Shadow and Bone series | Review

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There's nothing wrong with being a Lizard either, unless you were born to be a Hawk. 

AUTHOR: Leigh Bardugo

SYNOPSIS: Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold, and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

Shadow and Bone series the first series in the Grishaverse. I really loved Six of Crows, one of the best books I have read, and I had high expectations from Shadow and Bone, too, but this book disappointed me so much. 

It was an excellent and genuine read, except that I hated Mal, one of the male protagonists and the love interest of our main character Alina Starkov. Before I go into a whole rant on how much this series got boring because of Mal, I want to give you guys a little preview of the book. The review will also contain many spoilers because I will go into details of the stuff I hated. When I started Shadow and Bone, the first book, I was so excited, and then by the time I reached the third book, I just basically wanted to finish it off as fast as I can. 

This book has that usual trope of a common girl discovering she has powers of some sort and the Villian wants to use her for her abilities and expand his reign, and then she fights him. I am not really against this trope because I have read this trope so many times it doesn't bother me much. Alina Starkov is a girl who is a cartographer, and she works in the Grisha Kingdom, Ravka. Since she was little, she has been with Mal, and they were in the orphanage together and then for the army together. Once saving Mal's life, she discovered she has powers and then is taken to the Darkling, who happens to be the second in command of the king of Ravka and managed the second army. Then the story progresses from there.

If you haven't gotten it by now, then The Darkling is the villain, and he's over 120 years but still looks in his 20's. What I find most annoying about this book was the fact that there wasn't a need for a war at all. Like Alina started a war that was not required at all, and then she cried about how many people she killed just because she didn't want The Darkling to rule. I mean, what? And it gets weirder. The Darkling was also a love interest! Don't get me wrong, I love the Darkling, and I ship Darklina, but why is Alina fighting him. 

I felt like the only realistic character in this entire series was Baghra, the Darkling's mother. She specifically told Alina to run, and she goes after something that Darkling is going after too. I mean, usually, if you are running from someone, you don't go to the place they are trying to find. 

The plotline was good. I mean a fight on the ship, a big supernatural war, and a secret prince. I can see why some people will like this book, and I mean no offense to them, but I simply hated almost every character in this series except Nicolai, The Darkling, and Baghra. 

Now let's talk about the character I hated the most in this series. Mal Oretsev. This guy is annoying. When I say annoying, I mean I had to skim some pages and sometimes a whole chapter because of this guy. He was like Simon in the city of Ashes. The annoying powerless best friend. Atleast Simon got better after just 2 books; this guy remains like that throughout the book. 

Alina and The Darkling

Mal and Alina should have remained best friends only. I hate their relationship. I know I am going into a hate rant, but I just hate them together. I am a Darklina shipper through and through. The only thing I felt while reading their relationship was cringe. They had a comfortable relationship like best friends do, but they didn't have that spark. Darkling and Alina had chemistry, and I loved reading their scenes. I felt like everything in their relationship was so forced. Even their fight looked forced. If I got a chance to ever change one thing from that book, what I would do would be to just kill off Mal in the second book.

Also, I don't know why I just really found it funny because the Villian, The darkling, has been alive for more than 120 years, training and waiting for this day. Still, Alina and Mal and their power of love and friendship made all her powers disappear magically, and the guy who's been training for more than a century had a momentary lapse of judgment. Amazing. 

Hate is a strong word, so I really don't wanna say that I hated this series because there were some excellent moments in this book, like the first half of the first book where there was no Mal and a whole lot of Darkling. Still, I guess every moment of Darkling and Alina where Mal wasn't present was great so. The last scene with Darkling in it was also sorrowful.

I really tried to like this book because of Six of Crows, but I couldn't. I really hope the TV show makes some changes in either Mal's personality or the plotline. As it is a Netflix series, I think the plotline will be changed to a certain level like it was in the shows like Shadowhunter and Bridgerton. The TV show comes out on 23rd April and stars Ben Barnes as the Darkling (Which I don't agree with at all, I love Ben Barnes, and I loved him in Narnia movies, but he doesn't make a good Darkling.) The trailer is yet to be released, but the TV show is a supposed mix of Six of Crows and the Shadow and Bone together, and I cannot wait for it. I am going to link the teaser, and my six of crows review down below. 

Six of Crows Review

Shadow and Bone teaser

You can give it a try because maybe the aspects of the book I hated you can like, but I didn't like this book at all. This book has room for a lot of improvement, so maybe I can expect something from the TV show, but for now, this is all I have to say. 




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