Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Read Dates: July 21, 2019 – July 22, 2019
Publication date: June 17, 2014
Source: Owned paperback

Goodreads — Amazon

Ravka is in ruin. It has fallen to the Darkling. Alina is weak and under the watchful eye of the Apparat in a well hidden underground cathedral.But she wants nothing more than to get above ground and find the firebird, which she believes to be the key to defeating the Darkling. The third and final installment of The Shadow and Bone trilogy is all about friendships, sacrifices, and ancient legends that have proven true. Will Alina and her new band of friends find a way to stop the Darkling or will their efforts cause the ruin of Ravka and the rising of the Darkling?

You see what I did there?

Anyway… let me first say that I definitely enjoyed reading this story and while I was a little bored or annoyed in some places, I did rather enjoy this story. It just wasn’t super amazing to me. Let’s get into it…

There are no other’s like us, Alina. And there never will be.

We start off like we did in book two: Alina and Mal have found a safe place to hang out and recoup and then chaos soon ensues. I have to say, I found the beginning of the book to be completely annoying and boring. It didn’t seem to serve much of a purpose at all for the story. Honestly, sitting here now, writing this review, I’m wondering to myself, “Why was the Apparat even in this book AT ALL?”

From book one I had hoped his creepy presence and occasional sightings would eventually serve some purpose. I hoped he would either be Alina’s undoing or become her only hope. But he basically did nothing but spout pretty words that meant a whole lot of nothing and just cowered in his cathedral until he knew for sure that it was safe to come out.

I’m sure he’ll be in King of Scars and I would say I’m interested to see what becomes of him there but at this point I wish he would just disappear from the books all together. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I have three main issues with this series:

• Why was the Apparat even in this book series?
• The entire series needed more Darkling.
• Giant miracles are happening that don’t really make sense?

Other than those things, it was pretty fun. We went on more adventures which are always fun. We were thrown a few curve balls that I honestly didn’t see coming. I thought I had Mal and Alina’s characters figured out but I had it all wrong.

The only character I really connected to or came to care about was Nikolai. Ok. And Mal. But mostly Nikolai. I can’t wait to read King of Scars. Nikolai is slowly making his way onto my “Favorite Fictional Characters” list.

I gasped. “Imposs–”
“Don’t say it,” muttered Mal.
Then chaos erupted.

I also really liked Baghra. I liked her in book one but didn’t really care about her in book two. Book three put her back on my radar. There’s something so refreshing about a grumpy old woman who can never get warm enough and is happiest when she’s smacking you in the knee with her walking stick. She’s everything I hope to be when I’m old.

“The same things that make the mountain make you. It has no lungs, so let it breathe with you. It has no pulse, so give it your heartbeat. That is the essence of the Small Science.”
She thumped me with her stick.
“Stop huffing like a wild boar. Breathe the way I taught you – contained, even.”

The Darling and his entire story arch was pretty cool but I WANTED MORE OF IT. I also enjoyed The Last Jedi type Rey and Kylo feel between Alina and the Darkling… that was pretty cool.

The ending was nice but it wasn’t convincing. I didn’t really feel it. It was cute and sweet and whatever but it held no weight. I didn’t get emotional. The most emotion I felt at the end was for an 8 year old and a cat. (After reading that back I realize that’s not really that surprising for me…)

I did enjoy this one though. It was a whole new kind of world and a whole different kind of characters and I did really enjoy it. I just wanted more Darkling. I feel like the story we got didn’t do his character justice. We could have had SO MUCH MORE DARKLING. And I say that as someone who didn’t even really like him!

I will say, the momentum for this universe has not been lost on me. I am every bit excited to get into Crooked Kingdom and then into Nikolai’s book. There are so many things we could explore. Bardugo could probably write stories based on this world for the rest of her life and then some. The possibilities are endless and I am here for it.