Book Review: Shadow and Bone
Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #1
Okay so, before we get into the review itself, let me just start this off with a few disclaimers:
I know I’m super late to the game with this book, but I felt like I couldn’t properly call myself an avid fantasy reader without having read this trilogy.
I’m aware that this review might not be completely fair, since I came into it with certain expectations having already watched the Netflix show - which covers the entirety of this first book - as well as having already heard that it’s not as good as Six of Crows. But seeing as I haven’t read those books yet either, I wanted to read the Shadow and Bone trilogy first to gain a deeper understanding of the Grishaverse in hopes that it will enhance my experience reading Six of Crows.
Having gotten that out of the way, let’s get started!
As expected, I didn’t really love this book. This is probably one of the only times in my life I’ll say this, but I actually felt like the show was better than the book!
To start, the characters are pretty flat and boring. We know absolutely nothing about any of them, including the protagonist and her love interest. (Mal? Who is that? I don’t know him.) I felt like no one had a personality, which caused me to not necessarily root for or care much about the main characters. My favorite character was the Darkling, but there wasn’t really much of him either. Thankfully, since I had watched the Netflix show first, I was able to picture the actors who play them which was really the only thing that gave the characters any life.
That being said, I did like the magic system. I liked how there are different types of Grisha with different powers, and they are labeled by the colors they wear. The story itself was interesting enough, even though it fell into a typical YA trope (the girl who isn’t pretty or special at all actually turns out to secretly be very pretty and the MOST special). But I felt like nothing about the plot or setting was fleshed out enough. Everything seemed to happen too quickly which caused it not to leave any emotional impact. I also think I’m just not a huge “friends to lovers” person.
Anyways, since I’m completely incapable of leaving a story unfinished, of course I’m still going to read the next two books. Let’s hope it’s true that they’re better than this one!
Rating: 3/5 ⭐️