Shadow and Bone (The Grisha Trilogy #1) - Leigh Bardugo [Review]

Title: Shadow and Bone [The Grisha Trilogy #1]

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Fiction

Publisher: MacMillian

Publishing date: June 5th 2012

Pages: 358

Rating

★★★★✩

Hello! It’s been a while since my last review, this time I’m reviewing Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, a book I was really curious about due the good reviews I’ve read about it.

            Shadow and Bone is set in the nation of Ravka, a nation surrounded by enemies and torn by

Alina Starkov

the Shadow Fold, a darkness filled with monsters that eat humans. In this world some people have different abilities of some sort of magic, those people are known as the Grisha and they’re lead by a mysterious man known as the Darlkling.

            The protagonist of this story is Alina Starkov, a refugee and orphan girl that has never been good at anything. One day her regiment is attacked on the fold, during the attack she discovers that within her there is a hidden power that could be the key to set her country free. After this discovery, Alina is ordered by the Darkling to leave her friends and join the royal court to be trained as a Grisha, but there are several lessons Alina will learn, not only about her power, but about her and the world full of secrets she lives in.   

            I have a lot of things to say about this book, most of them are positive. When I started reading it I didn’t know what to expect, I’ve read very good reviews about this book but everyone seemed to agree that Six of Crows is better than The Grisha Trilogy, so I debated a lot with myself about what book buy, Six of Crows or this one, in the end I chose this one because it was cheaper, I have my copy signed by the author.

            I must say I really liked the setting,  Ravka was inspired by Russia, so it’s pretty interesting to see how Bardugo introduced some elements of Russian Culture, and how she managed to use those elements to create a new world with different social and hierarchic rules. What I think was the most interesting part of Ravka was how the power of the Grisha works not only that it gives people social status depending on their ability, but also that there are a lot of different abilities and each one is identified by the color of clothes the person wears.

            The main idea of darkness being a physical thing, represented by the Shadow Fold, is pretty interesting and imaginative that reminds of how much darkness can scare us thinking that there is something there that wants to kill us, I don’t know you guys, but when I was little I was afraid of the dark.

            I liked Alina as protagonist; she is more flawed than other female protagonists in Young Adult novels. She is not pretty and is physically weak and has a bad attitude. The book is written in first person, so we only know Alina’s point of view. I’m glad she is not that whiny in her thoughts, and that the book describes only what’s truly necessary for the plot, when things get slow, there is some time skip to avoid boring stuff.

The Darkling´s silhouette

            Mal was the main love interest, I must say I was never fond of him; he didn’t leave a memorable impression in me. The second male lead was the mysterious Darkling, he is a very interesting character always surrounded by this mysterious aura and has some seductive charisma that makes him hard to decipher.

            The book hooked me up in the first pages; it has an interesting beginning that, along the final part, is written in third person. The book is fast paced and has some action and romance with interesting twists in the plot that, at least to me, were kind of unpredictable.

            If you want to read a book with an interesting setting and magic style, that has interesting characters and some action and romance, this book is definitely for you.

            Have you read it? Do you prefer The Grisha Trilogy or Six of Crows?