Shadow and Bone [Review]

Shadow and Bone

From the Grisha Trilogy

By Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone starts out with two orphans, and inseparable best friends, Alina Starkov and Malyen "Mal" Oretsev. When they were around 8 years old they were tested to see if they were Grisha, or practitioners of the Small Science. There are several different groups and subdivisions of Grisha, and I suspect even more that we'll learn about in the remaining books. It was all a little overwhelming and confusing at first, so I was happy to find a little list of the types of Grisha Soldiers of the Second Army, as well as a map of the lands of this fantasy world.

Doesn't the Unsea look positively terrifying?

Fast forward a few years and Alina and Mal are part of the army, Alina as a cartographer's assistant and Mal as a tracker. Mal has become cocky and a bit of a flirt and Alina is totally crushing on him hard, of course. Unfortunately Mal doesn't seem to be interested in more than friendship, and that doesn't do much for Alina's self esteem. She continually puts herself down throught the book, describing her looks as "tired and sickly skinny", with "dull brown hair". Regardless of how she feels about herself, when we meet her friend and fellow cartographer's assistant Alexei you instantly get the impression that there is no short supply of unrequited love to go around. That's not a spoiler, it's just that obvious, but I won't get into anymore detail about what happens between him and Alina.

So, long story short it's discovered that Alina does in fact have powers that she somehow managed to suppress before. The Darkling, who is basically #2 in command after the king, pretty much tortures it out of her and they discover that she is something called a "Sun Summoner", the only Grisha of her kind. The Darkling's men then whisk her off to the kingdom in Os Alta, and what does Mal, her childhood friend and (secret) love of her life, do? Absolutely nothing. He just watches everything that happens and does NOTHING to try to stop it.

Once she arrives at the palace, Alina is allowed to rest a little before she is cleaned up and presented to the King. The King is ecstatic about her existence, but still manages to comment on how "plain" she is, because what are a few more blows to the non-existent ego, right? She then begins training to learn how to summon and control her powers, as it is believed that she is the key to destroying the Shadow Fold, and reuniting the two sides of Ravka. Alina struggles with all aspects of her training, and as time passes she starts to feel more and more isolated in this new world she's been thrust into. We begin to see how much growing up an orphan has really affected her in the way that she is so desperate to belong anywhere and to anyone, and how that it clouds her judgement and sways her decicions.

I don't want to say much more and give anything away, because this is definitely a book that I would recommend, especially for anyone who has ever considered themselves plain and unworthy of the attention of others. Alina starts off struggling, but she learns a lot about herself from it, and uses that to help her improve and get stronger. The more she embraces who she really is, the more it begins to affect her body and spirit as well.

I mean, that's some inspirational shit right there.

Violence Rating: R (Death)

Romance Rating: PG 13 (Kissing, some petting, some insinuations of sex)

Favorite Quotes:

"Good luck? Have a lovely time, Mal. Hope you find a pretty Grisha, fall deeply in love, and make lots of gorgeous, disgustingly talented babies together. "

"I'm not a Grisha, I'm a mapmaker. I'm not even a very good mapmaker."

D: "What are you smiling at?"

A: "Myself,"

D: "Are you that funny? "

A: "I'm hilarious."

"Dear Mal, I haven't heard from you, so I assume you've met and married a volcra and that you're loving comfortably on the Shadow Fold, where you have neither light nor paper with which to write. Or, possibly,  your new bride ate both your hands."

A: "So you don't want a bite?"

M: "I didn't say that."

A: " I was going to give you a bite, but since you don't want one, I'll just have to eat the whole thing by myself. "

M: "You are a brat."

A: " Ah, but I'm a brat with a sweet roll."

M: "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

A: "Grisha training. Ancient secrets of the groin kick."