Title: Shadow and Bone
Series: Shadow and Bone #1 | Grishaverse #1
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: YA, high fantasy
Publication date: June 2012
Published by: Henry Holt and Co.
Source: Borrowed from library
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Synopsis: Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.
Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.
Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha... and the secrets of her heart.
I’ve mentioned this many times, but I’ve never really been into high fantasy... until recently. I would read a book or two a year, but I think I have officially entered my high fantasy era and I’m honestly having a great time! I read the Six of Crows duology in January because I was wanting an action-packed high fantasy and I had heard that Six of Crows had a heist, so I obviously had to read it 😆 Well, I ended up LOVING it so much that I decided to come back and read the original series too! Going into Six of Crows, I had zero intentions of reading anything else in the Grishaverse—I just wanted the heist, to be honest. But I loved the world so much that I just needed more! And I’m glad I decided to continue on with the Grishaverse because I ended up enjoying this book too. I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t love it nearly as much as I did Six of Crows, but it was still good!
One thing about Six of Crows that I found intriguing, the thing that made me come back and read this, is the magic system and just the Grisha in general. I found them and their abilities very interesting, and I am so glad I came back and read this because this series, being the first series in the Grishaverse, really lays down the rules of the magic system and explains how everything works. This did not deter my enjoyment of Six of Crows—I feel like I understood how the world and magic worked pretty well without having read this series first. But it was really nice to dive into this book and have all that information expounded upon. It’s just such a cool world and the abilities the Grisha possess are very interesting.
And even more interesting were the Darkling, Alina’s mysterious power, the Fold, and the Volcra that lurked in the Fold. I loved the setup of this book with the world, the magic, and the story in general. The Darkling was a very intriguing character, as was the creation of the Fold.
I think that was my favorite part of the book—learning about the world and the Darkling. I really liked him in the beginning! He had this dark sense of humor that I liked, but he was also kinda scary at the same time. Lol. Mal, Alina’s best friend, I also liked in the beginning. He was charming and I loved the banter between him and Alina. I also liked Alina—she was sassy, I enjoyed and I really felt for everything she went through... especially that one plot twist... if you know, you know 👀
I also appreciated how action-packed it was! The action was one of my favorite things about Six of Crows, and the action in this book did not disappoint! Not even 30 pages into the book and the characters were already heading into the Fold and getting attacked by Volcra! 😧
This book was tense and stressed me out! Especially in the end where everything went wrong and I seriously thought there was no saving these poor characters.
I did feel like a lot of things happened to Alina, as opposed to her taking charge, so I hope we get less of that in the next books. Boy did I miss Kaz and his scheming face 😩
But overall, I enjoyed this! I was a little nervous there at the end because since reading Six of Crows, I know this author isn't afraid to kill off characters 😠I literally released a breath I didn't know I was holding or whatever 😆 But I really liked this! It was interesting and I enjoyed learning more about the magic system! So far I still like Six of Crows more, but this wasn’t bad at all. I, of course, plan on reading the rest of the series, immediately in fact. But not only that, I’m also really looking forward to watching the TV show! That’s another thing I didn’t plan on watching, but since I’m now addicted to this world, I obviously have to watch it now 😆
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