Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Title: Shadow and Bone Book 1
Author Name: Leigh Bardugo
Age Rating: 13+
Star Rating: ✦✦✦✦✦
Genre: Fantasy
Summary:
An orphan who never got adopted, homely Alina Starkov isn’t much of a looker, nor is she fit enough to be a true soldier like her childhood friend Mal. Forced to join the army, she becomes a cartographer, spending her sorry life pining over someone who would never notice her (at least in a romantic way).
Luckily for her, her cartography unit is given the assignment of plotting the unexplored parts of the spooky Shadow Fold, home to savage monsters called Volcra. But when an accident on the fold forces Alina to reveal a power she never knew she had, her life changes for better or worse.
Thrust into the glamorous and deadly world of the superpowered Grisha, Alina must grapple with the realization that she has suddenly been catapulted from the status of an expendable soldier to a Saint. Meanwhile, there are distractions galore, with heavy politics in the background and the tall, dark, and handsome Darkling, Alina really has her hands full.
But the real question is, will Alina be able to live up to everyone’s expectations and destroy the Shadow Fold once and for all? Or will her desire for normalcy and going back to Mal overshadow everything else?
Favorite Character:
My favorite character was clearly Alina Starkov. I felt a bit of Cinderella vibes from her (not because she had any sort of evil stepmother) but simply because the whole rags to riches shtick interestingly made sense. It was funny to see how Alina was basically an uber-powerful saint all of a sudden yet experienced little to no change in her own personality.
If anything, the way the story is told builds upon how Bardugo solidified and characterized Alina. She’s human, she’s no saint, and that’s what makes the narrative all the better.
Storyline Development:
This fantasy story has an amazing premise, as the seemingly ordinary orphan Alina Starkov is plunged into the high-class world of Grisha, people with power, money, and almost everything they could desire. But underneath the posh lifestyle, Alina discovers that there is something unusual about their leader, The Darkling.
At first, entranced by the spellbinding man, she wants nothing more than the attention of this mysterious emo… Yet, her attraction dissolves when she learns the dark truth about the Darkling’s origins.
This story adequately shows how puppy love diminishes, what it’s like to experience such a jarring change of setting, and the pressures of basically being the ‘chosen one’ of your world.
Worldbuilding:
Amazing world-building. The main setting is Ravka, a country based upon Russia. Whilst there are elements of Russian culture in the story, I would’ve loved to see more references and classic folklore (mainly because it’s exciting to learn about other cultures.
My Thoughts:
This book is amazing, I loved it so much. Yet I’m sorry to say I watched the show way before I had any inkling of wanting to read the books. Honestly, my range of books had been quite limited to whatever my friends had been reading.
This book is amazing and gives insight into the true story and events. It was pretty jarring how much of a jerk Book Mal is compared to TV Mal, I guess booktok never lies.
There’s a lot of Americanisms in the story (not that I’m an expert), and while the story does reference Russian culture, there isn’t much. This is a pity since it would’ve been interesting to see since every country has its own cool mythology that would be nice to see represented in fantasy.
Other than that, Shadow and Bone is clearly one of the freshest fantasy series, with its originality on point, totally unlike other authors who write fanfics and then edit it to be able to sell the product. In conclusion, I can’t wait to read the sequel: Siege and Storm and write a review about it as well.