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A review by syllareads
Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Ooh this one is a difficult one to review and judge... I did my best here but it did not make the job easy!
Rule of Wolves is the latest and so far last installment in the Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo and it was...everywhere at once. And not always in an entirely good way.
The stakes have slowly been raised throughout every single book we've read so far and while this last book is thus a bit of a chonker, it was imo still not enough to adequately portray the plot's complexity - either that, or Bardugo's books just do not work for me if the stakes aren't really that personal anymore.
Let me explain.
Six of Crows was, essentially, a book with high personal stakes and not much else. The world isn't going to end if the Crows don't manage to break into the Ice Court (possibly), but they will get persecuted for it. It's a fun adventure that nonetheless sets your heart racing, you get gripped by every character's backstory and their motivation to trudge on despite everyone dead-set to stop them in their tracks.
And it worked. Bardugo works exceptionally well with multiple POVs and their unique voices and troubles, and the fast-paced and action-packed adventure of 6 people crazy enough to steal the moon if only it weren't so far away was a raving success.
Rule of Wolves, on the other hand, is essentially a High Fantasy Politdrama... and apparently, those do not work for me when it comes to Leigh Bardugo.
Instead of personal stakes we have entire countries at stake here. Instead of just juggling different personal perspectives, we essentially have POVs representing their countries or at least a fraction of it. We get introduced to new characters we didn't really get time to care about (I surely didn't. Mayu who?). The ensuing battles are a chore to read about, and when Bardugo dropped the Crows into it somehow, it managed to feel WORSE - like she was trying to remind everyone what we loved so much about SoC. Which, sadly, worked about as well as you'd expect (not at all for me).
Unlike some reviewers I've seen on here I can say that I AM a fan of the end - it works really well for me! You want to know why? Because it again focuses far more on characters and their individual choices when put before some hard choices in their life. Which is precisely what drew me in again.
I am not sure if I disliked parts of the book so much because it's so different from SoC or because it's truly not working for me like this OR because I'm used to Politdrama in High Fantasy taking up far more space (I'm sorry but less than 600 pages is not going to do it for me when a lot of these conflicts have never been properly set up and introduced to the audience; read: me). The personal connections I had to the characters saved a LOT, especially in the end and in those quiet moments Bardugo excells at - but overall, sadly, this was not what I wanted it to be T.T
Rule of Wolves is the latest and so far last installment in the Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo and it was...everywhere at once. And not always in an entirely good way.
The stakes have slowly been raised throughout every single book we've read so far and while this last book is thus a bit of a chonker, it was imo still not enough to adequately portray the plot's complexity - either that, or Bardugo's books just do not work for me if the stakes aren't really that personal anymore.
Let me explain.
Six of Crows was, essentially, a book with high personal stakes and not much else. The world isn't going to end if the Crows don't manage to break into the Ice Court (possibly), but they will get persecuted for it. It's a fun adventure that nonetheless sets your heart racing, you get gripped by every character's backstory and their motivation to trudge on despite everyone dead-set to stop them in their tracks.
And it worked. Bardugo works exceptionally well with multiple POVs and their unique voices and troubles, and the fast-paced and action-packed adventure of 6 people crazy enough to steal the moon if only it weren't so far away was a raving success.
Rule of Wolves, on the other hand, is essentially a High Fantasy Politdrama... and apparently, those do not work for me when it comes to Leigh Bardugo.
Instead of personal stakes we have entire countries at stake here. Instead of just juggling different personal perspectives, we essentially have POVs representing their countries or at least a fraction of it. We get introduced to new characters we didn't really get time to care about (I surely didn't. Mayu who?). The ensuing battles are a chore to read about, and when Bardugo dropped the Crows into it somehow, it managed to feel WORSE - like she was trying to remind everyone what we loved so much about SoC. Which, sadly, worked about as well as you'd expect (not at all for me).
Unlike some reviewers I've seen on here I can say that I AM a fan of the end - it works really well for me! You want to know why? Because it again focuses far more on characters and their individual choices when put before some hard choices in their life. Which is precisely what drew me in again.
I am not sure if I disliked parts of the book so much because it's so different from SoC or because it's truly not working for me like this OR because I'm used to Politdrama in High Fantasy taking up far more space (I'm sorry but less than 600 pages is not going to do it for me when a lot of these conflicts have never been properly set up and introduced to the audience; read: me). The personal connections I had to the characters saved a LOT, especially in the end and in those quiet moments Bardugo excells at - but overall, sadly, this was not what I wanted it to be T.T
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Violence, Death, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Body horror