shadow and Bone Trilogy review

Last summer when I was visiting my aunt we went to the bookstore and bought me the first book in the Grisha trilogy. The main character Alina is part of the first army of Ravka (fictional sort of Russia), which is basically the regular army. Her troop is scheduled to go through the fold, land that became dark and full of monsters after the black heretic unleashed his power apon the land. While traveling through, they are attacked by monsters called Volkra and Alina’s best friend Mal is attacked, and Alina discovers that she has the power to summon sunlight. In this world, there are people called Grisha, who can heal, stop hearts, invent new objects, and summon things like fire, wind and water.

Alina is the only person who can summon sunlight and her talent interests the Darkling, a man who can summon the darkness, and she is drafted into the second army, which is comprised entirely of Grisha. I really liked this series even though it is a little more serious than what I am used to reading. The author, Leigh Bardugo is a talented writer who was able to successfully create such an stunning world with relatable dynamic characters. 

From Leigh Bardugo's website

Another brilliant author, Veronica Roth the writer of the Divergent series, gave a good review for the book that made me want to read the book even more than I already did. It has a fantastical theme to it obviously, but it also manages to incorporate elements of real life into it in a straightforward way, like the abuses of power and manipulation inside of Ravka’s court. It has a few twists that I did not see coming and a few that I did as well (not to brag but it was obvious), and they are rather shocking, so for those that want a good fantasy drama with adventuring and consorting in the palace, this is an excellent book.

I have also heard that a Harry Potter producer has picked up the rights for a movie adaptation, so for those that do not like to read longer books, it may be available to watch at the movies. As always with book adaptions, there will be some inaccuracies, but so far it looks like it has the potential to be a great movie. I would be especially interested in how they would make their powers look. As I said in an earlier post, Alina is my favorite character, but her best Grisha friend Genya has become one of my favorites after reading the most recent book. Genya is a “taylor” or someone who can alter the appearances of others as her Grisha talent and is technically a servant to the queen and not part of the second army. She is still an amazing and strong character. I am still not quite finished with the last book, but I really like them and would recommend them strongly to anyone in need of a world to get lost in this week.