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A review by geraldine
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
the actual end to this book is me exploding the darkling with my mind he sucks SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD
gee alina how come your dead mom lets you have three love interests, except that two of them are relatively generic handsome white boys and the last one is johnny depp as seen in the movie dark shadows
and brother, i'm a certified johnny depp hater
yet again the most compelling characters to me are mostly side characters and genya remains my favorite. surprised the book included that scene with her confronting (or really, being made to confront) the king. girl deserved every word in that pardon for poisoning him because she should have also exploded him with her mind.
there's a lot of stuff on the fringes of what the author is writing that makes the world seem bigger and also makes alina's story like... less interesting. though i did think some of the choices here with her at least were interesting. i do feel like she originally wanted mal to also be grisha and came to the (correct!) conclusion that making him also like """special""" like alina comes across flat. except that she did still kind of make him """special"""!!! and while I actually liked him and liked their ending i do feel like it was a bit of a cop-out, the way he lived. like not saying he actually needed to die at all, i think that could be an interesting story but could also feel just like being dark and depressing only dark and depressing's sake, but maybe come up with a way where he either never gets stabbed or doesn't have to like... die and then Magically come back due to Reasons.
me reading this book: girl please just have sex with your childhood bff like please this is not helping anything just have sex with hi- ON THE FLOOR???? ON THE FLOOR??? THERE'S BEDS AND BEDROLLS PLEASE GIRL YOUR BACK
also thought nikolai was really interesting here. guy has really Been Through It. found out like 20 minutes ago that the other sequel series is about him??? except i also heard that those books are kinda mid???? there's a lot you could write about there but hmm.
did anyone else think there was sexual tension between nikolai and mal. please respond
and brother, i'm a certified johnny depp hater
there's a lot of stuff on the fringes of what the author is writing that makes the world seem bigger and also makes alina's story like... less interesting. though i did think some of the choices here with her at least were interesting. i do feel like she originally wanted mal to also be grisha and came to the (correct!) conclusion that making him also like """special""" like alina comes across flat. except that she did still kind of make him """special"""!!! and while I actually liked him and liked their ending i do feel like it was a bit of a cop-out, the way he lived. like not saying he actually needed to die at all, i think that could be an interesting story but could also feel just like being dark and depressing only dark and depressing's sake, but maybe come up with a way where he either never gets stabbed or doesn't have to like... die and then Magically come back due to Reasons.
me reading this book: girl please just have sex with your childhood bff like please this is not helping anything just have sex with hi- ON THE FLOOR???? ON THE FLOOR??? THERE'S BEDS AND BEDROLLS PLEASE GIRL YOUR BACK
also thought nikolai was really interesting here. guy has really Been Through It. found out like 20 minutes ago that the other sequel series is about him??? except i also heard that those books are kinda mid???? there's a lot you could write about there but hmm.
did anyone else think there was sexual tension between nikolai and mal. please respond