Review: Shadow & Bone Trilogy

Most fantasy novels deal with the concept of the imaginary elements of the supernatural. Some focus on the core of the super-natural: the creation. Leigh Bardugo’s fantasy trilogy of ‘Shadow and Bone’ do so straight from its opening lines. If I could be honest, I had never understood what all the hype was about, but the moment I picked up the book, I couldn't bring myself to put it back down!

Shadow and Bone revolves around a Ravkan military carpenter, Alina Starkov, who discovers her breath-taking gift when her regiment is attacked whilst crossing the Shadow Fold- a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. Alina is the perfect specimen of the 'nothing-specialness' central to the book's theme.

She's a skinny, nervous girl; a brittle, unremarkable individual and yet, regardless of all her ordinariness, she turns out to be Ravka's only hope. Alina enters a lavish world of royalty as the legendary Sun Summoner, and with the Grisha- Ravka’s magical military elite- and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling.

Pulling the reader toward an eye-catching world of magic and everything between imagination and reality, the young adult novel is truly one of the most breathtaking fantasy worlds out there.

It not only revolves around magic but also mundane aspects such as flaws within the characters, and proper logical explanations for all the events that follow, take Grisha Theory for that matter: "Like calls to like." This means that the Grisha possess some odd quality which gives that an affinity for a certain kind of matter; that quality attracts them to other things sharing that quality.

One of the lessons most of the book revolves around while mesmerizing the readers, is the hidden potential energy within oneself. It is a wonderful thing, to experience something out of the ordinary that you didn't imagine you were capable of, just as Alina found out of the energy coursing out of her.

An unforgettable journey between truth and lies, I absolutely love the way the book makes you question things about yourself, as Alina struggles to go against all that she believes, and fights against her biggest enemy- herself. The book really makes the reader wonder and realize all the difficulties the characters go through, and they empathize and relate with them.

The readers can really connect with Alina, because behind all the glam and power, is a lonely orphan who's lost her way in the woods. Alina, like all humans, struggles to fight change- which in her case, are her sun summoning abilities which make her Grisha. She was so used to being Alina the Cartographer, that the simple idea of Alina the Sun Summoner seemed alien to her. However, when she loosens herself to what holds her back, she strives to learn and embraces it as a part of herself.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the trilogy:

- "I press my forehead to Mal's and heard him whisper, 'I'll meet you in the meadow."

- "It was time to let go. That day on the Shadow Fold, Mal had saved my life, and I had saved his. Maybe that was meant to be the end of us."

- "'I've been waiting for you a long time, Alina,' he said. 'You and I are going to change the world.'"

- "One thing did stand out to me: the word the philosophers used to describe people born without Grisha gifts, otkazar'ysa, "the abandoned". It was another word for orphan."

- "What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men."

- "'The problem with wanting,' he whispered, his mouth trailing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, 'is that it makes us weak.'"

- "He slumped back in his chair. 'Fine,' he said with a weary shrug. 'Make me your villain.'"

-"'You begged me for mercy once,' he called over the dead reaches of the Fold, over the hungry shrieks of the horrors he had made. 'Is this your idea of mercy?' Another bullet hit the sand, only inches away from us. Yes, I thought as the power rose up inside me, the mercy you taught me."

- "'But just so I'm prepared, how do you say 'you're an ass' in Kerch?' 'Jer ven azel' 'Really?' Mal laughed. 'The first thing sailors teach you is how to swear.'"

- "'It's simply a question of finding the right incentive. Pauper or prince, every man can be bought.'"

- "'You know the problem with heroes and saints, Nikolai?' I asked as I closed the book's cover and headed for the door.'They always end up dead.'"

- "Yuyesh sesh: 'despise your heart'. Ni weh sesh: 'I have no heart'.

- "'I wasn't afraid of you, Alina. I was afraid of losing you. The girl you were becoming didn't need me anymore, but she's who you were always meant to be.'"

- "She watched the other move up the steps, then said, 'Na razrusha'ya. E'ya razrushost.' I am not ruined. I am ruination."

- "'You live in a single moment. I live in a thousand.' Are we not all things?"

- "'My hut. My fire. That sounds a pleasant thing,' she said. 'But I find the dark is the same wherever I am.'"

- "'I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but me.'"

Bardugo's writing style is both easy and engaging. Though some of the events in the book move very quickly, it's compelling, and with an action-packed adventure, it's sure to become everyone's latest fantasy obsession!

I would really recommend this trilogy to anyone who loves a classic fantasy world with deep scars that run further down the past. This novel really deserves a five-star!