BOOK REVIEW: SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Immediate thought after reading this book. Well shit, there’s a lot of good stuff going on in this book. *flails around*.

My thoughts. Ignite Me really did a huge favour for me - it brought back my fervour for reading YA fantasy books and my YA feels. I’ve been meaning to read Shadow and Bone for months already but my mood just doesn’t want to cooperate with me. Now that I finally did, holy crap I can say that I was definitely missing a whole lot of awesomeness because of not reading this series way back when I started marking books here on Goodreads.

Shadow and Bone is the first book of The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo and this one’s a really great way to start off a series. This book is set in this very unique, dark and magical world of Ravka where Kings, Queens and this super cool people called The Grisha or “Soldiers of the Second Army – Masters of the Small Science” exists. I highly suggest that you start reading this book with a clear head and doesn’t have any book hangovers because there are a number of terms that you need to take in. It could get quite overwhelming at first but once you get the hang of it, I’m sure you’ll immensely enjoy it.

The first half of the book is obviously concentrated on the world building stuff and getting the readers comfortable with it. And we do it along side our main character, Alina, because as the book opens she’s also thrust into this world unfamiliar to her. All her life she has led a simple life as an orphan and as a part of the First Army (mapmaker), then suddenly to be revealed that she has a great power inside of her … That sure is a tough transition to go through. So, the earlier parts of the book just delves with Alina recognizing/accepting her powers, honing it and learning the theories that surrounds this new life she’s living. Note: I may or may not have to put the book down at some point because I want every bit of information to thoroughly sink inside of my mind.

But when you reach 50-60% of the book, now that’s where things got really interesting! This is where the element of surprise, the tension and action part of the story comes in. Bam bam and bam, we’re bombarded with revelations surrounding a certain character. I. was. actually. shocked. *runs around the house* I was like, what did just happen? Is that for real? Orrrrr? From that point, the flow and the pacing of the story picks up and you’ll just want to devour the remaining pages of the book. And if it isn’t obvious to you yet, this is the part where I go say “Pick this book up and read it!!!”.

Oh aside from the cool terms, another thing that I like about this book is that we actually get to have a map of the entire world Bardugo created. Sweet! It definitely helped in picturing every scene out since our characters did a lot of travelling in this book.

The Darkling. You, lil shit! You’re giving me feels at 1AM in the morning! Ughhh can you not? And then … the next second knowing what you’re planning *flips table*. Please tell me, there’s something good inside of you????!!!! Haaaiii he’s such a complicated character.

I’m definitely excited on what’ll happen in next book. There are so many questions swirling in my head right now, like: 1) What happened to The Darkling? I’m sure he’s alive because DUHHH but how did he manage to get out of the Shadow Fold? 2) What will he do next concerning Alina’s departure? 3) What will happen next to Alina and Mal? 4) I’m sure Alina and The Darkling will be reunited in that book … but the question is how? 5) What evil ways could The Darkling do to the people of Ravka? 6) Is The Darkling reaaaaaaally that bad? Or there’s just something going on with his character, thus he have this need to be bad? 7) Will he be able to redeem himself or NOT? 8) Am I crazy for liking the idea of The Darkling and Alina together? Though, Mal *swoons* I should prolly stop there and just get started with Siege and Storm. So …

Bye x


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