I did it, I read the Grisha trilogy, by Leigh Bardugo. I've decided to review the entire series as a whole because I read the books pretty close together. Here are my thoughts.
Average Rating: ★★★
Shadow and Bone
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.
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.
Siege and Storm
Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.
The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her--or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.
Ruin and Rising
The capital has fallen.
The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.
Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
Characters: I'm going to be honest. I did not like Alina. Or Mal, for that matter. Yes, the two main characters infuriated me. Personally, I felt like they were naive to think that they can survive on their own after escaping the Darkling so many times. Alina lacks personality, and her actions essentially rely on the male characters around her. She is possibly the most powerful Grisha to ever live at this time, and yet she was so preoccupied with whether or not the Darkling liked her the first book, and if Mal liked her in the second and third books. It was just ridiculous. Nikolai had the right idea thinking she should be Queen, because of her power, but this girl was so dumb she would've failed at ruling a country.
Mal was a character I wanted to like, I'll be honest. The problem is that he's so jealous all the time, and the fact that he was so in love with Alina yet showed no sign of it before she got her powers made me mad. Then he goes and talks about how Alina has changed after getting her powers, and that he wishes she would go back to how she was before (essentially, inferior to him). Like you showed no interest in her before, at least not romantically, now you're acting like you would've been happy together. Nice. He was just a burden, in my opinion. Alina would've been better off without him, and I know that sentiment was discussed in the series, but it's true! He held her back when she could've probably been more powerful if it hadn't been for him. Definitely, she would've been less distracted.
The Darkling. I'll be honest I was thirsty for him the first book like the rest of the people that read this series, but his romance with Alina was like every YA trope jammed into one book. It wasn't anything special or exciting, it was essentially fanfiction. I've read good fanfiction. Like fanfiction that should be considered high-quality literature. But this ain't it, chief. Alina was so into him, practically agreeing to sleep with him, that she failed to see he was evil. And that she could basically save her entire country instead of becoming his pawn. Also, this guy didn't have a name until the last book, so the fact that we endured the entire series calling him ~the Darkling~ is hilarious to me.
Now, the side characters each had their own flaws, some pretty large. However, they were probably better developed than the main three characters. Baghra, Nikolai, Genya, Toyla and Tamar. I loved them. They each had their own unique story, and in the end they chose justice. I felt so bad for Baghra, and if you haven't read the series, SPOILERS, she truly loved the Darkling, her son, and felt guilty for what she had created. Genya did side with the Darkling briefly, but he did free her (trigger warning) from being constantly sexually assaulted by the king so I can see where she was coming from. Until of course the Darkling himself tortured her. But her line "I am not ruined, I am ruination" YES QUEEN. She was probably one of the most compelling characters of the entire series. Nikolai, my sweet pirate prince, honestly surprised me. I thought he'd disappoint me like everyone else in this series, and yes he is more concerned with politics than Alina's feelings, but it is understandable considering the state of the country. Tolya and Tamar first appeared in the series in book 2 (like Nikolai) and I'll admit I didn't think they would become such prominent characters. I find it so interesting how they were apart of Alina's following and believed she was a saint as well, it added this other layer to them that I actually enjoyed reading about.
Plot: The plot of this story is very formulaic, in my opinion. That's not always a bad thing, it was just too obvious. Shadow and Bone, the first in the trilogy, was first published in 2012. This book is very 2012, I'll say that. It had your typical chosen one protagonist, a love triangle (maybe even a love square if you include Nikolai), special abilities, a country at war, and the main protagonist leading a rebellion of sorts. These tropes all sound very familiar, because I've read them, and I'm sure you have, a bunch of times. I believe that if I read this series several years ago, I would be a die-hard fan. Now that I'm older and more critical (or just bitter, adulthood will do that to you), I found it hard to let go of the flaws and enjoy the story. I did find Leigh Bardugo's incorporation of religion interesting because it's something I don't usually see in young adult novels. Nonetheless, it was still fun to read because I needed the mental break, but it wasn't anything I found truly spectacular.
Writing: The writing of this series definitely improved as the books were released. I did like her story-building because I'm always a sucker for that. It was clear she set this story in some version of Russia, or at least I believed it to be heavily influenced by Russia. I did not like how she wrote a lot of her main characters, especially Alina, which I already discussed. Alina was just so depressing for me to read about. I felt like I couldn't really root for her because she was making all these dumb mistakes and worrying more about her love-life than the impending destruction of the nation. Alina was insecure, and I can relate to that, but the way she was written made her sound so whiny and aloof. We all know Leigh Bardugo found her groove with Six of Crows (which I'll get into in a different post), so I didn't expect much from this series from the beginning.
I'm currently reading Six of Crows and I'm already crying at how good it is. Leigh Bardugo, you are a queen.
Love, Ru.
Instagram: @ru.reads