as opposed to exploring her talent and making use of it for herself. She has the ability to make light literally shine out of her and she felt more proud of the fact that a centuries old man was interested in her (smh); cough cough grooming. What a creepy choice to make the Darkling a love interest.
The character had very little agency and was really just buffeted from place to place. Where were her motives and desires? She had all of this power and influence and hardly ever made use of it. She really was just happy to go with the flow and believe that the people in power could be trusted for the most part. I suppose she is young and a peasant so she was raised to think highly of nobility but really?
I just feel that the author defaulted to tried and true YA character tropes and story lines. So guaranteed success but a relatively uninspired derivation of everything else currently available.
Still, it's relatively fast-paced and very easy to read.