TBR Challenge Review: Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo
PUBLISHER:
The Grisha Book 1
Source:
Purchased
Shadow and Bone is one of those books that proves familiar doesn't mean repetitive. There are many elements to S& B that feel familiar. It’s a series (yes ANOTHER ONE), stars a female protagonist with a powerful gift that could save or destroy her kingdom, and there is a man, well two in fact who are drawn to our main character.
So with so many familiar elements why does Shadow and Storm succeed? It’s all due to Leigh and her many talents: Makeup Artist, Musician, a fan of glamour and ghouls , all of this personal voice leads to an engaging reading experience.
The Characters
Alina Starkov is an orphan in a kingdom recovering from wars and attacks by supernatural creatures. The various soldiers of The second Army are the main form of defense in Alina’s world the are magical yet fierce and are lead by the powerful Darkling. Alina and her best friend Mal have grown up in the world apart from the luxury of The Grisha, Alina as an apprentice Cartographer and Mal as a soldier. Things are upended in Alina’s world when she is part of the crossing of the Unsea, where she manifests a startling gift.
The two male leads Mal and The Darkling are interesting, and the feelings Alina has for both of them have logical conflicts.
Mal is absent for awhile as Alina is immediately taken off to the Grisha community.
The remainder of the book focus on Alina’s Grisha training and the machinations of The Darkling. I really enjoyed learning about Alina’s world, she is a very interesting character and Leigh has a very vivid narrative style that brings all the characters to life vividly.
The only hang-up for me was that a bit of the book felt like filler because its the first in a trilogy, I find this happens in a lot of trilogies. Overall this was a solid read with a culmination of the majority of story threads yet open potential for the next two books.
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