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A review by cinderelles
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
3.0
Publishers Weekly’s review of the book states “Alina’s angst and passivity are a bit of a letdown” and honestly that sums up my review. The world-building (though to be fair I came to this fresh off my Six-of-Crows Grishaverse high) is compelling, setting an interesting stage without being overwhelming, and for the most part the plot is at least interesting to keep you reading, even if you don’t exactly spend time pondering it after the book is closed. But my main problem with the book is Alina, who should be this strong character and when you strip away her magic sun power, really isn’t.
Six of Crows has such a twisting interesting plot and amazing romantic subplots and Shadow and Bone just comes down to ‘Alina has to pick between evil-hottie or oblivious-childhood-friend, and oh yeah there are like evil darkness monsters or something’.
So I’m probably going to read the rest, but only for the side-character’s growth, and so I can watch the TV shows and see my beloved Crows again.
Oh, and while I’m at it (spoilers for the end of the book ahead) why was Alina all like ‘oh no I can’t possibly kill that stag’ and so basically dooms Ravka because she’s being nice and then like four chapters later she abandons a ship full of people to monsters in the fold and is more worried about Mal almost dying than all those dead villagers. Like, is she a pacifist or is she willing to murder for her goals? It can’t be both, she can’t spare deer and murder people!
Publishers Weekly review for anyone interested (I pretty much agree with everything they said): https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8050-9459-6
Six of Crows has such a twisting interesting plot and amazing romantic subplots and Shadow and Bone just comes down to ‘Alina has to pick between evil-hottie or oblivious-childhood-friend, and oh yeah there are like evil darkness monsters or something’.
So I’m probably going to read the rest, but only for the side-character’s growth, and so I can watch the TV shows and see my beloved Crows again.
Oh, and while I’m at it (spoilers for the end of the book ahead) why was Alina all like ‘oh no I can’t possibly kill that stag’ and so basically dooms Ravka because she’s being nice and then like four chapters later she abandons a ship full of people to monsters in the fold and is more worried about Mal almost dying than all those dead villagers. Like, is she a pacifist or is she willing to murder for her goals? It can’t be both, she can’t spare deer and murder people!
Publishers Weekly review for anyone interested (I pretty much agree with everything they said): https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8050-9459-6