Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

I needed a bit of a brain break after reading On The Road, so I decided to try a young adult fantasy next. I settled on Shadow and Bone, book one in the Grisha Trilogy. Leigh Barugo's Grishaverse books are immensely popular in the online reading community, but I had never picked one up before. I have been hesitant to start them and get into a long commitment with this universe. Right now it consists of the main trilogy of books, and two separate duologies. However, with the new show premiering on Netflix a few weeks ago, I was seeing a lot of chatter about these novels again and I couldn't resist. I decided to finally give the first book a try and see if this is a series I want to get into.

Shadow and Bone is set in the fictional land of Ravka, a country plagued by the Shadow Fold--a large swath of land decimated by dark magic and crawling with flying monsters called Volkra. The Shadow Fold cuts off most of Ravka from the ocean and the ports they need for trade. The people are eager to find a way to destroy it, but after many years and many attempts, they have not made any progress. In addition to their trouble with the Shadow Fold, the people of Ravka are locked in hostilities with the nations surrounding it. Their inability to trade regularly means that their political and military conflicts are difficult; they are unable to acquire the weapons and supplies they need to defend themselves. 

They aren't entirely without defenses, however. Ravka has two armies to protect it--a regular one and a special, second army consisting of Grisha. Grisha are magic users with a wide range of abilities. Some can control elements like water or wind. Others can hurt or heal others. Some can manipulate metals or fabrics. The regular army and the Grisha army work together to defend the land, although their is a lot of friction born from resentment, jealousy, and distrust between the two groups.

The story follows a young woman in the regular army named Alina Starkov. She grew up in a Ravkan orphanage with her best friend Malyen Oretsev, and both enlisted together as young adults. Alina is a cartographer and Mal is a tracker. On a dangerous mission to try and cross the Shadow Fold one morning, Mal's life is threatened and Alina is able to unleash a powerful and unique burst of magic that she didn't know she contained to save his life. Once it is known that Alina is actually a Grisha, the commander of the Grisha army, a mysterious figure known as The Darkling, immediately takes her to their headquarters to hone her craft. He believes that her kind of magic is exactly the kind that is needed to destroy the Shadow Fold and return a sense of normalcy and security to Ravka. Taken from her best friend, her cartography, and everything else she knows, Alina must go from being a quiet, unassuming girl to being a tough, powerful Grisha with the ability to destroy monsters and save her people. She must stay on her guard, however, as she soon learns a secret about the country that turns everything on its head and sets her on a very different path than she intended. 

I thought Shadow and Bone was a pretty entertaining read, if a little underwhelming. I think that all the hype I had seen for this series on YouTube set up my expectations too high. It was a good young adult fantasy novel. Nothing groundbreaking, but a solid read. The magic system was interesting and the plot moved at a decent pace. I was consistently engaged in the story and interested to see what would happen in the end. I don't have any major criticisms.

On the "meh" side, I thought that Alina's character was bland, but as this is the first novel in the series, and she is discovering her powers for the first time in it, I expect this will improve in the subsequent books. I also thought that the romantic storyline she had was underdeveloped. I felt nothing for the characters involved in it. I think the issue there was that they just didn't interact enough in the plot. Perhaps this will improve later in the series too. 

On the whole, I don't really have a lot to say about this novel. It was on the higher side of average for me. That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy reading it, because I did, I just don't have a lot of thoughts on it! These aren't the kind of books that I would want to read again and again, but I do think this series is worth going through once. I plan to continue on with them and see how the story turns out. These are perfect for quick brain breaks between all my classics, so I think I'll explore the Grishaverse a little while longer.  Like the true book hoarder that I am, I already own most of the series, so I might as well read them all now so I can donate them and clear some shelf space!

Challenge Tally

Clear the Shelves 2021: 12/50 (donate)

Total Books Read in 2021: 24