Publication Date: June 5, 2012Publisher: Henry Holt & Co. (BYR)Series: The Grisha Trilogy #1Young AdultPages: 368Genre: Fantasy, Romance
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.*Galley provided by publisher for an honest review*
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.
Fantasy styled books always take me ages to get into and Shadow and Bone was no exception. The high anticipation directed towards this book really blew up over the months leading up to its release and after getting accepted to read the galley of this book, I decided to give it a try. Besides the extremely confusing names and terms that Leigh Bardugo refers to, the story wasn't half bad, and I started to really like it around 20% in. Alina failed to captivate my interest for a little while during reading. She is the Sun Summoner, the one to break the impenetrable darkness within the Shadow Fold and force down the deadly creatures, the Volcra, and become the savior of Ravka. She is Grisha, magical and beautiful people in the land of Ravka, except Alina is anything but beautiful, she's rather plain. Her attitude of "That's not me," "I can't do that," "I'm not strong enough," wore me out until she could finally learn to stand up and fend herself. One character that I really enjoyed the experience reading was the Darkling. The mysteriousness and the dark air around him made the story click a lot better and faster than it did when Alina was just whining or gawking about the beauty of others and smiting her own self and her looks in comparison. Towards the latter of the book, I failed to lose connection with the story, it's characters, and the anticipation and the twist that grew, though I had some hunches that popped up every now and again. The writing was splendid and captivating. I'm definitely excited to see how the next book fairs for Alina and the world of Grisha.
Final Summation: A dark and mystifying novel that turned out better than I expected. Though it takes a bit to absorb what is going on with the world and the characters and the fantasy terms, this novel is a wonderful read that makes time fly.First Line: The servants called them malenchki, little ghosts, because they were the smallest and the youngest, and because they haunted the Duke's house like giggling pantoms, darking in and out of rooms, hiding in cupboards to eavesdrop, sneeking into the kitchen to steal the last if the summer peaches.Story: SCover: XS
