Ruin and Rising (Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #3) (Grishaverse, #3)

by Leigh Bardugo

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Leigh Bardugo unfortunately falls into the same black hole that most YA authors tend to go through when it matters the most.

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The plot picks up immediately after the last book and because we need to get many things done, it feels like we’re moving on fast forward without enough time for me to care or really absorb what’s happening in the same degree I think I should’ve gotten. That, of course, would’ve been a much bigger issue if the book isn’t predictable and feels like it shoots itself in the foot whenever we get to the good stuff. I didn’t have that great of a time with Shadow and Bone, but for some reason Siege and Storm was a better experience for me which I hoped would be carried over by book three, however I feel like I didn’t really get much of that at all.

There is somewhat of a set formula in this series in each of the books, it gets add ons here or there to make it richer of course, but overall the basic plot outline remained consistent throughout of it. Therefore, a compelling set of characters need to pick up the slack and while Leigh Bardugo managed to make the side characters very entertaining to follow, the main ones were a freakin chore for me. Alina’s struggles or whatever get resolved in a few pages, yet her endless monologues about her feelings for character A, B or whatever take up the majority of her thoughts every single time. It’s exhausting for me to read this when all I want is to see her be brilliant, be the Sun Summoner or be relevant in more than just a stupid title to fill.

Mal was no different, he’s the perfect definition of a Gary Stu and while that might not be a bad thing if you manage to make them struggle with some things in a way, he’s just extra boring to read about. Now on the other hand, whenever it’s Zoya, Baghra, Genya or whoever is in the spotlight, the book becomes entertaining before we’re back to hearing about Alina’s jumbled mess of thoughts. I get that she’s supposed to be struggling, but I wish that the struggle was due to power, control and responsibility and not a cringeworthy teenage love drama. This of course, doesn’t deny that the book has some engaging events, but those events are resolved in mere pages and in such a rushed way that they don’t feel like they get the emphasized importance they should’ve gotten to me.

There was this supposed big plot twist in the book, but to me personally it didn’t register as all that of a shock when everything leading up to that, showed that the “person” in question was never completely normal to begin with, so something big was to be expected in a way and that tbh, just kills the tension for me. The world building in this series is also one of the things I don’t really enjoy all that much, names of places get thrown around and some characteristic of it, but by the end, other than the places they actually visited, I feel like the Grisha Verse’s world is still a big blank slate. I know that there are more books in the series that may, or may not expand on it but if you’re going to keep mentioning them as much as you did in trilogy of books, I at least expected to leave the series feeling a little more satisfied on that front.

The ending wasn’t that great to me, but at that point I would’ve been extremely surprised if I was blown away. It took me longer than I expected to read this series and I was hoping to be in for a blast given the very high praises, but even with my lowered expectations I feel like it wasn’t as good as it might’ve been. Now that I finished it however, I do know I have a novella, Six of Crows Duology (before the third book releases anyway) and yet another duology waiting but thankfully, it’s for a fun character so hopefully this one was the weakest entry in the verse because I really do think it’s got potential to be awesome.

Final rating