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streetwrites's reviews
254 reviews
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
4.0
In my personal "Reading Renaissance" that began back in November with my trip to YALLFEST, this is the first series I began and, now, is the first one I have completed. Bardugo's world is one that I found intriguing from the start, and it was awesome to arrive at the conclusion of this book and see how she managed to tie up all the loose ends and where things ended up.
One thing that I really respected from this fun, fantastical romp is that it did not shy away from tough realities. It really captured and explored the idea that, sometimes, just like in real life, we don't always get what we want, and things aren't always tied up in pretty, red bows. Alina both demonstrated and experienced these truths throughout the narrative. It would have been easy for her to fall into the trap of so many other YA heroines, but the character managed to stay fresh, with a relatable voice and personality that grew in natural, intriguing ways over the course of three books.
I thought the pacing of this final volume was brilliantly executed. It's the first fantasy I've read in a while where the thickness of the remaining pages and the sense of things still left to cover were in sync with one another. If I could highlight only one major complete, it would be that a few of the major loose ends were tied up in ways that were, at best, difficult to swallow, even for a fantasy series. Something I love about the Grisha world in these books is that, in spite of the fantastical elements, there is still a gritty, dark reality to the whole thing. But when it came to Morozova and the overall conclusion to that story arc, I was surprised at how unsatisfying it felt. I think Bardugo was on a great path with one particularly huge reveal, but in context of the entire trilogy (the Morozova arc was introduced fairly early in the first book) that revelation felt almost like a quick throwaway moment, where we were left still trying to come to terms with it and grasp it at the same time that we were being dragged forward by other pressing matters at hand.
Still, though, this series was refreshing. I am so excited to move on to Six of Crows now, and hopefully become engrossed in the plights of brand-new characters who inhabit this same world.
One thing that I really respected from this fun, fantastical romp is that it did not shy away from tough realities. It really captured and explored the idea that, sometimes, just like in real life, we don't always get what we want, and things aren't always tied up in pretty, red bows. Alina both demonstrated and experienced these truths throughout the narrative. It would have been easy for her to fall into the trap of so many other YA heroines, but the character managed to stay fresh, with a relatable voice and personality that grew in natural, intriguing ways over the course of three books.
I thought the pacing of this final volume was brilliantly executed. It's the first fantasy I've read in a while where the thickness of the remaining pages and the sense of things still left to cover were in sync with one another. If I could highlight only one major complete, it would be that a few of the major loose ends were tied up in ways that were, at best, difficult to swallow, even for a fantasy series. Something I love about the Grisha world in these books is that, in spite of the fantastical elements, there is still a gritty, dark reality to the whole thing. But when it came to Morozova and the overall conclusion to that story arc, I was surprised at how unsatisfying it felt. I think Bardugo was on a great path with one particularly huge reveal, but in context of the entire trilogy (the Morozova arc was introduced fairly early in the first book) that revelation felt almost like a quick throwaway moment, where we were left still trying to come to terms with it and grasp it at the same time that we were being dragged forward by other pressing matters at hand.
Still, though, this series was refreshing. I am so excited to move on to Six of Crows now, and hopefully become engrossed in the plights of brand-new characters who inhabit this same world.