[Review] Shadow and Bone

English Cover

German Cover

‘Shadow and Bone’
by Leigh Bardugo

The Grischa # 1..

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? (Source: Goodreads.com)

My thoughts about the book:
I don’t know where I should start – I found the book absolutely beautiful and incredible and was completely surprised by this ingenious, wondrous world, which Bardugo has created here. It’s of full miracles, mythical beings and fantastic magic!

This is also reflecting in the manner of writing of the author, who uses a wonderful, gorgeous language, which at the same time isn’t too overload, but which feels like a light snowflake, and it’s like one of this writing styles which usually appears in fairy tales and which kidnaps the reader just in such a story.

I don’t want to tell much about the plot, because otherwise something in tension gets lost, but so much can be said: it happens a lot in it! In principle there is a constant ‘up-and down’, and there also happens things, which I couldn’t foresee by myself and hence, I’ve found very great!
For me Bardugo has created with this story something independent and completely new, which I would like to see as a movie with great pleasure and I’m already looking forward desperately to the other parts. (I just read a few days ago, that the movie rights are already sold – so we can be happy, there is going to be a movie!)

Also the characters could inspire me and I found Alina’s behavior, as well as her feelings on the relevant circumstances, authentically, understandable and I would have quite often reacted the same way or I would have had the wish as she – to belong to others. Who wouldn’t?
Moreover, it was interesting how Bardugo has created the figures Mal and the Darkling – really fantastic, inscrutable and suspenseful.

The end could satisfy me, after a small dropout and shock, and allowed me to finish the first book positively and also leaves me behind waiting tensely for the next part.

German Cover:
It’s really a felicitous cover, and as well as the story, with an own, unique charm. *splendid*

All in all:
I quickly got pulled into the story, into the characters, Grischas and the magic of this world and then I couldn’t free myself anymore from it. Great first part of a magnificent new series and I already wait anxious for the next book!
The 0.5-points deduction is there because I feel that, nevertheless, it’s still enough space upwards and because in the book were also short passages, which were a little bit long-winded.

Rating:
4,5 of 5 points – (soo awesome!)

A huge Thanks for the reviewer’s copy to:

© Bittersweet  &

© Carlsen Verlag

Quote:

Darkling: “How did you fare with the Queen?”
Alina: “I have no idea. Everything she said was perfectly nice, but the whole time she was looking at me as if I were something her dog spit up.”

Mal: “I missed you every hour. And you know what the worst part was? It caught me completely by surprise. I’d catch myself just walking around to find you, not for any reason, just out of habit, because I’d seen something that I wanted to tell you about or because I wanted to hear your voice. And then I’d realize that you weren’t there anymore, and every time, every single time, it was like having the wind knocked out of me. I’ve risked my life for you. I’ve walked half the length of Ravka for you, and I’d do it again and again and again just to be with you, just to starve with you and freeze with you and hear you complain about hard cheese every day. So don’t tell me why we don’t belong together.”