[Book Review] Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

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.

 * * *

"People, particularly big men carrying big rifles, don't expect lip from a scrawny thing like me. They always look a bit dazed when they get it."

This was a LONG time coming. I hear nothing but amazing things about this book series (and the spin off) and I have been wanting to read it for so long. I have to confess, I technically have read this before but when  I say I remember nothing about the story I mean nothing. I didn't remember any character names, story plots, or even any twists. Which I'm happy about because I think I enjoyed it even more this time.

Alina is a main character I really enjoyed in moments, and the other moments I wanted to slap her. Her decisions weren't always the smartest choices and although I could empathize with the intense situations she was thrown into, I wanted to strangle her. I don't know how I feel about Mal. Throughout the whole book I kept flip flopping when it came to my opinions on him. Sometimes he could be insufferable and a bit of a jerk, and then the other times I really enjoyed his friendship with Alina. 

"'You're shaking,' he said. 

'I'm not used to people trying to kill me.'

'Really? I hardly notice anymore.'" 

The Darkling is a character that also brings out complex and mixed emotions from me. Him and Alina have amazing romantic chemistry and there is obviously going to be more to him than what we have been exposed to so far. However, I'm not the biggest fan of morally grey/borderline abusive love interests with sad/redeeming backstories, which is where I assume the story will be headed. My assumptions come from hearing other readers talk about the series, many of them either hating or loving the "ship" between The Darkling and Alina. I could be wrong and maybe I was reading into some things that were being said. We will see. Also, I really loved Genya as a character. Her friendship with Alina was one of the best parts of the story. I will always be a fangirl when it comes to girl friendships. 

The plot was slow in pacing at some moments in the story but I was never bored. It is an incredibly easy book to fly through and I found it addictive. I think I would have enjoyed the story a little bit more if there was more world building along with a better understanding of the magic systems. There are a few moments where Alina must travel and I would have liked to see more imagery of the world to help me picture it fuller. We do have two books left in the series so I am hoping that is something that is included more in the next two installments. 

"'Just...be careful.' 

I stared at her, baffled. 'Of what?'

'Of powerful men.'" 

I believe this is Leigh Bardugo's debut novel, and I think it's incredibly great debut. I was charmed by this story and the characters. I wanted to know what was going to happen next and I had a very hard time putting it down for long periods of time. Including sleep. However, my biggest problem with the writing is that like the imagery with the world, the Fold was a bit fuzzy when I tried picturing it. I think the big moment in the end did help add extra pieces to the puzzle but it was still hard to see the full picture. The writing does have gorgeous moments. One thing in particular that stood out like magic to me were that the keftas were incredibly vibrant. I also found that the emotion traveled well from the characters to the reader. I understood Alina's desperation to just want things to go back to where they were, and then I got emotional in the specific scenes where she took control of her powers. I loved the comparison between her light power to the Darkling's dark power. It was a really pretty image each time. 

If you're interested in a young adult fantasy series, I would definitely recommend this one so far. I already plan on picking up books 2 & 3 soon so I can continue the series. After I am done with the trilogy I am hoping to see what everyone has been talking about when it comes to the Six of Crows duology. I feel like I have been sleeping on the Leigh Bardugo bandwagon and I'm starting to see why her stories get so much hype.

Thanks for reading!