Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Read Dates: July 2, 2019 – July 10, 2019
Publication date: June 5, 2012
Source: Owned paperback

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Alina and Mal are best friends and orphans. They’ve grown up together and are inseparable. They seclude themselves from the other kids and get into trouble together but that’s the way they like it. It’s just the two of them against the world. But they weren’t aware of just how vast and unpredictable that world could be. One day, their lives are thrown into chaos as they are chosen to travel across The Fold, a stretch of land blanketed by absolute darkness. When Mal sustains serious injuries, a power Alina never knew she had arises and she is ripped from her best friend by the Darkling, a dark and mysterious Grisha with great powers. The life she knew comes to an end as she is forced to travel to the Little Palace where she is labeled a Grisha and must study and practice to use her new abilities. Alina enjoys palace life but she also misses her best friend with every fiber of her being. Will she ever see him again? Could life with the Darkling be as sweet as it used to be with Mal? Can she harness her powers and live up to the Grisha title?

One thing did stand out to me: the word the philosophers used to describe people born without Grisha gifts, otkazat’sya, “the abandoned”. It was another word for orphan.

First of all, can we acknowledge how BEAUTIFUL this cover is? Ughh. And the following books are no exception. In fact, I haven’t seen a Bardugo cover that didn’t immediately draw me to it.

So I read a lot of reviews on this series before I decided I was going to try it out and a lot of people complained about being bored. My question to those people is: HOW? I admit I can think back to a few places in the book where people might have felt that the story had become a bit sluggish… but it was never sluggish for me. I felt like the story moved at a great pace and I never lost interest. I was always anxious to get back to the book and continue Alina’s journey.

I definitely enjoyed the characters but this is actually where the book fell short for me. The setting was incredible, the story line was engaging and unique, the creatures in the book were intriguing… but the characters didn’t make me feel a whole lot. If you read my blog you know that I rather enjoy the evil, bad boy characters but the Darkling, for me, was just eh…
I didn’t really get to know Mal until the end which I guess makes sense since the story followed Alina and they were torn apart. But I got ALL of Mal at one time and it was overwhelming.

“Thanks for finding me.”
I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming , but somewhere in the dark, I heard him whisper, “Always.”

I enjoyed Alina’s attitude and how she was more than happy to become someone who was self sufficient and didn’t need anyone to feel her own worth.

I enjoyed the friendship between Alina and Genya. I got to read a realistic girl pal relationship and that was nice. I WANT MORE GENYA.

One of my biggest issues was certain characters being introduced BUT THEN NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED WITH THEM. Why were they even there to begin with? They didn’t contribute to the story! Maybe they’ll have a role in the second or third book? Maybe we’ll meet them later into the Grishaverse timeline? I don’t even know. But I was disappointed with one character in particular. I kept saying “annnnnd cue character to swoop in and be the last person they expected…”. NOPE. Didn’t happen.

All that aside, I am absolutely in love with the Grisha. I love reading about the different kinds of Grisha and the abilities they wield and all the different ways they use those abilities. Bardugo was so incredibly creative when writing these magical beings and I love it.

My adventure continues! I really want to try and get through the Grishaverse books by the end of July. There’s a series coming to Netflix and I want to be ready and armed to the teeth for what it brings. Away to Siege and Storm I go! I leave you with one of my favorite quotes from the book and a wonderful song by a wonderful band. ♥

“Do you blame me for every mistake I made? For every girl I tumbled? For every dumb thing I’ve said? Because if we start running tallies on stupid, you know who’s going to come out ahead.”