I’ve been wanting to read the Six of Crows duology and decided to start with the Shadow and Bone trilogy so I’d be more familiar with the Grisha and could enjoy references to past events. I was a little hesitant because a lot of people don’t seem to like the trilogy, but I enjoyed it. It wasn’t fantastic, but it was fun. I thought the pacing was pretty good throughout, and I appreciated the mix of plot-focused and character-driven story.
In Shadow and Bone, we meet Alina, the first person narrator of all 3 books. She doesn’t think there’s anything special about her, but it turns out that for years she had been suppressing Grisha abilities. When her ability to summon light manifests while saving her best friend Mal, she is taken to the Grisha palace for training. She starts getting to know the Darkling, who is the leader of the Grisha and is hoping that Alina’s Sun Summoner abilities will help him fix the Fold, a dangerous area of darkness that divides the country of Ravka and has made it more vulnerable to external threats.
Alina struggles to fit in because she is starting her training so late compared to other Grisha and because she is unable at first to call on her powers. The Grisha are cliquey, which I suppose makes sense given that this is YA, but it’s always hard for me to remember character ages in YA fantasy because they’re going through so much that normal teenagers don’t have to, and wouldn’t be able to, deal with. Alina starts to become a little closer to the Darkling but then discovers an alarming secret about him. The novels serves as a solid introduction to Grisha and the Russian-inspired Ravka.
Siege and Storm picks up shortly after the events of the first book and is quickly followed by Mal and Alina being found by the Darkling, who wants Mal to find the second Amplifier. We are introduced to a new character, Sturmhond, who becomes more interesting and likeable as this book and the next progress. The persona he presents varies depending on who he’s with and what he wants from them, but I felt like we got to see some of who he really is through his interactions with Alina.
The relationship between Mal and Alina was the weakest part of Siege and Storm. It seems like they’re supposed to be in a relationship, but they don’t act like they’re in one, they don’t communicate about the important things they need to discuss, and Mal starts engaging in some stupid behavior. I would have preferred either less focus on their relationship, or more of a focus that actually went somewhere.
In Ruin and Rising, Alina is again a prisoner of a powerful man – the Apparat. She and the few remaining survivors of the Second Army on housed underground with pilgrims and followers of “Sankta Alina,” and the Apparat makes it seem like he’s trying to be helpful, but he just wants Alina under his thumb. They are able to escape and end up making their way to Nikolai. During her time in his hideout, she learns more about the Darkling and about Morozova.
They have a battle with the Darkling’s forces, and those attacks and escapes did start to feel a bit repetitive by then, especially knowing how close Alina came to ending the Darkling once and for all in the previous book, if only Mal hadn’t intervened (though, yes, I do realize there wouldn’t have been a third book if that happened). The final showdown seemed a little bit rushed and anticlimactic, and I’m not sure how I felt about the miraculous save of a particular character. However, I think this was the best novel of the three with an ending I didn’t see coming. I really love the dynamic between Nikolai and Alina, and I was sorry to see it end. Ultimately, it felt like a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. While the trilogy as a whole has its flaws, particularly the romance between Alina and Mal, the books were engaging. I’m glad I read them, and I’m looking forward to revisiting the Grishaverse in future books.