Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo: My Review
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo: My Review
ABOUT THE BOOK
Shadow and Bone
By Leigh Bardugo
SYNOPSIS
See the Grishaverse come to life on screen with Shadow and Bone, now a Netflix original series.
Enter the Grishaverse with book one of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by number one New York Times-bestselling author, Leigh Bardugo. Perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and Sarah J. Maas.
Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold - a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed.
Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country's magical military elite - and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.
As the threat to the kingdom mounts and Alina unlocks the secrets of her past, she will make a dangerous discovery that could threaten all she loves and the very future of a nation.
Welcome to Ravka . . . a world of science and superstition where nothing is what it seems.
MY REVIEW:
MY REVIEW: 4 STARS
Being the incredibly avid book addict that I am I couldn’t resist checking out Shadow and Bone after the amount of Hype it’s received due to the Netflix Show. I can see the appeal, and this book would have gotten a five-star rating from me if it weren’t for the incredibly YA tone of the story. I can understand why the author constructed the first novel in the GrishaVerse this way, but it made me as the reader frustrated because I found the main character somewhat predictable.
I can’t deny though, I found myself enthralled by The Darkling, as well as the magic system within this world and the political dynamics created by the fold. I loved the description, and I also loved the imagery surrounding the Stag and Alina as the Sun summoner. I read this book in two days, and the directions in the story would probably have surprised readers who were less well versed by the genre. I loved the world of Ravka, and I look forward to exploring the rest of the series and seeing how Bardugo develops not only the GrishaVerse but as a writer.
When I told my Barista, Jess, that I was looking for a long series to hold my attention, she was flabbergasted to discover I’d never read the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or seen the show True Blood, which is based off them. In between customers who had come in for their daily dose of Botany and Beans magic, she got up google and started showing me some of the ovary-busting hotness that is the male half of the True Blood cast. Colour me intrigued. I found myself downloading the first book there and then, right in the coffee shop. This is my review of the first instalment, Dead Until Dark.