Shadow and Bone (The Grisha: Book 1) Review.

I know, hold up! This isn’t just in your imagination.

After bloody AGES I am finally back with another book review. Okay, it wasn’t THAT long but my blog hasn’t been very booky recently but that is changing NOW.

So this month I am reading Shadow and Bone (and A Darker Shade Of Magic) with my Instagram crew and I’m not sure how I haven’t read these two books already. But without further ado. . .

The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.

Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite – the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?

The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfil her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.

But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?

This book was brilliant. The plot was so quick to get going and there was never a dull moment and the whole idea of the book was so captivating and made time whisk away, I just couldn’t put the book down. When I first read the blurb to this book, I thought that the Darkling was going to be bad, but then I was so surprised and then I was surprised again and this book just kept on surprising me. I don’t know what it is about Leigh Bardugo’s writing, but her books are always so unexpected and always take a huge turn.

The book as a whole was great. I loved the quick page to it all, it made the whole book so tense and exciting and I was reading it SO quickly because I just HAD to know what was going to happen. I think in terms of writing style this is probably my favourite Leigh Bardugo book so far, I think that the first person PoV made the book much more intriguing because we actually got into the main character’s head and could see her thought process. However, more things could have been used to make the plot even more unexpected if it was third person, but I don’t think that was needed because of how perfect the book was as a whole and more unexpected things would have made the book—and Alina—seem naive and like it was just this girl trying to go out and do something and would make it seem like she wasn’t thinking about her actions, or anything, at all.

I’m not quite sure why, (perhaps just because of me having to put the book down to sleep) but the last 50 or so pages sort of slowed a bit? I’m sure it’s just because of having to halt my reading but I still liked the ending. The general outline of the ending was probably the least unexpected part of the book, because about half way through the way the book is heading the end point is pretty clear just because of the information gained. However, that’s not to say that it wasn’t a good ending, it really was. I was getting rather emotional by the end because so many things could have happened and the fates of different characters were hanging in the balance and it could have gone one of two ways.

Alina was an odd character I thought, because right when things were kicking off I thought she was a bitt childish and naive, but then it turns out that she recognises this and therefore gave her even more character development. In the beginning she was often confused, quick to trust, and hesitant (sort of) but then as the book went on she quickly became this strong independent—towards the end—character. Perhaps it was to do with the quick pace of the book that made her seem to change so rapidly, as the book was set over six months or so.

As I’ve said many times in this review, I loved this book and I think that very soon I’ll be buying the next one because damn this was good. I don’t even know how I’ve waited this long to read it, what was I doing with my life before?? If you haven’t read it, go read it NOW because you’re missing out!

Lu x