At the moment of writing this post, it is only halfway into February, I'm sipping my coffee before my seminar starts in a few hours. But I finished reading Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo a few days ago, and I wanted to write a review before I lose my thoughts on this book. Since I have my posts for #FaeFebruary all planned out, I've scheduled this post ahead for March. Bookstragram convinced me to read the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo, set in the same world as Shadow and Bone. After I finished (and loved) these two books I bought the Shadow and Bone trilogy for myself, but I didn't get started right away. However, the sneak peeks of the Netflix adaptation of Shadow and Bone were sooo mysterious and made me more curious to read the books. And so, I did. In the course of this month, I hope to read the entire series of Shadow and Bone, so that I am completely prepared to watch the Netflix series.
Shadow and Bone is a YA fantasy novel and is set in Ravka, a country where people with certain powers are called Grisha. We meet Alina, a mapmaker in the Second Army, who is kind of in love with Mal, who grew up with her, both as orphans. After both of them joined the army, Mal becomes a tracker and while they're still friends, they have grown apart. Alina is described have a sickly appearance, dull hair and dark circles under her eyes. But her life changes after they enter the Shadow Fold. A mistake made by a Darkling, where a piece of land became darkness and now monsters roam. When Mal and Alina, together with the others of the army are attacked in the Fold. Alina is capable of producing a lot of light and saves Mal. After this, she is taken to the Darkling. Who explains that she is Grisha, a sun-summoner. And the only one able to destroy the Shadow Fold.
I was surprised by how quickly I read this book. In two days I finished it and I enjoyed the read a lot. The writing of Leigh Bardugo has a good flow, which takes you away with the characters on their journey. I also enjoyed this when reading the Six of Crows duology. While the story and characters differ a lot from Six of Crows, I like that we see another part of this world. I have looked at the map of the second book in the series, which shows a larger view of their world, and I hope that we will see other countries too. I'm not sure if it was better to start with Shadow and Bone, but so far none of both books were spoiled here, or the other way around. So I guess that it doesn't matter that much. The pictures of the Netflix series did show Kaz and Inej from Six of Crows so I'm wondering if they will meet, or it Netflix combined both books in a series! I know that after these 5 books (Shadow&Bone trilogy + Six of Crows duology) I should read King of Scars, which will feature many of the earlier characters? I'm not sure though.
The pacing of the book was well done, I didn't feel like things were going slow or too fast. When Mal and Alina were travelling together, I enjoyed that some days were sped through to keep the pacing right. I'm curious to see where the story will go in the next two books, since there's still a lot of unfinished business. I really like this world of Bardugo, it feels very original and big. There's still so much hinted at but not told or explained. In other words, there's still a lot of reading for me to do!
I hope you enjoyed this review, let me know if you want me to review the Netflix series too because I'm very excited about that! Thank you for taking the time to read this post, I will see you in the next one!
With love,
Julia
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