hello everyone! today i am going to be talking about shadow and bone by Leigh Bardugo. i gave this book 3/5 stars. i honestly liked this book, like it wasn’t that great of a book, and i definitely liked six of crows way more than this book, since it definitely had better writing and just characters, but i still enjoyed this one nonetheless.
trigger warning- animal death, violence, blood, toxic relationship, death, emotional abuse, gore, torture, murder, kidnapping, animal cruelty, death of a parent.
first thing first, i will probably get hate for this, but i literally did not like the darkling in the book. like, he was definitely a better character in the tv show, but i really don’t get the hype for him in the book. like, he was just toxic and he had that whole toxic white boy in a ya book. so, that was just annoying and i don’t really know what people see in book!darkling. and like he only wanted alina for her powers.
and i mean, i feel like this is just a basic YA book. like, it might be cause this is a little bit older, or maybe i just have questionable taste. but, i feel like the plot and the characters and the romance were just bland and generic, like it was just such a basic plot and characters and relationship. but, i mean, it was just kind of bad, and i wish they just fixed it up, or i just should have read this sooner, i would have liked this more.
and like all the tropes where like the dark prince, chosen one, and love triangle. which, i’m not a fan of the whole chosen one at all, since i just think it is boring and kind of overdone and just not that interesting of a plot. but, the love triangle was also not the best thing in the world, probably because i also hate that whole love triangle crap. and i mean, the whole dark prince wasn’t that bad, but it still could have been better.
but, i will say, one of the best parts of this was the world. like, i feel like the world building was so rich and just so cool. and that it was loosely inspired by Europe, but mainly Russia, i thought it was so cool. and i mean, i honestly really like fantasy worlds that are loosely based on different countries, so i honestly really liked the world so much. and i also think some of the names in here are more Russian inspired, so that was honestly so cool.
but, this is also a very light book, since it is kind of inspired by Russia, i do think that this was honestly kind of light, while until the ending. so, i do feel like it was kind of cool to get this light book, and it wasn’t like super dark like most fantasy books are. and i think that it was really cool that it did have the Russian element into it, so it almost gave them this whole brothers grimm feel, which i thought was super cool.
i also really liked the writing too. i really feel like there was so much attention to detail and that there was. and also just talking about the world building, i felt like they did it so well. and the writing would honestly flow very well. and i mean, some people have some very choppy writing, where i feel like this just flowed and also didn’t forget some of the more side characters or anything.
but, i will say, i do think that some of these parts of this book was just plain boring and it just didn’t work. like, i believe it might have been on twitter or even instagram i made a comment about how you could just skip five pages and you would still know what was happening cause it was just boring. and while the writing was good, i just feel like there was parts were boring and nothing happened. which, did get to be kind of annoying, and i wished it didn’t have some of these unneeded moments.
i kind of talked about the side characters a little bit, but i do honestly really liked some of the side characters. especially since we now know that they get their own series, so i think it was honestly really cool to see them in here to get an introduction to them. and i think that was honestly just so cool. especially since this is such a big world, and i think that there is so many books.
and i will say, i do feel like genya and david is the best characters in this book. like, i believe they are in king of scars, so getting all of that was honestly really cool and i really liked seeing that. so, i mean i did enjoy reading them about that, and just to see the two of them, and honestly to see them interact throughout the book.
also, i didn’t really care about the darkling, like i already said. i mean, he was just one of those dick characters that only want the power and can give two shits about alina as a person. and i mean, i feel like people only like him in the book cause he is that dark haired bad boy villain. but, i still literally don’t care about him.
but, i will say, that mal was kind of one sided in the book. like, he really didn’t have a personality or anything real about him, besides him and alina were friends before them. but, i mean he was kind of self centered, but i still honestly like him more than i like the darkling, since i feel like he was way less toxic. but, i mean, he just didn’t have a personality.
but, i also feel like alina was still kind of flat. i mean, she did have this whole ‘oh shit i have this power, but i don’t so your wrong,’ when she is lighting up like a lava lamp. and it honestly just annoyed me that she didn’t believe her powers, but i mean, i guess once the stag came in, it kind of all went on the window.
anyway, that is all for today! i honestly liked the show so much better than the book, since i feel like the crows were so much better than this book. but, i will say, i’m kind of excited to read the rest of the series, cause i think they get better as they get going.
r.bookish 