Review of “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Bardugo

Review of “Shadow and Bone” by Leigh Bardugo

I saw the Shadow and Bone Netflix show before I read the book, and I enjoyed the first season, so I bought the book. However, the show covers more than what’s in the book, so I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy the novel. My favorite part of the show was the Crows gang, and they are not in the book, they are in a separate book called “The Six of Crows”, which I haven’t to read yet. So, I went into this book with different expectations than the show.

The world of the Grishaverse – the universe that “Shadow and Bone” takes place in – is an interesting fantasy land that feels like an early 1900’s setting mixed with a Russian aesthetic. Grisha’s are the magic users in this world, and I like the system of magic and ranks of Grisha that Bardugo has created. However, while I do enjoy the Grisha’s magical powers, I don’t think that Bardugo adds enough explanation and detail for how this magic is used and what each rank does, within this world.

The main character of the story is Alina Starkov a young girl that finds out she a rare type of Grisha known as the Sun Summoner. Everyone hopes that she is the key is getting rid of something known as the Fold, which is a shadowland river that splits part of the country. The creator of the Fold is The Darkling, a Shadow Summoner, the antithesis of the Sun Summoner. Alina is then taken away to a palace and trained as a Grisha. While I kind of liked the character I the show, I feel she is very bland in the book. They even changed an aspect of her for the show, that I thought gave her a bit more character depth. In the show she is part “Shu”, a sort of racial slur for Asiatic people. In the book they do not mention that, and barely mention the Shuhan people. One of the best aspects of a good fantasy is the political and social relationships between different races of people or creatures, and that is played out well enough here. 

Since the book follows Alina’s perspective, we don’t get to see what is going on with her friend and sort of love interest, Mal. In the show, we get to follow his journey, and in the book, he just tells Alina in a few sentences what happened to him. Mal is a sort of charismatic character in the show but comes off as a jealous soldier in the book. Because Mal is an expert tracker, he is tasked with finding a rara magical stag that Alina and the Darkling are after, because the stag will amplify their powers.

There is sort of a twist in the book where we find out who the darkling is, and why he wants Alina’s powers. In the show they drag the reveal out longer and set him up better as a villain. My favorite character from this book is a side character named Genya, who is a Grisha servant at the Palace that befriends Alina. While I do enjoy the fantasy world that author Bardguo has created, I just feel like the story of Alina is too generic and not interesting enough to really get me swept up in this book. The love triangle is boring, and her internal struggle doesn’t really work, because again I don’t think Bardugo does a good enough job showing how the characters interact with the world.

I haven’t watched the second season of the show because I heard it wasn’t very good and made too many changes from the books. I will however finish the “Shadow and Bone” trilogy and I’m looking forward to the “Six of Crows” book. If you like young adult fantasy, then you might enjoy this book, but tame your expectations from the show’s portrayal. 

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