Hello, everyone!

So I finished Shadow and Bone over the weekend and was overall very pleased. I’d never heard of it before the show’s release on Netflix, but I enjoyed it so much I wanted to see what the book was like. There are a lot of differences, both good and bad, as always. Lots of trade-offs between written words and film. In saying that, season 2 just dropped a few weeks back, so I will definitely be watching it.

Shadow and Bone (2012)

Published by: Macmillan

ISBN: 978-0-8050-9459-6

Worth your time? Yes

There is a lot to like about this book. First of all, Bardugo displays such rich worldbuilding. Though familiar and earthlike, the world of the Grishaverse feels fleshed-out and foreign enough to be fantastical. The names of the countries, characters, towns, and more each have roots in our world’s languages without being so familiar as to point to any one culture. However, there wasn’t so much in there that I was bogged down trying to translate.

Secondly, I really enjoyed the dynamic writing of the characters. Without too many spoilers, the Darkling was mysterious and dangerous. His tone and demeanor always carried an edge that made question his intentions at every turn. Though he didn’t change nearly as much as Alina did, I loved to hate him and hated to love him right alongside Alina. On the other hand, mostly toward the beginning, I didn’t find Alina’s character to be as enthralling. Perhaps it was intentional, but she was almost too simple and one-dimensional. Still, she developed quite a bit by the end of the book, blossoming into a strong, believable young woman as she revealed, reflected on, and grew from her experiences.

My only qualm with the book–which may be intentional, once again–is how sometimes things were kind of dropped into my lap out of the blue. For example, Alina’s character had been writing Mal for months with no response. But we weren’t told she had been writing until there were months with no response. I feel that could’ve been introduced earlier so that I’d have been biting my nails waiting to hear back from him, only to be let down. (This is one thing the show did better.) Instead, I was given a fleeting moment of, “Oh, she’s been writing him and he hasn’t replied? Hm.” And moved on with my life.

All in all, Shadow and Bone impressed me. I enjoyed the magic system, the characters, the writing style, the pacing. Even being published over a decade ago, it still holds a lot of value and proved to be a great read.