The Grishaverse

I have been avoiding the Shadow and Bone series for awhile now. I'm not fully sure my hesitation behind it. I personally wasn't big on the cover art on the first novel, and I'm a snob if the cover art or title doesn't pull me in I don't even bother to read the about. Also all of booktok was obsessing about them and I wanted to read something different, not the same as everyone else....

Clearly I gave up and I read them, now I get to spend the next year of my life mentally kicking my own ass because they were incredible. I read the first one in one night and had such a bad book hangover afterwards that I couldn't read for an entire day. A week later when I had finished the other two I had to fully swear off fantasy for a bit and read a couple fun lighthearted novels to recover...I've never needed to recover from a book before. Only Crescent City came close and that was just a book hangover not a need to completely abandon a genre for a week because my brain couldn't handle anymore intensity. 

I watched the first episode of the show and that is what prompted me to get the books and dive into them. When I started to watch the show again I'm realizing they mixed in some of the duology that comes after (I know because I didn't recognize a name so I googled it), so I'm almost wondering do I should have waited and read the duology first? I'm thinking maybe I should have, but it's too late now so oh well. 

Anywho, I'm writing about all 3 in one post because I feel like if I give each novel it's own I'm going to spoil a lot and for anyone who still hasn't read them and decides to...I don't want to spoil the adventure. 

I feel so bad for Alina throughout all of these books. This ordinary girl who has already had so much taken from her in life is thrust into this whole different world that she never wanted to be a part of. I honestly don't even blame her attraction to the darkling, when put in a situation where everyone in power is telling you one thing, of course you are going to believe them. The Darkling is a snake, he's like every evil serial killer you ever read about, cunning and perfect at acting like a saint in front of everyone else. 

The Apparat is is a slimy little weasel and I hated him from the first introduction. You can tell from the beginning that he is only out for himself and has no loyalty to anyone. 

Zoya, oh god I hate her so much...until the last book when I ended up kind of liking her and then yelling at myself for it. 

Mal is a bit of a pompous headed a*hole, but he loves Alina and does everything he can to protect her, he's the perfect best friend in that respect. Terrible as a romantic lead because he's constantly pushing her away "for her own good" which is bs. I mean yes, it's probably safer for her, more realistic, whatever, but love isn't supposed to be safe or realistic so he really just needed to pull his head out of his ass. 

Nikolai, while we don't meet him until the second novel is my absolute favorite. He is the perfect future king and perfect compliment to the story. Even Mal accepted the fact that Nikolai might get Alina in the end and was like, okay well if it has to be someone else, I guess I can accept him. That's how much respect he had for Nikolai as a person, not as a prince or his sneaky former self, simply as another person. That rather than hating him or being disrespectful he pushed Alina towards him because he knew that Nikolai would care for her (it was still completely f*d in the head for him to do that, but it speaks towards how lovable Nikolai is). 

I honestly don't know what to say about this series without spoiling it, other than it made me laugh, it made me cry, it may have stressed me out massively at times and was hard to put down and get other things done. It is a beautiful series and Leigh Bardugo is a genius for creating this world. I will be reading Six of Crows and it's sequel eventually... I did however pick up King of Scars (which follows Nikolai because he is my favorite and I want to read about him forever.