The Gathering Dark (Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #1) (Grishaverse, #1)

by Leigh Bardugo

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. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free? The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfil her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him. But what of Mal, Alina's childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can't she ever quite forget him? Glorious. Epic. Irresistible. Romance.

• ISBN10: 1780621116
• ISBN13: 9781780621111
• Publish Date: 3 May 2012
• Publish Status: Cancelled
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hachette Children's Group
• Imprint: Indigo (an Imprint of Orion Children's)
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[celinenyx]

I heard a lot about Shadow and Bone when it was released years ago. Young adult fantasy has never worked well for me - the easier-going kind of narratives always seemed slightly jarring when combined with epic worlds. This book was a pleasant surprise. The world has different kinds of magic, but a Russian/Eastern-Europe inspired world. It's a familiar story, but told refreshingly enough to make it interesting.

I felt like the politics could have been more complex though, and the writing occasionally had the tendency to narrate the mundane too much, like moving from one place to another. It was immensely readable, though, and it struck the right balance between light scenes and darkness.

---
Trigger warnings: violence, death, questionable consent, orphanhood.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Book review coming soon. Working on finishing this series/trilogy.

[alindstadtcorbeax]

I don’t know. It’s 5:32 in the morning. RTC
Siege & Storm in hand. Gonna start it regardless of being kinda tired. This is what happens when your greyhound barks her head off at you at 2 in the morning to go outside.

5/29/18 - 4.5 stars. Solid world & character building, and character building- except for Mal. Great about how he’s this great tracker & all but... he & Alina are supposed to have something that I just do not feel at ALL. He seems just whiny and kind of, no completely, BLAND, esp with Alina.

However, I have genuine love for Alina, & was constantly rooting for her. I think the way her character was continually growing was beautiful to watch. As are her relationships with various people. Genya, anyone?!?!?

Also, I had an awkward, odd love for the darkling that waxed, waned & quickly dissipated. He’s just a super dangerous & powerful emo kid Lol

This one had a solid beginning, middle, and ending. No complaints here!

Lovelovelove ♥️

"The power was there, somewhere inside me, but I couldn't reach it, and I didn't know why." (Alina Starkov)

Shadow and Bone has been on my radar long before it's release, but two factors kept me away:
1)The hype.
2)Bad memories. I loaned this book to a friend and never saw it again.
But, I decided to put my doubts aside and give Shadow and Bone a try. And, yes, I'm very excited that I finally got to read one of Leigh Bardugo's works.

Alina, the main character of Shadow and Bone, is discovered to be a sun summoner, a rare type of Grisha, who has the power to destroy the Shadow Fold and save Ravka. Alina's heroic and sarcastic and gives as good as she gets, but she's also plagued with just the right amount of skepticism and self-doubt. Through her narrative, I was able to discover the Grisha world at the same pace that she does and share her fascination and wonder. However, Alina is fixated with beauty. She describes everyone around her to be full of attractiveness, but sees herself as plain and worthless.

Alina might be plain, but she has two potential love interests in Shadow and Bone, her chidlhood best friend, Mal, and one of the most powerful Grisha to ever live, The Darkling. Neither of them are suitable love interests. Mal's personality doesn't shine through. All I know about him is that he's a ladies man and a damn good tracker. Then, there's The Darkling, a very interesting character with loads of personality. He's powerful, dangerous and charismatic - a very well written villain.

The world-building is not quite up to fantasy novel standards, but I enjoy reading about it. I love books that incorporate elements of Russia and Russian History. But, the different types of ranking, power and clothing of The Grisha confuses me.

Usually, after reading the first book in a series, I rush to get my hands on the second, but this time, I don't feel an urge to read Siege and Storm. Shadow and Bone is a good book, but it's overhyped.

""Fine," he (The Darkling) said with a weary shrug. "Make me your villain.""

[Leah]

This was a brilliant read. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read a Leigh Bardugo book but you won’t stop me now! This was honestly a brilliant opener to the Grisha books and I just loved the characters, the concept. Most of all I loved the Darkling. *sigh* There was just something so compelling about him.

Alina was a brilliant narrator and i can’t wait to dive into the other two books in this series and see where it’s going to go!

[jesstheaudiobookworm]

4.25★ Audiobook⎮Shadow and Bone was one of those super-hyped books that was just “okay” for me. I’ve heard so much about Leigh Bardugo and the Grisha series that I was really excited about finally getting to this audiobook after having it on my TBR list for so long. Maybe it was a case of being done in by my own high expectations, but this was an underwhelming experience. Not terrible, but definitely not what I was expecting it to be.

I can’t help but wonder if I could have enjoyed this any more, had it not been for my high expectations. I had gotten over halfway finished with it, before realizing that I hadn’t processed (let alone enjoyed) more than 10% of it. So I decided to restart the entire thing and give it an honest-to-goodness shot. Why? Because the hype. I figured there had to be something I was missing.

Alas, after finishing the entire story, I can say that there wasn’t. At least, not anything of note. Again, Shadow and Bone was not terrible and I did enjoy it somewhat. Although not really enough to comment on anything specific about the story that I particularly enjoyed. Parts of it reminded me of Throne of Glass and a few other YA fantasy novels. The Russian-esque setting was the most intriguing part, but not enough to carry the rest of the story.

Overall, Shadow and Bone felt rather generic, which is ironic considering Veronica Roth’s jacket quote. Orphaned girl forms childhood bond with “boy next door” character. Girl discovers she has magical abilities. Girl undergoes training to learn how to use these abilities. Evil entity wants control over girl because of said abilities. Girl resists. Fighting ensues. Seem familiar? Probably because that’s the plot of 7 out of 10 YA novels.

I will say, however, that I do plan to continue on with the series in hope that I will be able to immerse myself in this story. But mainly because I’ve heard numerous ravings about Bardugo’s (spinoff?) series, Six of Crows. I’m still a little uncertain of the relationship between the two series, other than the fact that Six of Crows takes place in the same universe as Shadow and Bone, only two years later. I’m an absolute stickler about reading things in order (chronologically, if possible), which is why I soldiered on through Shadow and Bone.

It’s possible that Shadow and Bone will grow on me over time. There were definitely times when I almost got into it and, after the halfway point, listening didn’t seem like as much of a chore. I’m really hoping that the next installment will show me something new and make me a full-time Bardugo fan. *Fingers crossed*

Narration review: Lauren Fortgang’s narration was appropriately somber during Shadow and Bone. Part of me wants to complain that she sounded dry and bored, but anything other than that wouldn’t have fit this story. I mean, look at the cover. It’s beautiful, but it’s also sort of cold and drab. Fortgang’s characterization skills were more prominently displayed with some characters than others. Not every character was given clear vocal distinction, but she managed to make certain characters standout (i.e. Genya and the Darkling), while others were given only subtle distinction (i.e. Alina and Mal). ♣︎

[leahrosereads]

DNFing for now. The magic system was interesting, but the story couldn't hold my attention.

Will try again another time.

[liz089]

It has been a year and a half since I've read this book and I never continued this series !! even though this book is amazing and has everything in a book I could wish for.. Great main characters, some plot twists I did not see coming, a steady and healthy romance, great and fantastic world-building.

So I've re-read this one, and will continue with the others ! And even more awesome, I can continue directly with the Six of Crows after this !! Can't wait !!

[Jo]

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

It's taken me a long time to pick up this series. There was something about The Gathering Dark/Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo that put me off, despite all the hype and how much I love high fantasy. And I have to say, my instincts were right.

When the regiment are travelling to West Ravka through the Shadow Fold - a dense cloud of darkness full of horrors that cuts off West from East Ravka - one of Alina's best friends is attacked by one of the beasts that feast on those who travel through the Fold. Alina's anger and fear releases something within her, and light comes flooding out of her, lighting up the Fold and chasing the monsters away. This mysterious ability is what Ravka has been waiting for; Alina is a Sun Summoner, and could save them all - from the Fold and the countries surrounding them that they have been at war with for over a century. Alina is taken to train as a Grisha and learn to control her power under the watchful eye of the Darkling, the powerful, dangerous man who leads the Grisha. Alina is the person he needs to destroy the Fold, and takes a keen interest in her and her learning. Alina is drawn to the enigmatic Darkling, and tries hard to impress him. But not everything is as it seems, and power has it's own draw. The fate of Ravka lies in Alina's hands, but it's down to her what fate that will be.

First of all, when Shadow and Bone first came out in the UK, it was released as The Gathering Dark with the blue cover before it was later changed, and this is the copy I was sent for review. I have to say I much prefer this cover and title. The current covers don't draw my eye at all, and the titles are so similar, I wasn't even sure which in the series was the first book. I don't know why they decided to change, and I wish they hadn't, but there we go. As my copy is called The Gathering Dark, that is what I will be referring to the book as from now on.

The Gathering Dark started off quite promising; it was fairly fast paced and things were moving quite quickly. I was intrigued by Alina's ability, and the Darkling, though for a long while wasn't sure why he was painted as someone to be feared. Sure, he's really powerful, and that makes him dangerous, and he's the leader of the Grisha, but he was a nice guy. Almost normal. Alina's best friend, Mal, was much more interesting with his easy confidence. But once Alina started training at The Little Palace, where the Grisha live, I started to lose interest. We don't see a huge amount of her training, we get told about it. And sure, they're not the most interesting of lessons, but not much else was happening for a long time. Alina struggles to bring forth her power on her own at first, she kind of makes friends with a few of the Grisha, she has a few conversations with the Darkling, but that's it. It's mostly internal as Alina struggles with trying to control her power, but once she's able to summon the light on her own, she finds that she reaches the limits of her power pretty soon, and spends a lot of time feeling like a failure.

Then things abruptly change and start to get interesting! But even that plateaus, with the same things happening for a while, with no real excitement. It's not until the last quarter or so of the book that things actually get moving in any way that really held my interest. But once it had ended, I found I didn't really care that much. I didn't care much about Alina and what would happen to her next, and I wasn't that bothered by the Darkling, either. I found the change in him and his motivations to be quite a let down. Not because I thought he was a nice guy, but because it's just been done before, and didn't feel like anything new was brought to this kind of character.

I loved that this was a Russian inspired high fantasy rather than your usual Medieval British inspired high fantasies. It gave a fresh feel to the story, but overall, I didn't feel like there was much that made it all that distinctive.

The Gathering Dark took me far too long to read considering it's length, and I wasn't nearly as interested as I should have been. I don't really understand the hype to be honest; I assume the later books in the series must get better, but I don't feel in any rush to find out. I just don't care enough. A pretty disappointing read, overall.

Thank you to Indigo for the ARC.

[Cocktails and Books]

A new YA fantasy series to fall in love with. This had a Hunger Game type feel to it. The heroine, Alina, doesn't have much to be happy about and you can almost feel the struggle she has with her feelings. Her disappointment at being separated from her best friend Mal to her confusion about her feelings for the Darklings. I was very hard to put this book down.