Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Shadow and Bone (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.

Reviewed by SilverThistle on

3 of 5 stars

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If you open a book and the first thing you see is a map showing the four Kingdoms then it's probably a safe bet that you are about to read a Fantasy. Shadow and Bone has the intro maps, but it turns out it's more YA Fantasy Lite than full on Fantasy.

It's got the four kingdoms at war with each other and the hard to pronounce place names, it has a medieval overall feel to it and a bit of 'magical abilities' (or small science as it's known here) and at it's center it has the 'special one' who is actually quite plain at the start and who must save the world. Yep, that'll be a fantasy then.

It's quite a good story and it kept me interested throughout but I wasn't as sucked into the story as the hype surrounding the book led me to expect. It's maybe just that it's age appropriate for a YA audience and I'm no longer YA...not by any stretch of the imagination.

It's set in what can only be described as a boarding school, complete with mean girls, crushes on an older authority figure, bad tempered teaching staff and teenage angst regarding body image. There's a love story in there somewhere too with a touch of 'love triangle' going on but all is not what it seems so don't be put off by that, if those kind of things bother you. The story itself is quite good and the pace is just right.

I liked the story well enough and will probably read the next one, I'm just not in a mad rush to get to it.

Note: I received a free copy of this title from the publisher.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 30 September, 2013: Finished reading
  • 30 September, 2013: Reviewed