Book Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha #1
Series: The Grisha #1
Date Started: August 14th 2013
Date Completed: August 15th 2013
Genres: Romance, Fantasy, Action, Thriller, Adventure
Rating: Five stars
Review:
I thought I would probably like Shadow and Bone, but I had no idea how much I'd fall in love with it after I started reading. It was so quick and easy to fall into the world written on the page that I raced through this book. It's beautiful and enchanting and so realistic, but so fantastical at the same time. I need the next one. Now.
Shadow and Bone is set in a magical world enveloped in war. Alina and Mal grew up together as orphans, and are now heading towards the Fold in their regiment, a land of darkness terrorised by volcra, harpee-like creatures that few survive encounters with. But during an attack a bright light appears and saves the few still alive. When Alina comes to after the battle she is taken to the Grisha, the gifted of the population, with magical talents, and she is told the light came from her. Still puzzling over this fact as she's taken away to train, Alina starts to find out that there are darker motives behind her discovery and future.
The writing was great. It surprised a little how easy I found it, when it was written very well and in detail. It's not the typical writing style you'll find in Young Adult books - it's more mature and advanced, but not too sophisticated than needed.
The description was lovely, and I felt like I was there the whole time. The action was well presented, and the speech was well thought-through.
The best thing was the characters and their behaviour. I didn't doubt any of them at any point, and I was hanging on every action. They were so believable that they felt like real people to me, which then made the story so much more interesting and enticing.
The story may start off fairly typically, but it changes so dramatically afterwards. You have a reasonably normal girl in a dangerous situation that allows her to find out her hidden talents. Then she's whisked away and it seems she's unique and extremely powerful. Standard beginning to a story.
But then you get this detail and conflict during her time at the Grisha palace. Maybe it's typical again, but there's something that really caught my attention here. She knows she isn't good, and there's the rivalry between the other Grisha and her, but there's more to it than that. There's the friendship between Alina and Genya. And then there's the strange appearances of the Apparat. And then her relationship towards the Darkling. There's so many different elements weaved into one that the reader is constantly thinking and working out what's going on.
And then the whole thing is turned completely on it's head in a way I certainly didn't see coming. (Unfortunately I can't say what, because then that would ruin the story for you guys.) But it was so well done that I was just as doubtful as Alina as it happening. (I was convinced she was being set up for a while, actually.)
And then the end is wonderfully done. Maybe it goes back to the typical sort of plot for a while, but then it changes again, and there's so much detail and emotion added in that it doesn't really matter if it's been seen before - because the way Bardugo writes it makes it completely different and new again.
I fell in love with these characters, and I really want to know what happens to them, because I actually kind of care about them. There are only really a few characters that are included that much, which means that the reader becomes more attached to them, therefore making it even more effective.
Alina was a brilliant protagonist. She was immediately natural and real to me, and I really connected with her character right from the start. Her personality was not only good, but she was often conflicted about the right things, and thought like a real person. She was also very brave, clever, self capable, she never acted like she had to prove herself as being better than anyone else. She acted realistically and I really cared about her quite early on in the book.
Mal was a great character. I didn't think he was going to be included that much, since the two are separated very near the beginning, but I was glad to see him appear again later on. I also loved how his story and character developed. He's a very lovely person, but he also has flaws that make him real. I liked him even in his short inclusion at the start, and then I loved him even more by the end.
The Darkling had be constantly changing my mind - in a good way. I was never quite sure whether he was the good guy, or the bad one, and he ended catching me off guard. He had that kind of eerie off feel to him that created mystery and a sort of foreboding, but then we had Alina's internal monologue questioning whether these ideas were right or not.
Genya was just a really nice character that I was happy was involved. I didn't like her at first, as I suspect is the idea. But she definitely grew on me. And the last part was so well done that it really brought the social scales and everything into perspective once again for the reader.
The pace was fairly consistent. There was quite a lot of down-time in it where there wasn't action, and often events that weren't entirely compulsory to the story. But there's so much going on in the actual story that it's hard to get bored at any point.
I would recommend this book to everyone ever, no matter what age you are, no matter what sort of thing you like to read. There's a lot in there; action, fantasy, romance etc. It's written so well that any age can easily get into it, and the story is so original, that I honestly absolutely loved reading it.
Image Source: http://leighbardugo.files.wordpress.com/2013/
02/shadow-and-bone_low-res.jpg
I thought I would probably like Shadow and Bone, but I had no idea how much I'd fall in love with it after I started reading. It was so quick and easy to fall into the world written on the page that I raced through this book. It's beautiful and enchanting and so realistic, but so fantastical at the same time. I need the next one. Now.
Shadow and Bone is set in a magical world enveloped in war. Alina and Mal grew up together as orphans, and are now heading towards the Fold in their regiment, a land of darkness terrorised by volcra, harpee-like creatures that few survive encounters with. But during an attack a bright light appears and saves the few still alive. When Alina comes to after the battle she is taken to the Grisha, the gifted of the population, with magical talents, and she is told the light came from her. Still puzzling over this fact as she's taken away to train, Alina starts to find out that there are darker motives behind her discovery and future.
The writing was great. It surprised a little how easy I found it, when it was written very well and in detail. It's not the typical writing style you'll find in Young Adult books - it's more mature and advanced, but not too sophisticated than needed.
The description was lovely, and I felt like I was there the whole time. The action was well presented, and the speech was well thought-through.
The best thing was the characters and their behaviour. I didn't doubt any of them at any point, and I was hanging on every action. They were so believable that they felt like real people to me, which then made the story so much more interesting and enticing.
The story may start off fairly typically, but it changes so dramatically afterwards. You have a reasonably normal girl in a dangerous situation that allows her to find out her hidden talents. Then she's whisked away and it seems she's unique and extremely powerful. Standard beginning to a story.
But then you get this detail and conflict during her time at the Grisha palace. Maybe it's typical again, but there's something that really caught my attention here. She knows she isn't good, and there's the rivalry between the other Grisha and her, but there's more to it than that. There's the friendship between Alina and Genya. And then there's the strange appearances of the Apparat. And then her relationship towards the Darkling. There's so many different elements weaved into one that the reader is constantly thinking and working out what's going on.
And then the whole thing is turned completely on it's head in a way I certainly didn't see coming. (Unfortunately I can't say what, because then that would ruin the story for you guys.) But it was so well done that I was just as doubtful as Alina as it happening. (I was convinced she was being set up for a while, actually.)
And then the end is wonderfully done. Maybe it goes back to the typical sort of plot for a while, but then it changes again, and there's so much detail and emotion added in that it doesn't really matter if it's been seen before - because the way Bardugo writes it makes it completely different and new again.
I fell in love with these characters, and I really want to know what happens to them, because I actually kind of care about them. There are only really a few characters that are included that much, which means that the reader becomes more attached to them, therefore making it even more effective.
Alina was a brilliant protagonist. She was immediately natural and real to me, and I really connected with her character right from the start. Her personality was not only good, but she was often conflicted about the right things, and thought like a real person. She was also very brave, clever, self capable, she never acted like she had to prove herself as being better than anyone else. She acted realistically and I really cared about her quite early on in the book.
Mal was a great character. I didn't think he was going to be included that much, since the two are separated very near the beginning, but I was glad to see him appear again later on. I also loved how his story and character developed. He's a very lovely person, but he also has flaws that make him real. I liked him even in his short inclusion at the start, and then I loved him even more by the end.
The Darkling had be constantly changing my mind - in a good way. I was never quite sure whether he was the good guy, or the bad one, and he ended catching me off guard. He had that kind of eerie off feel to him that created mystery and a sort of foreboding, but then we had Alina's internal monologue questioning whether these ideas were right or not.
Genya was just a really nice character that I was happy was involved. I didn't like her at first, as I suspect is the idea. But she definitely grew on me. And the last part was so well done that it really brought the social scales and everything into perspective once again for the reader.
The pace was fairly consistent. There was quite a lot of down-time in it where there wasn't action, and often events that weren't entirely compulsory to the story. But there's so much going on in the actual story that it's hard to get bored at any point.
I would recommend this book to everyone ever, no matter what age you are, no matter what sort of thing you like to read. There's a lot in there; action, fantasy, romance etc. It's written so well that any age can easily get into it, and the story is so original, that I honestly absolutely loved reading it.
Image Source: http://leighbardugo.files.wordpress.com/2013/
02/shadow-and-bone_low-res.jpg
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