Shadow and Bone

This past year, I waded into the ocean of the young adult fantasy genre—many I have found predictable, stereotypical, and annoying. Alina Starkov, the heroine of Shadow and Bone, stepped off the page for me with the words, “I’m not Grisha. I’m a mapmaker. I’m not even a very good mapmaker,” and she never disappointed me afterward.

This book achieves an amazing balance of teen coming of age/romance and good vs evil/high-stakes epic fantasy. The various settings that evoke Imperial Russia are rich and imaginative.

The only moments I was taken out of the story were to admire Bardugo’s… show more.

What I love about this novel (and series) in particular is Leigh Bardugo’s world-building.

The vast majority of fantasy novels are set in a vaguely-English or medieval setting – Ravka is inspired by Russia, and I found the change to be both brilliant and also it provided crucial background for the characters and the plot development.

Of course Ms. Bardugo’s mastery of fantasy – as well as the heroine with unknown magical powers – were simultaneously enjoyable as a reader, and brilliantly educational as a writer.

Five stars for every book in the series. 

Shadow and Bone has two of my favorite tropes: unrequited love and a dark handsome antagonist who may, or may not, turn out to be a romantic lead. But what makes this book unforgettable for me is the world the author has created.

Based on 19th Century Russia, with a tzar-like king, a powerful church, and saints loving peasantry, Ravka is a world in constant war; its people divided between those who have powers (Grisha) and those who don’t. It’s also physically divided in two by the Unsea, a dark sand desert haunted by monsters, that runs north to south… show more.

We all know the story: good girl meets bad boy (who wants to shroud the world in darkness to obtain world domination). No? Not ringing a bell? Well, you don’t get much more villainous than that, but the man at the helm is just as enticing as he is dastardly. This fantasy world, inspired in part by 19th-century Russia, follows soldier Alina Starkov as she enters the Shadow Fold—an unnatural expanse of shadows that contains nightmarish creatures who threaten to kill all who enter. This ungodly realm has quite literally split her country in half, and there is no hope… show more.