Review: Shadow and Bone

Not gonna lie, I'm not super disappointed I found this so late in the game, because at least now I won't have to wait for any of this trilogy to be released.

#winning

Alina Starkov is an orphan serving time in the First Army of Ravka, as all young citizens must do. Her profession is cartography, while her lifelong best friend and secret crush Mal uses his keen abilities as a tracker for the good of Ravka. Their unit is traveling west to the other side of the Fold, a dangerous, dark place full of people-eating monsters, aka the volcra. It's not incredibly likely that either one of them won't make the journey alive, but accidents happen, so they're both feeling wary.

Their unit is midway through the Fold when the unthinkable happens and Mal gets attacked. Already on edge from losing another friend to the volcra, Alina fights her way over to Mal in a seemingly futile attempt to save him.

Seemingly futile, at least, until she utilizes a dormant power she didn't even know she had and calls light down into the Fold, scaring away the volcra. Alina is immediately taken to the Darkling, the head of all the Grisha in Ravka.

What are the Grisha, you may ask? The Grisha are practitioners of the Small Science, capable of things like healing, manipulating the elements, or creating potent chemical compounds. The Darkling is their leader, a human amplifier also capable of calling down darkness as a weapon. They live in the Little Palace back in Ravka's capital once they're found as children, because all children in Ravka get tested for Grisha powers. So how did Alina escape?

Alina puts that question aside and tries to focus on learning how to channel her powers. Even though she's the only Sun Summoner the kingdom has, she can't seem to make her power come when she wants it. Once she figures out the key, though, she's releasing more power than anyone could expect - and the Darkling only wants to make it stronger.

The Darkling is suave and handsome, and he wants Alina, both for her powers and as a girlfriend. He claims that if they can find a mythical stag, its antlers will amplify her power so much that they'll finally be able to destroy the Fold and re-unite Ravka. Awesome, right?

So of course this is the moment when it's revealed that the Darkling is actually a power-hungry villain who wants to control Alina's powers so he can eventually take over the world. He'll use her gift to pick off all the volcra, then use his own powers to expand the Fold as a threat to Ravka and her neighbors. Alina manages to escape the palace, though, and meets up with Mal to find the stag herself and claim its antlers before the Darkling can claim them for her.

And then everything falls to crap again. The end of the book is looking pretty hopeless for Alina, but she finds a couple more tricks up her sleeves, pulling off one last daring escape as the first book in the Grisha trilogy comes to a close.

I adore this series, you guys. Alina reminds me a lot of Percy Jackson with her dry, uncontrollable sarcasm, and watching her banter with someone is a true gift. The characters are also fairly complex, acting for/as both the "good" guys and the "bad" guys out of pure self-interest. While we know that Alina's working for the ultimate good, we have to figure out alongside of her which of her friends are trying to do the same and which just want to work solely for themselves.

The Russian themes of this book are also fantastic, in my opinion. I've always loved reading about Russian culture and the Romanov dynasty, so having a whole fantasy series use Russian mythology as its basis is like Christmas Day for me.

I even don't really mind the love triangle aspect. Alina has always liked Mal, but the Darkling is attractive and captivating, and she believes Mal has given up on her. She feels a real, well-developed pull to each of them, and for a while it's unclear who the "winner" is going to be. (I mean, until the Darkling's true character is revealed, but even then it could still fall in his favor.) The relationship drama is definitely present throughout the novel, but it never feels like Alina's biggest struggle, which pleases me - she's got some real issues to deal with!

If you like rich fantasy universes and sarcastic heroines, then you definitely need to go read Shadow and Bone right now. Five stars.