Series: The Grisha #1
Published
by Henry Holt
& Co on June 5 2012
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 358
Rating: 2.5/5 stars
The Shadow Fold, a swathe of impenetrable darkness, crawling with monsters that feast on human flesh, is slowly destroying the once-great nation of Ravka.
Alina, a pale, lonely orphan, discovers a unique power that thrusts her into the lavish world of the kingdom’s magical elite—the Grisha. Could she be the key to unravelling the dark fabric of the Shadow Fold and setting Ravka free?
The Darkling, a creature of seductive charm and terrifying power, leader of the Grisha. If Alina is to fulfill her destiny, she must discover how to unlock her gift and face up to her dangerous attraction to him.
But what of Mal, Alina’s childhood best friend? As Alina contemplates her dazzling new future, why can’t she ever quite forget him?
And the hype machine
strikes again. For a book that has received as much hype over the past two
years as Shadow & Bone, I really
expected something much more impressive. I’m not sure why I even bothered, as
it appears that the blog hype machine is built to fail, at least for me. The
only book I’ve read based on the hype surrounding it that I actually liked was Daughter of Smoke & Bone. This was
no Daughter of Smoke & Bone,
people.
Let’s start things
off by quickly discussing the immensely irritating use of Russian culture in
the worldbuilding of Shadow & Bone.
It’s clear that Bardugo set out to write a fantasy novel set in a less expected
locale – rather than writing about a pseudo-Europe, she chose to create an
alternate universe Russia. This would have been great, if it had worked. The
problem was that it was completely half-assed. The first clue that this book
would piss me off was the disregard for Russian naming practices – namely the
misuse of surnames throughout the book. It’s pretty common knowledge that in
Russia, 'ov' surnames are masculine and 'ova' is the feminine variation. So it was rather
frustrating to continually read about a main character called Alina Starkov,
knowing that her name should in fact be Alina Starkova. There is also an
instance in which a female character is given the male first name Ilya. And
then there’s the fact that the book is chalk full of Russian stereotypes – bear
rugs and squirrel hats and constant imbibing (on a drink called kvas, which is
in fact a non-alcoholic beverage. Why not just call it something else??). I was
also perturbed by the mixed use of real Russian words and made-up Russian-sounding
words, not to mention the use of Russian words to mean completely different
things. I have read some of Bardugo's defence of her decisions, in which she claims that these were conscious decisions that she made for the book, but I honestly don't think that excuses them. You can't just hide behind artistic license when it comes to things like this. There are few things that irritate me more than disrespecting other
cultures, and this book does just that at every turn. I can’t imagine how I
might react to it if it was my culture that was being butchered, but I can’t
imagine I’d be impressed with Bardugo’s hack job.
The characters and
plot were also quite lackluster. They were very reminiscent of things I’ve read
a million times before – stock figures more than real individuals. This story
is told in first person POV, yet I never really felt like I knew who Alina was
at her core. She was constantly being manipulated and she completely lacked a
backbone throughout the story. I’m getting pretty sick of the whole “chosen one”
plotline, and Shadow & Bone is a
good example of why. Alina discovers that she’s a Sun Summoner – the ONLY Sun
Summoner – and then she does absolutely fuck all with her newfound powers. She
doesn’t even try. She just sits around twiddling her thumbs and doing what
people tell her to. What a waste. I was also really annoyed by the fact that the throughout the first half (or so) of the book, such a big deal is made of the fact that Alina isn't pretty - she's described as sickly looking, too thin and pale and sleep-deprived. Of course, as soon as she learns to accept & use her magic, she becomes beautiful. Because god forbid we have a main character who is anything but perfect.
I think that it would have made for a much
stronger (or at least more memorable!) story if Alina had consciously decided
to side with the Darkling. Not to be his slave, but to be his partner. I would
have been interested in reading that book. It was impossible for me to connect
with her, nor did I think that any of the other characters were any better. The
only character I was somewhat interested in was Alina’s friend Genya, whose
story I found quite fascinating, though we weren’t privy to many of the details
of her life.
I was unimpressed with the Darkling both as a villain and as a
love interest. He was neither scary nor sexy, not to mention the fact that the
dude is 120 years old. Ew. I didn’t particularly like Mal either, though. He
was very hot and cold – one minute he was furious with Alina, the next distant
and cold, the next thing I know he’s professing his undying love for her and
willing to die to save her. Double ew.
The plot was simply pedestrian. It was a
traditional been-there-done-that light fantasy wrapped up in a bad Russian
disguise. It lacked depth, and nothing shocking (or even really interesting)
happened. It felt like it was just going through the motions of Typical Fantasy
Novel – orphaned teenager, catching up at weird pseudo-boarding school,
traveling by foot for a very long time and not getting enough to eat, big
climactic moment, the end. Now, I don’t usually mind this – I’ve loved a lot of
books that contain most of these elements – but there was just something
forgettable about Shadow & Bone.
The one thing I
enjoyed about Shadow & Bone was
the writing. It was well paced and moved quickly and steadily (though that
ending was just stupid). Bardugo’s use of words was simple but effective, and
despite all of the frustrations I had with it, I couldn’t seem to put the book
down. I’m even contemplating requesting the second book from the library,
though I truly don’t know why.
It did have a very
pretty map though. I like maps. It gets half a star for the map.
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