Shadow & Bone - Leigh Bardugo // Book Review

  

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.

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Throne in the Dark - A. K. Caggiano // Book Review

  

Throne in the Dark
A. K. Caggiano || Publication Date - 28.09.2022

Damien will not let anything stand in the way of his dark destiny, except maybe her...

Fantasy | Adventure | Romance

Damien Maleficus Bloodthorne, his resume runs thick with dark and evil musings. He is the spawn of a demon lord, a prince of darkness, prophesized realm destroyer and saver of kittens. His latest creation is a tool to command, which inevitably he will be using to ensure the release of his father from banishment. That is until Amma comes along and tries to steal it.

Unfortunately for Amma, this tool for control is a single use item, which has now been absorbed into her body. The only way Damien can get it back to use it for its intended purpose is to kill her. However, he doesn't particularly like the mess that would cause and Amma understandably has an aversion to death.

There may be another way to free Amma from this artifact without the inconvenience of dying, which takes this reluctant pair over the realm in attempts to save her life, and allow Damien to unleash his father.

The Review (may contain spoilers)

I specifically waited until the 3rd book in this series was published by Sourcebooks to be able to publish this review. Not only do I ADORE the new covers for the series, but there is now worldwide distribution physically for 'Throne in the Dark' and I couldn't be happier. What a series A.K. Caggiano has written...

Firstly I need to get my gushing out of the way. If you're looking for a review which is not tainted by absolute love for this series, I'm afraid this writing will not be for you. The premise is very standard Fantasy, the son of a demon lord and a thief meet in less than stellar circumstances. What ensues is a literal rumble through every single quest objective ever known to anyone who has played a Fantasy RPG. There's witches & wizards, werewolves, cults, vampires and a slew of various other races and enemies fondly detailed within the genre.

There is adventure and humor in spades throughout the novel. Ashley's writing and characters are beautifully detailed. In addition to the writing, there are over 400 pages of quests, escapades, fights and plot to get through. Generally longer Fantasy novels burn me out, especially if I feel there is not enough within the book to sustain the amount of pages. However, with 'Throne in the Dark' I felt this length was not a negative at all. The full narrative had not been explained within these pages, and I had spent a lot of time not reading the book imagining all the ways it could be going. All those theories on my part were very wrong.

I also cannot leave without speaking about the dynamic between Amma and Damien. This romance is incredibly slow burn, almost to the point of torture. If you like fast pace relationship development, this will not be a series for you. There's plenty of tension, banter and steam which develops naturally over the time the characters spend together. It was pure joy experiencing their reluctant friendship grow and pure frustration simply wanting them to FUCKING KISS EACH OTHER...

Overall Thoughts

With the above all being said, if you're looking for an adventure full of wit, funny characters and some truly absurd quest hooks, then look no further. I've never wanted to go back through and re-read a series when I've completed it and A.K. Caggiano has inevitably ruined that sentiment forever. I can see myself going back to this world and these characters over and over again.

I've personally purchased this series twice, once on Kindle and the other being the new Sourcebooks published copies to have for my trophy shelf. It is available on Kindle Unlimited for those who have it, and if you do I would highly recommend giving it a go.

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