s h a d o w & b o n e
- paigenherbooks
- Feb 11, 2022
- 4 min read
Rating: 4/5
I have to be real and honest guys...I really liked the book. Whole heartedly. I haven't felt this kind of joy since about sophomore year of high school. This book is YA (young adult) through and through. Is it cheesy? yes. Is the main character a "normal ugly plain girl", yes. Is she also way to over powered. Ummm of course. Does she also have two very attractive men vying for her attention. Yall know it, yes! But regardless of all of the shortcomings, this book reminded what it is to just read and not care about plot or heavy logical character development. I was grinning like a little school girl and squealing with delight from some of these scenes and I would not trade a THING about it.
Synopsis: The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka. Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom's magical elite—the Grisha.
Okay, lets talk about Shadow and Bone and everything I adored!! and then the reason she isn't a 5/5 for me!
Shadow and Bone is your classic YA novel in a lot of ways. Sometimes I felt like I was 16 again, obsessing over fictional characters (I still do this who am I kidding...) Again, lots of YA vibes throughout the book. First, Alina, our main character, is a bit cookie cutter, which surprised me because Bardugo has such a talent for having creative and very unique characters within her stories.
Now, don't get me wrong, I genuinely like Alina. Normally I kind of hate female YA main characters because they are all the same... (damsel in distress or way to op OR just annoying...sorry!) Alina is typical in a lot of ways. It's the classic "nothing special to look at, severely hidden overpowered, with attractive men gushing for her attention". So did I love that? Not entirely. But I will say Alina's Grisha power is pretty freaking cool, I did enjoy that part for sure! I also really love fresh and new female leads, and Alina's story was pretty basic. The character development, what little of it that there was, felt a little rushed in my opinion as well. This often happens with YA novels. Months pass in the span of two paragraphs, often leaving the reader with a whack sense of time. For example the book takes place within five months...I literally felt like it was a week. Though, in her defense, Alina wasn't too annoying. She was a little whiny as most are but I didn't entirely hate her character. She had redeeming qualities such as I thought her comebacks were actually funny. Also the way she processed things, for the most part, was normal and not super over the top. She was genuinely relatable.
Then the plot had a similar problem. It was a little slow in the beginning, and I attribute that to the world building. Though I've read the Six of Crows duology, Shadow and bone is truly the first Grisha world building story that Bardugo creates, so I understand the steady slow pace for the reader. But once things starting kicking off, no matter how cliché it was, it got interesting. I love the world of Grisha, so being able to really dive into at a first person point of view was great! Though...I will confess I read this book in literally three days.
So it had it's good points.
They may have been super cheesy but I still loved them. Like the characters were one dimension but SO WHOLESOME. This book was a very easy and delightful read. And again...I'll be honest, some of the cute little romance parts had me screaming and giggling, I just couldn't help it!
Which brings me to the classic slightly cringe but ultimately cute love triangle. Mal and the Darkling. So Mal, Mal, Mal. I initially didn't like him and to be honest I don't know if I do or I don't. I am struggling! He is the best friend and he has his little moments, but he literally ignored Alina until she was gone and then realized how in love he is with her. While I am a hopeless romantic...boy WHAT! I would understand but he literally flirted with anything that moved!! I also kinda hated how Alina moved on, realizing Mal was sorta a not so great love intrest...but then BOOM went right back to him. I just wasn't super feeling it. The Darkling though. Ohhhh man. That boy had me by the throat the entire time. I was infatuated and when he turned out to be evil....I still liked him. I know it was all just manipulation but I felt that him and Alina just had actual chemistry that Mal and her were really lacking. The Darkling's character was one of the only ones I felt that had real depth. He had a backstory and actual dialogue. He was in a sense cliché due to being brooding and dark, but it worked for him! Very Edward Cullen brooding vibes some parts and I am infatuated with Edward so I was in love. I really enjoyed his character and I am interested to see how he continues to be horribly amazing through the books.
All in all, I liked the book. Regardless of it's shortcomings it was nice to be giggly and giddy about these characters once again! I enjoyed the feeling of reading it, which I think is way more important than the character development or the plot progression. Reading for me is always an emotional thing. I love a great book don't get me wrong. Give me Jane Austen or Homer, anytime of the day. But sometimes reading for "fun", truly fun is just good for the s o u l. So yes, Shadow & Bone gets a 4/5 for me, mostly for the feelings and the cute little story surrounding it!
I look forward to starting Siege and Storm soon to see what nonsense Alina Starkov has gotten herself into!
Happy reading amigos
xoxo
paige :)
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