A review by montybonty
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I saw this book on TikTok and it was seemingly hyped as one of the best. I figured it was good enough to get a Netflix adaptation so I read it (still haven't seen the adaptation fyi so it's not impacting this review).
Listen, the story was fine, the characters were likable enough, yadda yada...However, oh my god was it predictable. If you know the hero's journey, you know this book basically.
There wasn't anything I was really shocked about and thus, I found it pretty mindless to read. It was good popcorn reading and I'll pry read the rest of the trilogy for good measure but it wasn't a large joy to read it.

Also, the pacing felt very odd and definitely contributed to the 'just okay'-ness of the book. It felt like we spent ages in one section and nothing of note really happened until the near end which felt a bit like it came out of left field and I feel like if I looked harder I could easily find plot holes yk?

Regardless, okay book.
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