Review: Shadow and Bone

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

*4.5*

"The problem with wanting," he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips. "Is that it makes us weak."

Oh the Darkling....

So this book starts off with a bang and jumps right into the enchanting world of Ravka. We follow our lead girl, Alina, who is an orphan as she struggles with a newfound power. Basically this country, which is very reminiscent to Russsia, has been a split up by something called The Fold. The Fold is this stream of complete and utter darkness that spans across a part of the country and has hidden monsters inside. When Alina shows this crazy ability when they enter the fold, she's whisked off to join the Grisha. The Grisha live like utter royalty and they each have different types of abilities. From there the story takes off and goes to some pretty epic places.

" I've been wishing for you a long time Alina," he said. "You and I are going to change the world."

Leigh Bardugo does a fantastic job of throwing you completely into this world. Right away we're giving new words, a map, and shown how this world works. She throws us in, but unravels the world in such a way that it's explained as it goes. It's so intriguing that it's hard to stop reading and the world is absolutely mesmerizing. However, I was a little confused even though I was enjoying it? I really loved the world building and how she decided to explain it to us but I was still kind of confused and wish it had been explained a little more clearly. Like by the end of this book, I understand most of it, but some of the terms I'm still a little confused by. Hopefully that will be cleared up in the next book.

"You're shaking."
"I'm not used to people trying to kill me."
"Really? I hardly notice anymore."

Now the highlight of this book for me was the characters. I will say that I did find Alina a little bit annoying, but I can see a lot of potential for character growth, which we already started to see by the end of this one. I didn't like how she was always so down on herself. But I did grow to like her as the story went on. And I loved her friendship with Genya! I thought that was a really nice touch, since she never really had another friend besides Mal.

Oh Mal...

"I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I'd catch myself just walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I'd seen something I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I'd realize that you weren't there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked it of me. I've risked my life for you. I've walked half the length of Ravka for you, and I'd do it again and again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day. So don't tell me why we don't belong together." He said fiercely.

*swoon*
I loved Mal! At first he was just okay to me but throughout the second half the book he really grew into his own. And I love him with Alina!!

"I'm not like you Mal, I never really fit in the way you did. I never really belonged anywhere."
"You belonged with me."

They're so cute together! Mal just says all the right things! Ahh! And that ending I was completely dying.

"I don't care if you danced naked on the roof of the Little Palace with him. I love you Alina, even the part of you that loved him."

Now let's talk about THE DARKLING.

This was his soul made flesh, the truth of him laid bare in the blazing sun, shorn of mystery and shadow. This was the truth behind the handsome face and miraculous powers, the truth that was the dead and empty space between the stars, a wasteland peopled by frightened monsters.

Am I crazy for still loving him? He's so MYSTERIOUS AND COMPLEX. So many different layers. He's so twisted but such an interesting character. I went from swooning over him to being nervous around him, then swooning some more, and then frustrated and mad at him. All of the emotions over one character in a book that's just over 350 pages. All the awards to Leigh Bardugo on that one.

The Darkling slumped back in his chair. "Fine," he said with a weary shrug. "Make me your villain."

He's definitely just someone that you love to hate in the best way. I can't wait to find out more about him and hoping for some awesome character development.

"Did you tell him what I showed you in the dark?"

ugh why does he have to be so evil and so hot

Then that EPIC ENDING!! I loved how the beginning came full circle to the end of the book. It was so perfect! Leigh Bardugo really did an amazing job with twisting your emotions all over the place. I was actually terrified of the idea of the Fold but then towards the end my emotions did a complete 180 towards it.

Why can a Grisha possess but one amplifier? I will answer this instead: What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.

Overall this book was a great start to what is definitely going to be an awesome and epic series. Can't wait to read more!

"Mal," I whispered into the night.
"What?"
"Thanks for finding me."
"Always."

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