Shadow and Bone (Full Trilogy)

If you’ve been following my bookstagram at all, then you know that I have recently found an intense love for Leigh Bardugo and her books. It started with Six of Crows, where I marveled at the way she built the world of the Grishaverse. It continued in Crooked Kingdom, where I cried over characters who weren’t good but weren’t bad—who were young and human and flawed and perfect.

I continued my Bardugo journey with the Shadow and Bone Trilogy. And goodness gracious. I read all three books in just over two days. If I’m being honest, the plot of the trilogy wasn’t quite as polished as Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, but GAH! Just the way she writes! It’s so captivating! I loved getting more backstory of the universe I had come to love in Six of Crows, and I LOVED the complexity of the characters! 

Bardugo has this thing where the first and last chapter of each book is different from the rest of the book. In Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, the difference was in the characters—they were from the POV of characters who didn’t have recurring chapters. In the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the first and last chapter of each book was written in third person. But it wasn’t as simple as that. It was written as if it were being told as an old myth or fairytale. I loved it! The rest of the chapters were written in first person, from the perspective of Alina Starkov.

Her character was fairly consistent. Most of the time, first person POV characters are inconsistent, but Alina’s actions always seemed to line up. She was a bit naive and acted a lot without taking much time to think, but she was consistent. Thank goodness. I’ll have to admit that she wasn’t my favorite character, and I basically hated her main love interest as a person, but the narration was definitely good enough to carry the story through (and enough to make me FALL IN LOVE with a few of the other characters!!!!).

Also, the ending was. Wow. Intense. The whole thing was intense. I’d definitely suggest giving it a read! As is typical of me, I cried at the end (and I was at work… so glad it was an incredibly slow day). I didn’t want it to be over. I’m still in awe of the story and world that Bardugo weaved.

Fun story, if you know the book, do you remember that moment on page 361 of Ruin and Rising? Well, I had just started the paragraph near the bottom of the page when I got a call whose ID was from UT STATE GOVT. I guess the situation just threw me off, because I was trying SO HARD not to laugh during the entire conversation with the woman on the line. After I finally transferred her to the department she was looking for, I doubled over in laughter. It took me a good five minutes to finish the rest of the chapter, which was less than two pages long. 

Yeah. Good times.

If you’ve read these books, who was your favorite character? Did you like how things ended with Alina? I want to hear it all (but I don’t want to say it all here because I’m trying to keep this spoiler-free)!

Shop the Grishaverse by Leigh Bardugo!

Shadow and Bone Trilogy:

Six of Crows Duology:

King of Scars Duology (or… half of it at least):