Book Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo 
#1 in the Grisha series
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co. 
Pages: 368
Received: ARC from publisher 
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars, Special Shelf

Summary

From Goodreads:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

Review

The girl who lived!

Look, I know, I'm totally supposed to be over the plot of "ordinary kid finds out they're THE ONE and will vanquish all evil and bring about paradise on Earth" yada yada. And I know I'm probably supposed to roll my eyes at yet another book centering around that tired plot...but guess what?

I'm still so completely ON that bandwagon. I don't care how many times it's been done. Finding out Alina may be THE ONE was pretty much a Score! moment for me.

Alina is also a character I just straight up liked. Sure she may get down on herself sometimes because she's plain and not a stunning beauty (even though I picture her as very pretty, just like I do for all my main characters. I'm shallow like that), but I liked that she isn't perfect.

Up until the events of the book, Alina lived life as an orphan soldier (badass + orphan bonus points!). And, given that the setting is loosely based on Tsarist Russia, yeah, Alina's used to HARD living (the Russian Army wasn't known for its creature comforts). She's reluctant, cautious, and reserved. But, I also get the sense that she would be a blast at a sleepover party if she felt comfortable. And that's a good thing, because I'm totally extending an invitation to her (and her best friend. That girl totally needs to use her magic on me).
 

I'm caught in the middle of a love triangle

I think Alina's pretty much made up her mind at this point, but I certainly haven't! There are two guys but this isn't one of those dreaded love triangles with an indecisive main character who strings both guys along. Alina is never untrue and she never plays the part of the indecisive floozy.

You can leave that role to me though, because my gosh, I want BOTH of those guys! The Darkling is all Tall, Dark, and Handsome mixed with a heavy dose of Mysterious and a gigantic helping of Dangerous thrown in for good measure. He is seriously scary and I'm pretty sure he's evil in the Real Deal actual evil kind of way.

But oh boy is he hot. There's this one scene where Alina's feeling the whole "This is so wrong but it feels so good that I don't really care if I die just so long as I can continue this kiss for a minute more" kind of thing and I was equally swept up in the moment.

The Darkling is The Fourth Pastry: that fourth pastry calling out to me all seductively sweet and I just know I shouldn't eat it and I already ate three and I really shouldn't eat more...buuuut, oooh I so want to devour it. He's like that. Bad for me, but soooo good.

The other guy Mal is the best-friend-maybe-more love interest who reminded me a little of Gale from The Hunger Games with his steadfast friendship and outdoorsy masculinity. He's the kind of guy I picture having "capable hands." There's also a little protectiveness ala Jay from The Body Finder thrown in for good measure, too. Mal and Alina grew up together as orphans and then served together in the army, so they're particularly tight.

Sadly Mal doesn't have as much pagetime as I would have liked (but the Darkling helped fill the void). He's there in the beginning and then he comes back toward the end, but he's gone for pretty much the whole middle. BUT, what he's doing during that time is, oh my, well, I can't spoil anything for you!

What about the rest of the story?

I know I'm focusing on the characters a lot, but that's completely because I'm a character girl and not at all because there isn't much plot to talk about. Because there is a TON of plot to talk about! It's my favorite kind, too.

Let's see, the book starts with some basic Setting the Stage and quickly takes a trip into the Shadow Fold. What is this Fold? It is terrifying! The ARC cover for Shadow and Bone was perfect for this scene: Pitch dark and splattered with blood. It was so awesome! I appreciated a lot of things Leigh Bardugo did as an author, but this scene, aaahh this scene! Perfection. It was like I was standing right there.

Then the plot moves into my beloved court setting! You know what that means, right? Big house oogling, balls, fancy extravagant things, and INTRIGUE! And Alina goes to this court to learn, so it's really like a cross between a court setting and a boarding school. More points! AND, she doesn't just go to learn bookish stuff, but she also learns how to fight magically with lessons from both the hot Darkling and a creepy old lady who sometimes veers into sweet old lady territory but is totally hiding some Big Secrets. Even more points!!

THEN, (yes, there's more!) then we move into the questing part of the story. There isn't a whole lot of time spent on this, but the time that is spent there was glorious and everything I want out of a good quest. Which is to say it was both exciting and romantically charged. But then bad things happen and my heart was in my throat because I couldn't imagine how my beloved characters were going to get away ok. It was all so fantastically tense.

Bottom line

All of the elements came together perfectly for me and there is not even the slightest bit of hesitation as I add Shadow and Bone firmly to my Special Shelf.

The ending isn't a cliffhanger, but it isn't tied up neatly either. Stuff is brewing on the horizon, especially as fallout after everything that just happened, but for now Alina and I can take a deep breath and prepare. Or, you know, impatiently count down the days until the release of Siege and Storm (book 2).

Explanation of rating system: Star Rating Key 

Do you have any questions about Shadow and Bone that I haven't addressed? 
Feel free to ask in the comments!

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Shadow and Bone releases today--No More Waiting!

Did you catch the interview Ruby and I did with Leigh Bardugo? Complete will all the very important questions!

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