Review: Shadow and Bone

Title: Shadow and Bone
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Published: June 5, 2012
Source: BookPeople  

Synopsis:

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha…and the secrets of her heart.

Review:

I don’t even know how to put my feelings into words for this book, so this will probably be a horrible review. I was in a reading slump, and nothing was looking interesting to me, and then I picked up Shadow and Bone and all that changed! I was swept into the story of Alina and her journey through the Fold and the Grisha community and I never wanted to be put down. It was an amazing tale and the world that Leigh Bardugo created was a new and eventful one.

Cover:

The cover creeps me out, a lot. It’s all dark and ominous, which matches the book perfectly, but will also scare off readers who like the more light and fluffy covers.

Plot/Writing:

The story just kept chugging along. Shadow and Bone had a great flow to it and I loved how it moved along. Leigh created an amazing new world that is full of hard to pronounce names and weird creatures that only could be conjured from her imagination. The story was well written and had a diverse vocabulary that gave me the idea that she spent a good amount of time on this book.

Characters:

Alina was a spitfire. She stood up for herself, and said a good portion of the time what was on her mind. She has to deal with many changes in her life and deals with them in a respectable way. Sure, she argues and says that they’ve made some kind of mistake, but she still carries on and makes the best of it. Alina stays strong and keeps her wits about her, even when she feels like giving up.

There were two leading guys here, Mal and the Darkling. Personally I loved Mal better; the Darkling freaked me out and seemed sort of like a pedophile. You don’t get to know either of the guys that well because of the way the story was written. She was very elusive about both men, but the facts she does give off make you fall in love with them, or hate them, whichever way you go.

All in All:

I really loved Shadow and Bone! I cannot wait until the sequel comes out! If you enjoy the world crated by J.K Rowling in the Harry Potter series you might enjoy Shadow and Bone!