Shadow & Bone
Leigh Bardugo || Publication Date - 05.06.2012

The weight of the world rests in the scarred hand of an orphan and her childhood best friend.

Fantasy | Young Adult Fiction | Adventure

Alina Starkov and Malyen Oretsev started their lives as orphans. As they grew into young adulthood, they would enlist themselves into the military.

Alina had taken on the role as a cartographer. She would be going all over the country and drawing her maps safely out of harms way. Mal would be drafted to the frontlines as a soldier. Their journey's coincided with each other when they were to be sent with a convoy into The Fold, a void of darkness which scarred their landscape and held a variety of horrors - created by The Dark One.

On this journey through The Fold, something goes horribly wrong and the once normal Alina is discovered to be, what the world call, "Grisha". These people are equipped with the power to control the elements. And hers is the key to overpowering the darkness and saving the World.

Upon her disbelief, she is whisked away to a new life, leaving her beloved best friend behind. Nothing she knew would ever be the same again.

The Review (may contain spoilers)

Like myself, most new people to this series may have picked this up due to the release of the Netflix series. I am one of those people who would prefer to read the source material before going into the TV adaptation, and Shadow & Bone was no exception.

Following Alina on her journey made a bunch of new characters come forward. Unfortunately, I had the immediate impression that everyone else in this story was more interesting than our 'Chosen' main heroine and her best friend Mal. Their personalities left so much to be desired and this was a common theme throughout the entirety of the trilogy. I could compare it to being dragged, very slowly, over gravel for a few hours in heavy clothing. Not going to harm you much, but not very enlightening.

The relationships which bloom around our main character Alina with everyone else other than Mal are infinitely better, and allow her to be shown as more than someone who is constantly pining over her best friend. Despite the latter being the reality of a lot of her internal dialogues and is the flame for her primary concerns after discovering she is Grisha. This lead me to believe wholeheartedly her ties to Mal and their incoming relationship upgrade was entirely for convenience and nothing more.

The world and the storyline however, are very well thought out and amazing to invest into. The magic system is also something to be admired and is very interesting in terms of how it forms the world's alliances/challenges. As Ravka is currently in the middle of war, there are battles being fought against the northern and southern bordering countries which just adds to the tension. The fact I enjoyed the base setting of this trilogy so much is 100% my motivation to pick up the next duology in the Grishaverse - Six of Crows.

Overall Thoughts

My thoughts on this series are mixed. Ultimately I feel the main character, Alina, brings this world down. As this is how she acts throughout the entirety of the trilogy, this seems purposely done and I believe not a fault of the author but an inability on my own behalf to enjoy people and characters that are as she is. The world however is a completely different story and is entirely my reasons for rating these books consistently. I love the magic system, I love the world events and a lot of the other characters which appear in this series are amazing and colourful and witty.

As this is a young adult fantasy, if you enjoy world building and interesting magic systems and don't particularly care for the characters then I would definitely recommend this book and series.