amira_95
Written on Jun 30, 2021
*The Grishaverse will be coming to Netflix soon with Shadow and Bone, an original series!*
Enter the Grishaverse with book three of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy by number one New York Times-bestselling author Leigh Bardugo. Perfect for fans of Laini Taylor and Sarah J. Maas.
Now with a stunning new cover and exclusive bonus material: The Demon in the Wood (a Darkling prequel story) and a Q&A with Leigh Bardugo.
Soldier. Summoner. Saint.The nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
The Darkling rules from his shadow throne while a weakened Alina Starkov recovers from their battle under the dubious protection of the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Now her hopes lie with the magic of a long-vanished ancient creature and the chance that an outlaw prince still survives.
As her allies and enemies race toward war, only Alina stands between her country and a rising tide of darkness that could destroy the world. To win this fight, she must seize a legend's power - but claiming the firebird may be her ruin.
Read all the books in the Grishaverse!
The Shadow and Bone Trilogy
(previously published as The Grisha Trilogy)
Shadow and Bone
Siege and Storm
Ruin and Rising
The Six of Crows Duology
Six of Crows
Crooked Kingdom
The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic
- ISBN10 1250063167
- ISBN13 9781250063168
- Publish Date 18 August 2015 (first published 17 June 2014)
- Publish Status Active
- Imprint Square Fish
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 480
- Language English
Reviews
herseriallife
Written on Apr 18, 2021
Ruin and Rising is the third book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy by Leigh Bardugo. This book put me through the wringer due to what happened in it. I was not expecting it to end the way it did, and I was kind of disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy reading this book but was expecting something else to happen at the end. After reading Leigh Bardugo’s interview at the end of this book, I know why she ended the way it did, but I still can be disappointed. I still love you, Leigh Bardugo, and look forward to reading the Six of Crows books next.
Storyline/My Thoughts: First, if you have not read these books, then I would recommend not reading this review. I’m going to try not to write spoilers, but I may end up mentioning something from the previous books.
This book picks up where the last book left off. I could have dealt without the Apparat, who drove me crazy on how he treated Alina and her team at the beginning of this book. Apparat was someone who could double-cross you at any moment, and if he did it to the King and the Darkling, he could’ve done it to Alina.
I’ve stated it above, but I was disappointed with how this book ended. I was also disappointed that the Darkling only got a few moments in this book, just like the previous book. Yes, I’m one of those readers who loves a villain, and I was hoping he would get reformed somehow. He will always be one of my favorite villains. (I highly recommend reading his prequel when he was a kid and finding out what happened to him.)
I also was disappointed with what happened to Alina at the end of everything. I know she gets a HEA with the one she truly loves, though, and who is there for her along the way, but I still was hoping for a different HEA. I felt the person she ended up with was not the right character. There was also a twist in this story that I was not expecting when Alina and her team looked for the third amplifier. Be prepared if you do read this to be in shock. I was in shock and had to read a few times to understand what was happening. Leigh Bardugo knows how to keep the reader on the edge of her seat with anticipation and shock.
What did I like about this book? The constant knowing what Alina, Mal, Nikolai, Tamar, etc., were going to come in contact with next when it came to battle. They went through a lot in this book. Leigh Bardugo did not make it easy. There are going to be deaths in this book that will be hard to get through. I know a couple that bothered me. I loved the constant banter in this book, too, between Alina and Nikolai. These two were great friends.
I grew to love other characters in this book, and I can’t wait to read more about them in King of Scars and Rules of Wolves. Yes, it’s dealing with Prince Nikolai. He’s one I fell hard for, too, in the book. I didn’t like what happened to him either, but I know Leigh Bardugo will give a HEA (eventually). He deserves it.
Although I was disappointed with this book, I still can find myself wanting to re-read it again in the future. I’m looking forward more than ever to read other books in the Grishaverse. I know Leigh Bardugo will be one author; I will continue to buy her books, no matter what she writes, because her stories are addicting.
Standalone or Part of Series: It’s part of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy and I highly recommend reading in order. It’s also part of the Grishaverse series by Leigh Bardugo, too.
Cliffhanger: No.
HEA: Yes. Somewhat of a HEA for Alina. (Not the kind of HEA I was looking for though.)
Would I recommend this book? Yes. If you are a fan of Young Adult Fantasy, then I recommend this trilogy to you. I’m so glad I read these books before the Shadow and Bone series releases on April 23rd. Now, I can’t wait for the show. (Although I need to read the Six of Crows Duology before then, too.)
Please, keep an open mind when reading this trilogy because if you fall for a particular character like I did, you’ll be upset about what happens in the ending.
g2pro
Written on Mar 21, 2021
Quirky Cat
Written on Dec 14, 2020
Ruin and Rising is the third, and final novel in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone Trilogy. However! It's worth noting that this is not the last Grishaverse novel, as there are at least two (for the moment) other series that directly tie in. Naturally, I'm pretty ecstatic about that fact.
Alina nearly gave up everything in an attempt to finally take the Darkling out for good. It was a move that didn't' work out quite the way she hoped. Now, she's weakened, her allies are dwindling, and the Darkling is still growing in power.
She must stop him. Yet the question remains, how? All of her hopes and dreams lie on the third amplifiers, the mysterious firebird. But is Alina really willing to take a third life in her quest (however unwilling) for power?
“I'm the Sun Summoner. It gets dark when I say it does.”
It should probably go without saying that I am very much behind on the times when it comes to reading this series. On the bright side, I can tell you that The Shadow and Bone trilogy holds up! I really enjoyed this whole trilogy, and am ever happier to know that the stories are far from over.
Ruin and Rising was a powerful, heartbreaking, and enthralling read. Right from the very first page, down to the last detail. I enjoyed every minute of it. Though I'll confess that there's an extra level of satisfaction that I found, in that some of my theories ended up being true. Gotta love it when that happens!
Honestly, there was a shocking amount to enjoy about this novel, and the series as a whole as well. I can see why people gush about it so much now! I adored Alina, her whole plot arc, and the journeys she was forced to go on.
Likewise, the secondary characters really did make the world feel so alive. How they each had their own traits, desires, and goals added complexity and believable nature of the world, and I couldn't get enough of it.
“Beauty was your armor. Fragile stuff, all show. But what's inside you? That's steel. It's brave and unbreakable. And it doesn't need fixing.”
There's no doubt that this was a bittersweet ending. In many ways, I don't think Bardugo could have created a better ending, as this is the one that everyone – both fans and characters – deserved. I say that knowing full well that not everyone will be happy with the canon ship (after all, with three options, fans were always going to get let down somewhere along the way!).
Next, I'm hoping to get through the Six of Crows duology, following by King of Scars, before the next novel (Rule of Wolves) releases. Not to mention the Netflix show! I HAVE to be caught up by then!
Check out more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks
lisacee
Written on Mar 23, 2020
pamela
Written on Mar 22, 2020
Alina Starkov is a genuinely great anti-hero. She's complicated, has a believable set of anxieties about her role, and manages to walk the line between potential villain and actual saint with a truth that is rare in YA heroines. My big problem with her, though, is that she doesn't actually do anything. She has a handful of impressive displays of power, but none of them come when they're actually needed. At times in the narrative where she needed to be powerful and impressive, she failed to do anything of note. In one scene, we see her literally lop the top of a mountain in practice, and in the very next scene, her power suddenly seems to be ineffectual. She's meant to be the all-powerful Sun Summoner, but she does very little with her power other than make some pretty lights. It's the people around her who do all the impressive world-saving leg-work.
The series' most significant downfall is the secondary characters. We've seen a lot of them disappear from the narrative in previous books, and Ruin and Rising gives us a brand new set of satellite characters who have had no development up until now. The characters with the most growth are those left over from book one, but the new ones are just there to give Alina a sense of responsibility, and to show her grief when she fails. They lack personality, and character, so when any of them die, are hurt, or betray her, it just didn't matter. I didn't feel anything for them.
The other issue I have with the series is that there wasn't enough development of the logic behind Grisha magic. There is no explanation explored for the unique powers that both Alina and the Darkling exhibit. They exist in the plot only so that they could both be special making it feel more McGuffin than actually integral to the story. Even the Fold, the volcra, and the nichevo'ya didn't make a logical sense in the development of the narrative. We didn't learn how they were created, only that they were...because magic.
The biggest problem with Ruin and Rising however, is its ending. Alina, an independently powerful woman, is metaphorically castrated so she can have a happy ending with a man who is threatened by that power. It was cheap, and Alina deserved better. She deserved a less neat ending. I felt like Bardugo took the easy option, rather than really thinking about how best to serve her characters.
I've said it twice already now, but The Shadow and Bone Trilogy should have been written as adult High Fantasy, and not as YA. There is so much potential in this story, and Leigh Bardugo is a very, very good writer. She needed more space, and a more mature cast of characters to really bring this story to life.
Nessa Luna
Written on Mar 9, 2020
Like the previous book, this one has some nice action in the first couple of chapters that got me really excited, and it has some other battles throughout the entire book, which I loved because I am a person of action. I can't really say which of the battle scenes were my favourite because they were all amazing and thrilling.
There weren't really any new characters in this book, apart from the Soldat Sol but not a lot of them were actually called by name so I didn't really remember any of them until the end. Then there was Baghra's servant boy who was called Misha (which made me laugh out loud because I imagined an eight-year-old Misha Collins after this), who I loved a lot because he was adorable. Of course, there were all the old characters, including Genya, David, Tamar, Tolya and Zoya. I have to say, I got used to Zoya a bit more in this story, and I actually started liking her a bit. There was one particular scene where Alina was feeling awful because of something she'd seen, and there were Genya, Nadia, Zoya and Tamar looking after her and trying to make her feel better. I loved them even more after that.
As for the romance, there was still a bit of a love quartet going on, which I still didn't really enjoy. I still ship Alina and Mal a lot and I was really rooting for them throughout this book, even though they've had some rough times in the second book.
The writing was, as usual, amazing and I just wanted to keep on reading and reading, until the last couple of chapters, which kind of took me a whole day to read. I didn't want it to end, and I didn't want it to end badly, so I just read really slowly and put the book down at least five times in an hour so I could watch some TV or check the internet. But that was just me being extremely nervous.
I have to say, I am very happy with the way the book and the series ended, it did give me a lot of emotions and I kept on shouting 'no' and 'omg' in the last couple of chapters, but I loved it, and I think Leigh made the right choices. Some things really surprised me, and others didn't really, but it was just really really good. Yes.
In the end, I loved Ruin and Rising a lot, and I am so glad I decided to follow Lauren DeStefano's advice and pick up the first book. If you love books about magic (although it's not really magic) set in a world similar to Russia, you should definitely check out the Grisha trilogy!
My reaction to this book in one gif:
maggiefan
Written on Jan 25, 2020
alessio
Written on Oct 13, 2019
Recensione con spoiler
Ruin and Rising è, per fortuna, l'ultimo libro della trilogia Grishaverse, perciò questa recensione sarà anche una recensione della trilogia completa e sarà, ovviamente, ricca di spoiler.
Trama
Ruin and Rising segue la stessa struttura dei libri precedenti: prime duecento pagine inutili, ricche di chiacchiere e progetti sul futuro, altre cento pagine dedicate al viaggio per trovare l'animale leggendario, ultime cinquanta pagine per la battaglia contro il male e l'epilogo.
Per tutta la durata del libro non accade nulla di interessante e gli approfondimenti dei personaggi sono ridotti al minimo.
Finale
Dopo infinite pagine dedicate al solito viaggio, dove i personaggi vanno in giro a caso basandosi solo sul fiuto di quel segugio di Mal, ad un certo punto arriviamo al finale. Non si sa bene perché, ma eccoci tutti dentro alla Fold (penso sia corretto il femminile) a combattere per l'ennesima volta il Darkling, come sempre con un piano superficiale che verrà ignorato dopo mezzo paragrafo.
Il combattimento è, come nei libri precedenti, confusionario e molto casuale. Ci viene detto che qualcuno muore e che qualcun altro rimane ferito, ma non sappiamo bene il perché. Ad un certo punto eccoci faccia a faccia con il Darkling, la nemesi della trilogia, il Grisha più forte di tutti, colui che controlla le ombre e... che muore con un coltello nel cuore. Semplicemente, Alina accoltella il Darkling, lui muore e tutti vissero felici e contenti. Mal muore, ma dopo due pagine torna in vita, non sia mai che un co-protagonista muoia in questa trilogia!
Inoltre, la trama di questo libro si basa su due elementi: la corruzione che sta prendendo Alina (solo teoricamente, in realtà è sempre la stessa del primo libro) e il fatto che il terzo amplificatore richiederà un enorme sacrificio da parte sua.
Alina ottiene il terzo amplificatore e il sacrificio consiste nel fatto che perde il suo potere, dandolo però in forma minore a molte altre persone.
Trecento pagine di discorsi su sacrifici e perdite gravissime, e poi questo è il finale? Piuttosto deludente.
[...Recensione completa sul mio blog: https://www.artedellalettura.it/]
Conclusioni
Finita la trilogia posso dire senza problemi che è stata una perdita di tempo e una delusione. Evitatela, passate direttamente a leggere Six of Crows.