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Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo: Worth it?
By Haylee Crapo
Shadow and Bone is book one to the Grishaverse, an overarching universe containing multiple books written by Leigh Bardugo. It takes place in a world featuring the Grisha (magical beings with powers), royal kingdoms, and something called the ‘Unsea’ (a large expanse of darkness that contains murderous creatures that feed on those who cross their territory). The reader follows the life of the main character, Alina Starkov, an orphan soldier going along in life with her childhood best friend and fellow orphan, Malyen “Mal” Oretsev.
However, the moment that Mal and Alina must cross the Unsea together, everything goes horribly wrong. The event reveals something that was once hidden deep inside Alina. She now must leave her old life behind in order to master this new power with a man known as the Darkling. But as secrets are revealed and hidden plots are uncovered, will Alina go back to her old ways of living? Will she embrace this new part of herself and those that come with it? Or will she go for the third option and carve her own path–away from the people telling her who she can or can’t be?
Told through Alina’s point of view, the reader sees everything happening to her as she experiences it, and honestly? It gets brutal. You’re with Alina through intense ups and downs in her life, and Bardugo does an amazing job at creating characters that are extremely human and relatable.
With an ever-twisting plot filled to the brim with compelling fantasy, heart-wrenching romance, and corruption, Shadow and Bone will take you on a journey that will make you laugh, cry, become speechless, and want to read the next two books (Siege and Storm and Run and Rising) immediately.
You will fall in love with not only the characters, main and background, but with the intense plot, fantastical setting, and jaw-dropping writing as well. Once you dip your toes into the universe, you’ll want to emerge yourself completely!
Totally worth it! 4/6 stars!
