A review by baknata
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Reading this book had me so stressed out, I always felt like something bad was going to happen. The thing is so many bad things kept happening. (Major spoilers ahead, beware) This book wrapped up the story fairly well and I felt like it wrapped up all the loose ends. I was disappointed with the ending though. Firstly, I was never a fan of Mal, which I'll expand on later, but I felt like his sacrifice was cheapened by the fact that he came back from the dead. Like I was on board with him dying, even though that scene had me bawling. I think it would've been a good ending to his story and fit the established character. I also think it would have juxtaposed the usual trope of women being sacrificed for their male love interest well. Instead, Mal basically came out of it without much sacrifice (save for his tracking skills but he still was good enough so hardly a loss) and Alina lost all her power. I know Leigh probably didn't intend for it to be this way, but for me it just felt like the only reason Alina lost her power was so she could end up with Mal. Not to mention, for me it felt like it negated all her development and her growth as a Grisha to just be like "okay your normal now". I would've liked to see her find a place as a Grisha without having to save the world. Even if she did end up running the orphanage w Mal, her still having her powers would've been nice because then we would know it was her choice to do that instead of her just finding something she could do without her power. Other than Alina and Mal's endings, I liked the way the characters' arcs were completed. I liked Genya getting a leadership position, especially with David. I really ended up liking Zoya. The way her character developed in this book was really cool. I felt bad for Nikolai since he didn't really have a happy ending, but I imagine it got better from where the book ended. I didn't like how Harshaw ended up dead and it was brought up so nonchalantly. We didn't know about it until later and it took me so off guard. Most of the other deaths were at least talked about, and I liked Harshaw so it was shocking to hear of his death just thrown in the middle of a sentence. 
Overall, this was a fantastic series and I look forward to delving into the rest of the Grishaverse. It'll take me some time to recover from the end of this book, but ignoring the pain it was highly enjoyable!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings