#I didn’t even like zoya until like ruin and rising and now she’s my favorite character | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

koroleva-nazyalensky · 1 year

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I have my grievances with season 2, sure, but one thing they did do is conclude it in a way that I personally would have loved the Grisha Trilogy to have ended the first time around.

Like obviously, I would’ve loved more Darklina. BUT, we’ve been living off of crumbs for years now, and they made Mal less of an asshole in the show, so I knew we weren’t going to get much post war room anyways. I’m sad the tethered scenes got cut short (RIP this isn’t real—let me) and he didn’t die in her arms, BUT he didn’t say she was nothing so I’ll take that as a win.

That said, I’ve always thought that an intriguing aspect of Alina’s character development is her affinity for power.

In the book, it scares her how much she wants it because it positions her in league with the Darkling.

"You were meant to be my balance, Alina. You are the only person in the world who might rule with me, who might keep my power in check."

"And who will balance me?"

She fears it, and quashes her hunger for it time and time again, for Mal, for her own sanity. And yet, she doesn’t get a choice when she loses it. That loss permeates through everything, even her quiet life in Keramzin.

“Sometimes he would find her standing by a window, fingers playing in the beams of sunlight that streamed through the glass…”

This quiet life she defaults to makes sense for her character because her agency in the books wavers frequently and she’s very affected by Mal’s disdain for her abilities (for like the first TWO BOOKS–). But is frankly, boring as hell for a former saint. And, like the Darkling in a way, I did think she could deign to accomplish more.

In the scenario she’s placed in at the end of season 2, not only has she distanced herself from Mal willingly, but she gets the chance to be Grisha without the Darkling looming over her. She uses Merzost to revive Mal, has full control over her powers with all three amplifiers at her disposal, and used the cut, completely destroying a Grisha under the influence of Jurda Parem. On top of all this, she has fully accepted her role as Sankta Alina and is on her way to be Queen of Ravka.

Think about the implications of this. A big theme in the books is that *ouat voice* all magic comes with a price, dearie. If Alina gets to keep her powers, it’s implied that she also gets to keep her prolonged life. She is at an all time high, her impulse controls are dead and out at sea, and her inflated pride has the potential to lead her to THE MOST satisfying fall.

When she uses the cut (in the same way the Darkling does) the upshot and shadow in her eyes as her mouth upturns slowly–UGH I’m honestly living for it. And like, we know she needs something to do while the crows are out there ice court heisting right? RIGHT? I’m not saying this is where I saw this show going, but since we’re here in this HD fanfiction world why NOT have Dark!Alina? How would show!Alina, crack under the Apparat’s influence? Who’s going to be her balance when the Darkling and Mal are gone and Nikolai is literally dealing with his own demon?*cough* and falling for Zoya *cough* What would it take to get this girl’s hair white? And what do I have to do to get a Yurified Darkling in the same room as her?

On that thought, (pardon my unabashed love for drama, I am a Darklina girlie in this Malina world above it all) if we even get to some version of the KOS Duology, does this mean she’ll still be Grisha when the Darkling comes back as the Black Heretic? Will she be queen? A mad saint shunned in the same way he was? A self-fulfilling prophecy? How absolutely delicious would that reunion be? For her to stab the monster and then become him? She wouldn’t be able to look him in the eyes and take the high ground like she did in the sanatorium scene. Everything he tried to warn her about would come to fruition. They could face each other as equals who made some decisions and just like retire together for eternity. (My delusional Darklina shipping ass is brought to you by Start a War btw… I read it immediately after Ruin and Rising on ff.net the first time around, I highly suggest it if you too are suffering)

To get back to the point, were it not for the Duology and the Zoyalai of it all, I’d honestly be for the Sol Koroleva route all the way. I mean, look at her!!!

Don’t you just want to see her gain the world, and then lose it all in the time it takes the crows to break Matthias of Hellgate? You can’t tell me a season 3 with an OP Sankta Alina dealing with post-civil war Ravka wouldn’t be entertaining at the very least.

Like, of course at the end of the day I want Zoyalai endgame with blue ribbons and rings the size of an acorn, peep the url, besties. But GUYS come ON we know how these things go. Mal’s gonna come back, reign her in and they’ll eventually end up in that boring orphanage with a cat or whatever anyways. In the meantime, we could have so much fun!

If you approach the show as you would fanfic, it’s not as maddening. Trust me, I’m a Darklina shipper and a Zoyalai shipper– you can’t even get to one of those without stabbing and burning the other. I know the showrunners would sooner give us some random love triangle with Tolya and Inej (a topic for another day) than all this but a girl can DREAM.

In conclusion, I did not prematurely lose David for nothing, I need to know where they’re going with this, so please be more chill so we get that unhinged season 3, thank you.

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gwynpool · 3 years

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it’s 2AM and i just finished Rule of Wolves (spoilers definitely up ahead)

first, to inform everyone, i read the spoilers when it got leaked in twitter cuz i can’t help myself. (it’s a sickness, i know) i think this is important since it definitely influenced my perspective upon reading the book. also, this is my first time being early in a party so yay me! going in ROW was easy for me because i started King of Scars the day before book 2’s actual release date so everything’s fresh.

secondly, this is really long so i’m sorry. i just have a lot of feelings and need to write it all down. on with the rant.

King of Scars was wonderful to me since it gave me my favorite Shadow and Bone character and the girl who i used to hate for being a mean girl but who I now admire with every ounce of my being. It also introduced a new ship that I am now obsessed with and is ruling besides my love for Jude&Cardan. Not to mention, it gave us Nina, whom though i’m not entirely a fan of due to all my love focusing on Kaz and Inej, allowed the connection between Shadow&Bone with SixofCrows.

Moving on, ROW was a ride and whirlwind of emotions. unfortunately, it wasn’t always the best kind.

I love the fantasy elements of it (tho it was a huge leap especially with the saints power thingy) and the politics because i am a sucker for scheming and stealing thrones.

the zoyalai teasing and angst was painful but in the best way since slowburn is what keeps me going.

nina finding comfort (and attraction, apparently) from hanne made my heart flutter because i haven’t gotten over matthias but this allowed a sort of closure and next chapter for our waffle-loving queen.

the promised wedding by leigh wasn’t what i expected but i’m not complaining since david&genya deserved nothing but happiness.

almost everything seems going well (aside from the fact that aleksander was ressurected apparently)and then everything crashes and burns and i just have to wonder why?

so the promised funeral alongside the wedding one, immediately comes after two? three? chapters as they were attacked during the afterparty of the wedding. and guess what? leigh killed the fcking groom.

the thing is i already knew he was going to die (with the spoilers and all) but i did not expect it to come immediately after the freaking wedding. not even halfway through the book!

being spoiled, i think, took most of the pain from the event but it doesn’t lessen the fact that it was completely unnecessary??? like though the characters grieved, nothing much was affected from his death? also, don’t talk to me about the character development for the survivors from this tragic event because there. was. absolutely. NONE.

and then we have the fricking darling ressurected. i love him in the first book of the grishaverse though i knew he was still a villain, don’t get me wrong. and my heart ached but was also relieved with his death in the third. he also inspired one of my all-time favorite fantasy villain(antihero?) in the form of Adelina Amouteru in the Young Elites series.

Ceased to be a Darklina fan and am now shipping Aleksander with Adelina because their power tho? like clings to like and they are both imbued with unfathomable darkness. somebody write fics please.

but bringing him back was what for exactly? leigh bardugo preached on how toxic the darkling character was and how we really shouldn’t like him in terms of agreeing with his ideals and yada yada. and yet she brings him back because apparently, he’s the only one paying her bills.

his conversation with alina tho had me expecting some darklina crumbs with fan service on the side since the stans were all raving about it on twitter *vomiting noises from toxicity* but i was surprised since it just further reminded us of how he truly is a villain in his very core and would do anything to get what he wants. so all in all it wasn’t entirely awful and it actually made me like Mal a bit. (never was a fan of him but that’s my issue, not the character’s)

setting aside the darkling issue a bit, the POV from Mayu was skippable. i mean obviously it still needs to be read for the Shu politics and the khergud existence but it just made me want to go to the next pov. Same goes for the “the monk’s” POV since you all know how i feel about him and the cult with it’s assembly and shit ended up also being unnecessary towards the end. honestly, i could do without the journey of the starless saint and his cult.

i truly enjoyed the fjerdan plot to my surprise and i like how nina kind of went through the last of us 2 circle of hate journey. it was definitely difficult knowing her pain and all that she went through and still choosing to be the better person. and yet, i can’t help but be more proud of her development. also, the supposed death of hanne got me going for a second and was actually ready to storm leigh’s home to fix her mistake. thank god it was plot twist. that’s all i have to say on the nina POV because i don’t wanna ruin my good feeling on this.

the crows cameo gave us a mini heist and it just made me miss reading their adventures. also the suli scene tugged at my heart.

imma skip zoya’s transformation but it utterly made me feel amazing and i have never been more glad that she’s kind of overpowered. she deserves it so fck all them haters. you can choke.

nikolai’s revelation and decision for the ravkan throne was not all that surprising, even without my knowledge of the spoilers. i honestly had a feeling that he was always his best self when he was strumhond and he only chose to fulfill the duties of the king because at that time, there was no other choice. so him giving up the throne to his beloved soldier, summoner and saint was a quite satisfying choice of route. there has been some others who would contest nikolai’s decision to step down as something unnecessary in the grand scheme of things but i would stand by my belief that nikolai made the best choice for ravka and for himself. not to say that i didn’t want to see both the queen and king side by side ruling but what are fanfictions for?

zoyalai is canon and endgame. finally. i can die now.

now the last two chapters was a toss up. for the first one was the darkling’s sacrifice. okay, so i was also spoiled by this from twitter but when i was reading the book, i keep expecting it to be brought up and it wasn’t. so i honestly thought that maybe that spoiler was a prank. lo and behold it was not and it wasn’t until the very last end. so the buildup was goddamn awful. the whole concept of the thorn wood and sort of atlas moment was just no. like you’re just springing this up now? when we’re supposed to be tying up loose ends but making sure it had history and buildup to well, back it up.

also leigh outright writing genya saying it was not a redemption for the darkling and him being unapologetic about his crimes (basically being a truly evil asshole) doesn’t remove the fact that it still comes off as a redemption arc especially with what is now the synopsis of SOC 3 but ill get to that. he still was the one who did a heroic deed and that fucks me up because it was just devastating to me after making peace with his end in ruin and rising. not because i was hurt that he died yet again boohoo but because it kind of invalidates everything that alina, genya, zoya and countless other victims went through.

on a side note, the darling stans on twitter who keeps defending his actions, i would really advise you to reflect on your decisions cuz it is honestly unhealthy. also, you lot talking smack about nikolai and zoya refusing to sacrifice their lives? stop twisting the story to suit your toxic admiration, nikolai was even first to offer up his life and would do so if it was actually possible. so just go hide in your darkling cocoon and stop hating on other characters to justify your favored aleksander.

the very last chapter aka coronation was good because it gave us inej ghafa cameo as captain of her ship and bonding with our resident privateer and also genya, alina and zoya bonding. but it was bad because apparently the darkling chronicles is still not over and now we’re supposed to grant him death like that’s going to make everything okay? i know forgiveness and breaking the circle of hate and revenge is a huge theme in this duology but honestly, this is just too extreme. with nina it was understandable and the people she hated were born of twisted mindset and circumstances but the darkling? hahahah no. he is a literal immortal who was delusional so now that he’s paying for his crimes, you want to allow him death because you have nightmares? zoya, goddamit no! same to you genya and alina. and so this will be the plot for the third six of crows? why can’t we just stop making this about him. now he gunna steal kaz’s thunder? over my dead body.

in the end, i gave this book 4 stars in goodreads because if i ignore the darkling plot, it was a really good use of politics and fantasy merging in a storyline. i can’t fault leigh for choosing to do this since it’s still her book so i definitely don’t have a right to dictate what i expected from this. also, i have a half a mind to believe that she fell in love with ben barnes and had him in mind writing this so i really cannot blame her because i have been under that man’s charms since prince caspian came out. the spoilers i read made me more open in reading this (backwards thinking but eh that’s how i roll) so i’m not at all crushed by what transpired. it was just weird and was lackluster in its attempt to give ravka some sort of peace. frankly, i just want to read the third six of crows book to maybe find some sort of calm in all this craziness and also delve in some zoyalai fanfiction because it was a long time coming.

shameless promotion but if you guys want to check out my nikolai duology spotify playlist, here’s the link:

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louryanalarcon · 3 years

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Thoughts on Shadow and Bone

08 May 2021

I did something. I read an entire book strictly for leisure for the first time ever really! And I fell in love with it! As you recall, I watched Shadow and Bone on Netflix, and it was fantastic, perhaps the best show I’ve watched since The Witcher and Game of Thrones. Can you tell I have a thing for fantasy series? Well in short, I loved the tv show so much I couldn’t wait another year for season 2. I needed to dive head-first into the Grishaverse and see what lies ahead. See, I tried doing the same with Game of Thrones, but those books are so dense I could barely keep my eyes open. It was like reading a bible. In contrast, these Grishaverse books are much more my speed. I know, they’re Young Adult novels, probably meant for teenagers and a younger crowd, but so is Harry Potter, right? Besides, I never was one for reading, but I can read these books like it were a tv show on paper. I swept through the first book in less than a week! I never do that. Reading is different. I see the allure now. It’s patient, slowly building up as you go until you find yourself a hundred pages in and you’re like, “Hmm, this shit alright.”

Anyways, I have some time on my hand and since I finished both book one and season 1 of Shadow and Bone, I want to write my thoughts on the books and the show. Which one do I prefer? Ultimately, I like the show more – if for one reason alone: the casting of Jessie Mei Li and Archie Renaux as Alina Starkov and Malyen Oretsev. The diverse cast is very much appreciated and they’re all incredible, but to cast two Asians in the lead roles… I can’t express my appreciation for that. In fact, I’m thankful for having watched the show first because now as I read the books, I can’t help but see Asian Alina and Mal fall in love. Am I a sucker for a good love story, of course, look who you’re talking to? But the thing is too, the show really breathed some life into Mal’s character, compared to his otherwise dull book counterpart. I love their love story… that’s really all I have to say about that.

Well, I think I’ve found my new addiction for the next couple months. To think I would like reading so much to the point that every day after work, I’m reading for two or three hours? At least, I’ve found something to keep me preoccupied.

30 May 2021

Well, finished the Shadow and Bone Trilogy – all in less than a month. Never was one for reading, (or continuing old entries), but here I am. I don’t know why I never posted, but I’m going to try to be less of a perfectionist and more personal. This is a blog after all.

Anyways, did I like it? Of course, I did. Considering the fact that I pretty much haven’t read an entire book cover to cover since forever, and now here I am trying to give a book review? It’s odd, but I want to try. What I loved the most about the Shadow and Bone Trilogy is the friends-to-lovers romance between Alina and Mal. I fell in love with them on screen, and honestly, their book counterparts aren’t too bad, especially if you imagine Jessie Mei Li and Archie Renaux in their place.

As far as the first book, Shadow and Bone, is concerned, I basically knew everything that was going to happen after having already watched season one on Netflix. So, that kind of took away some immersion and shock from pivotal moments in the story. However, there was some things the show did differently. By the way, I’m diving right into spoilers, so, sorry in advance. Mal never kisses Alina in season one, whereas in the books, he kisses her right before they meet the stag. I can’t help but feel like this was done purposely to heighten anticipation for their eventual onscreen kiss sometime in season two. I was okay with it. I don’t assume the show will follow exactly what goes on in the books, and that’s fine. Perhaps I was too harsh on book Mal because I felt like he kind of fell flat and never really showed more of himself. But as I continued, I grew to like him. Book Alina is much different than her show counterpart. In the books, she is very unconfident, not nearly as brave, and truthfully, not nearly as beautiful. Jessie Mei Li is almost too gorgeous to play the role, but then again, I’m not really complaining. Some might find Alina as pretentious, and yes, sometimes her constant doubt and jealousy can be, but it really does show what goes on in a young woman’s mind, particularly one who is not typically beautiful or sought after. And incredibly enough, she finds herself in a love-rectangle?

Book two, Siege and Storm, is my favorite. The introduction of Sturmond, Tolya and Tamar, and Zoya’s greater role in the story was what made me love it. First off, Sturmond’s surprise true identity reveal of him being Nikolai was maybe the biggest surprise of the entire series for me. Nikolai is great; his wit and charisma is charming and an appreciated change from the doom and gloom that sometimes characterizes Alina. Also, Tolya and Tamar, being Shu made me relate to them even more. I loved the fact that he’s huge and she’s small and wiry. It was nice. Zoya Nazyalensky. What more can I say? She is my favorite character in the series. The raven-haired Squaller – I’m in love with her. Maybe it’s because Sujaya Dasgupta is gorgeous, or maybe it’s because I love the “mean-girl to nice-girl” trope. She is great, but honestly, I wish we got to learn more about her outside of her incredible beauty. Maybe I’ll find out in the King of Scars duology, which I am currently on right now.

Finally, book three, Ruin and Rising, is probably second on my list. It ended well but took its time to get rolling. I never liked the Apparat, so the beginning of the book was not my favorite. Also, Nikolai wasn’t there to liven things up. It was very gloomy down there underground. But as they ventured up and eventually reunited with Nikolai, then things started rolling. Also, the Apparat kind of just fell off there. Like, we never really learned his true motives. Again, I still have the King of Scars duology to read, so there’s still room. For me, the Apparat’s arc felt unfinished. But oh well, didn’t really care for him. Mal being the third amplifier… I didn’t expect that to be honest. I should listen more carefully. If anything, I guess I didn’t like the final battle. In contrast, Siege and Storm’s final battle felt more climactic and consequential. Alina was left within an inch of her life, her hair turned white, her powers gone, the Darkling’s power gained, a coup, and the crew was forced underground. It was epic. This on the other hand, wasn’t really on that level. There wasn’t much of a battle at all. People get shot and bit, and then Alina kills Mal. It wasn’t so much an epic standoff between Alina and the Darkling so much as it was Alina gaining her third amplifier and winning by default. I went in thinking she had to harness the power of all the amplifiers and defeat the Darkling. Nothing of the sort came about. Perhaps Mal was the true Big Bad since it was his death that rid the Shadow Fold. I’m sort of torn because I’m happy Mal came back alive because he and Alina get their happily ever after, but his “death” didn’t mean much. So, he lived two lives? Also, Alina is left without her powers… I don’t know man, for why?

All in all, I’m happy with Alina and Mal’s ending. Their arc is finished. Orphans of Keramzin bringing up an orphanage of their own, and kissing beneath the stairs while the staff watches from afar? I can dig it. I decided to jump right into King of Scars (mainly for Zoya and Nikolai) rather than start Six of Crows. There are some spoilers unfortunately, so if you really like Nina then don’t do this. Otherwise, I’m mainly concerned with Zoya and Nikolai and the other characters from the original trilogy. So, that’s where I’m at. I’ve gained a newfound hobby and escaped into a new fandom. Reading can be fun sometimes. Give it a try.

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draggingthedregs · 4 years

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as i said earlier, it is an ungodly length but i hope you can enjoy my late night, book-drunk opinions anyway!

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guess who just finished “ruin and rising”?

i’m seriously not okay. someone send help. i got lots of thoughts, none of which you are obligated to read but this seems like the best place to share.

oh and spoilers, duh.

for starters. woah.

i can’t say it was what i expected but i had known that what my heart really wanted was kinda far out of reach. the ending felt real and feasible, complete with love and loss.

in terms of “ruin and rising” alone, i think it was possibly the strongest of the three books. the pacing was good, nothing felt like it dragged on too long or went too fast for its own good. i think that was really important as well, considering the fact that there was always something going on. literally,, always. no one ever got a damn break.

mal’s “death” hurt me more then i had expected. which honestly leads back to one of my main gripes with this story. the love square (which i elaborate on later in this post, just hold on a bit). i’m not going to lie. i hated mal. through the middle of “siege and storm” up to page 168 of “ruin and rising” (and even then it was a long road from hate to crying over him). he was an ass, i think we can all admit that. for awhile there, i even jumped on the “fuck mal” train and had no plans to stop at any station anytime soon. for the longest time, the relationship with alina felt so fragile and forced, like the only reason it existed was because leigh had written it into existence. though, as i read on, i saw why it was so strained and saw the eventual resolution, which i will admit i was happy with. mal and alina, however annoying and troupe filled their personalities were, did develop as characters. and their relationship made some semblance of sense in the grand scheme of things. does that mean i forgive the “on-again-off-again”, “cold-shoulder”, “we-cant-be-together-in-this-lifetime” bullshit? no. does that mean i suddenly love mal? also, no. does that mean i ship them? ugh slightly. does that mean in a magical dream world where i got to chose what happened, they’d still end up together? impossible to say. BUT i can say, that they deserved each other. and i am happy that they got their peace together like they both always wanted (no matter how out of place it felt at any point), especially considering the fact that she literally had to kill him.

my dear dear darkling... i knew what fate awaited you and yet, when the time came... it hurt just the same.

okay,, that was a bit dramatic. but come on. leigh wrote a damn good villain with aleksander morozova. i meAN, thE lAYERS. he was a horrible person and yet, so many of us still love him. he killed for fun, manipulated no matter the cost, preyed upon the weak because he could, literally blinded his own mother and still! i can’t help but love him. there was so much human woven into his darkness. the moments of simple longing, of exhaustion, of loneliness. in all honesty, if there had been a way to humanize him, to erase or explain away his atrocities and have him just be aleksander again, i feel like i would do it. but, in the context of the story i do understand why it wasn’t possible. redemption for the darkling was off the table, no matter how much humanity still remained. but that’s what makes him such a good character. you want him to be different because you can see the good and all the potential for things to change, for them to rule ravka side by side, but at the same time, he’s the same man who is still actively creating more shadow demon creatures to eat whoever he wishes. you can’t resist him and that’s why he’s so wonderful, yet horrifying at the exact same time. (though don’t worry i am still a trash can and the darklina ship is still superior in the love square. again, i promise i will get there).

i feel like i have to talk about how much i loved the “secondary characters” (i struggle to call them that because they actually run this shit). i will say, at first, i hated zoya. i am not a big fan of the “mean girl” troupe or the “i’m-prettier-than-you-and-i-know-it” thing but... she really grew on me. i looked forward to zoyas comments and constant bitchiness, as did the characters in the books. and when she left the note and the blue kefta with alina in the epilogue,, oh god my heart. and the ragtag crew of grisha making up the remainder of the second army were amazing. their banter and dialogue were some of my favorite scenes to read in “ruin and rising” and i want books just filled with them and only them. david and genya deserve the damn world, adrik was so great, nadia and tamar are so precious, and i will miss harshaw’s weird ass more then you’ll ever know. don’t even get me started on misha and oncat. they are the true stars of this series, you cannot convince me otherwise. god i love them all so much, what a brilliant cast of characters. except the apparat. fuck the stupid ass apparat.

i know what you’re thinking. “you forgot nikolai.” no. i promise you, i most certainly did not. i just love him so much he gets his own chunk.

i mean, how could he not? he’s one of those rare, genuinely perfect characters that are impossible to not love. and i don’t mean perfect because he has no flaws or he’s written unnaturally, i mean perfect because of all of his flaws. he is arrogant and calculating, brash and unapologetic in his ways, but he’s also kind and caring, witty and charming and way too clever for his own good. i rooted for him more then i have ever rooted for someone in my entire life. he made everything ten times better. you can always count on his ass to pop up in a flying ship with a shiny pair of boots, a witty remark, a new plan, and too many ideas.

now, the important business... the ominous love square.

i think the words i used were “one of my main gripes with the story” which is true, but i think leads to a bigger issue with some of the characterization in the story. the “love square” was a term i thought of in relation to the many overlapping and confusing ships that center around alina (obviously being mal, the darkling, and nikolai). all of the ships were so entertwined and written over top of one another that there was no other way for me to describe it and the square seemed like a nice enough analogy. it just felt like way too much on everybody’s plates.

i love nikolai and alinas friendship. i mean, LOVED it. because i loved it so much, i found the little nods to a ship odd and unnecessary. their story line was very focused on the fact that ravka would need a king and queen, hence the scene where he gives her the emerald and all but proposes right then and there. however, that scene would have made scene and carried the same weight had there not been the splashes of romance both before and after. now, i understand why people ship them. and honestly, if under different circumstances, i probably could’ve and would’ve shipped them myself. they would have had one of the best marriages in a society where you didn’t get to marry for love. but it just made everything more complicated. people would’ve speculated on a ship had there been no kisses or pining, soley based on the possibility of a marriage and because of their close friendship so, why was the canon addition of it necessary? i just couldn’t get behind it when i loved their platonic relationship so much and when there were two stronger and more developed ships, waging war in the background.

now, my final bone to be picked... let’s be real for a second, alina in “shadow and bone” sucked. she was annoying and had no personality beyond being a sad, lonely, orphan in the darklings sparkly new grisha world. though i will say, in the later two books, i grew to like her. her character development did its job and i actually think she grew to be a pretty good protagonist. she did her best with the cards she was dealt and i think she did really well. however, her inability to pick a boy constantly bothered me. after being in love with her best friend for literal years, she is really ready to be be the first lady of the second army. and yes. sure you could justify it. she wasn’t getting letters in return, she’d been away for months, she was adapting to her new life, the darkling made her feel seen and wanted which is all a very new feeling to her. but then she goes right back to mal after he makes a confession that he didn’t realize he loved or needed her until she was gone for months (this was one of my biggest problems with mal. my problem only grew when he spent the entirety of “siege and storm” being a dick. but like i said,, we have reconcilied. we are fine now). there were times throughout the series where i genuinely didn’t understand why they were together, why i liked them together, or why i even wanted them to end the series together. alina even asks mal at the end of “ruin and rising” if there entire relationship was based solely on the fact that mal was the last amplifier and the fact that she even had to ask really says something. was their entire romance because of the amplifier? was it because of the “we-are-just-meant-to-be-together” thing? or was there actual chemistry? i really couldn’t tell sometimes. and the darklina ship was even more twisty and winding. he went from telling her deep dark secrets because he wanted to hear the girl he loved say his name to literally threatening everyone she loves because he wants her weak and all to himself. like,, whAt? (again,, layers) and don’t even get me started on the darkling and alina apparition interactions. those were a wild fucking ride. i felt like i was getting manipulated along with the both of them in those. but maybe that was the point of the darkling and alinas relationship. it was supposed to be so horrible yet so electric that you couldn’t pull away. but i doubt the same was meant to be said for mal and alina.

now i feel like i may be coming off in the wrong way. i loved more about this series then i didn’t. but me gushing about every fine detail and conversation that made my heart melt wouldn’t make for the most interesting read, if it was even coherent. all in all, i think it’s safe to say the grisha trilogy is great. does that mean it doesn’t have flaws? of course not. does that mean the flaws outweigh the good and the actual point of the story? absolutely not. my small complaints about a few things really do not take always from the fact that i love this series. i would love anything written by leigh bardugo, especially in the grishaverse.

if you’ve made it this far, that’s commitment. thank you brave soldier. don’t take anything i’ve said with anything more than a grain of salt. seriously. if this is your favorite series, don’t let my lil complaints ruin your day. because really, the good outweighs the bad here tenfold. i’m just a girl with a lot of opinions and a platform to share them at four am... it’s a dangerous game.

but, goodbye grisha trilogy. you have served me well and i will return to reread you soon. but for now i will do a lot of writing (i already have so many fic ideas brewing) and read all the fan fiction and tumblr posts i’ve been avoiding for fear of spoilers.

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Leigh Bardugho: King of Scars (Nikolai Duilogy #1) | Lara

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Yet with every day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built. With the help of a young monk and a legendary Grisha Squaller, Nikolai will journey to the places in Ravka where the deepest magic survives to vanquish the terrible legacy inside him. He will risk everything to save his country and himself. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried—and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

"No mourners,” she whispered, and launched herself through the broken glass.

Three years after the events of Ruin and Rising and Ravka is still nowhere near good. Once powerful country and homeland of Grisha is now on verge of civil war. Young king Nikolai is giving his best to bring it back to its own glory, but drawbacks keep appearing from all sides. Meanwhile, Nina Zenik is on a secret mission in Fjerda rescuing emigrating Grisha. Many countries have pretensions on Ravka and want to see the young king fall. Nikolai has to save his country, but will he be able to do it without saving himself from a monster that has remained all the way from Darkling’s reign.

That’s it for the intro in this book, I’d write more but I’m afraid I am unable to do it without any spoilers because plot kicks right in from the beginning. This book could not get less than 3 stars in any way you put it. I’m serious, if this was 400 pages of Nikolai sitting in a chair and talking about his hair, it would have been GOOD because of Leigh Bardugho’s spectacular writing. It just makes me want to cry, the fact that there is such a book I could read without stopping because it is so damn fluid, easy to read, full of action and really really really well paced. Bardugho was really one of my favorite authors, but King of Scars is a work of art in its true form; from first to the last page there wasn’t one part I wished to skip or go faster, nor there were any unnecessary descriptions, exhausting paragraphs or tiresome dialogues. *sobs in Fjerdan* It was so refreshing to read this book and no matter which PoV it was I enjoyed the story.

King of Scar’s storyline is told from the perspective of four characters: Nikolai, Zoya, Nina and Isaak. I liked each PoV because Leigh has written them really well. Their constant switches contributed to the dynamics and pacing of the plot and it was easy to catch everything important for the story. My favorite was probably Zoya, I can’t believe I haven’t seen her potential in the Grisha trilogy. I can never get enough of a badass strong female character who decided to bring the world down. Nikolai’s PoV was really fun to read because we get to see something else than clever and humorous king who always has a solution for everything. His “monster” background gave an interesting note to his character and it made me like him even more.

The other two perspectives from which the story was told did not make any particular impression on me. Isaac was pretty mediocre and not-interesting character and I felt he was only there to fill some hole Bardugho needed to continue the story on the court. I loved Nina Zenik all the way from Six of Crows and couldn’t wait to see where her character was going after the events of Crooked Kingdom. I wasn’t disappointed with it, but I just didn’t like her chapters as much as I liked Zoya’s.

"She wished she had Inej’s gift for spywork or Kaz’s gift for scheming, but she only seemed to have Jesper’s gift for bad decisions."

The part I liked the most in this book was romance. I can say this now, after reading all of her books - Leigh Bardugho knows how to write a romance in series. There is always tension in the air, but some kind of casual development between two characters that enables them to grow individually as well as a couple. She just gives her readers the right amount of feelings and hesitation to make things interesting.

So, after reading this you are probably asking (as was I) why did I give this book a 4-star rating. Well, I really liked this book, but it just was not on that level that are books I usually give a 5-star rating. The hype surrounding it was big enough even before its release, but I expected it to be something like this so I didn’t raise my expectations. First I thought, well, if I loved Six of Crows THAT much, this is going to be even better, but the more I thought about it I realized those characters and the storyline Leigh announced just can’t be on that level.

What bothered me the most were some things in the plot so I’ll go through them in this paragraph. The plot itself was dynamic and well developed with the right amount of action at the right time. In previous Grisha books, there wasn’t as much politics and court intrigue, but those were some pretty important factors in King of Scars and I just love reading about it xd Nikolai had a whole lot going on with Ravka and not to mention the other countries in the world that are preparing for the war. Nina’s part of the story was intriguing as well and it was cool reading about Fjerda and Girsha in such surroundings. *from now until the end of the paragraph spoilers* Things just kept getting more interesting after Zoya and Nikolai’s disappearance and that ending was pretty a sweet cliffhanger leaving us with an interesting intro in the second book. But, I am seriously vexed (yes I said that) by all that saints something. I still don’t get what has happened when Zoya and Nikolai entered some kind of ?parallel universe-secret realm-heaven-what?, but that was probably because I wasn’t interested in following that part. I just know I hated that whole part of the story, except maybe for Zoya’s powers, and I didn’t like how things turned out with Nikolai’s curse. It was weird and it ruined some great things Bardugho was building from the beginning of the book.

So my second most anticipated book of 2019 was really good, but not the best read, but I still recommend it especially if you are familiar with Grishaverse from before.

#books #book reviews #leigh bardugho #king of scars #young adult #fantasy #nikolai duology

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