The Grisha
Trilogy is one of my favorite series of all time, and as such I will probably
die of anticipation in the year that I have to wait for the third book, Ruin and Rising (which is horribly named)
to come out. That being said, let’s continue…
Alina has
escaped from the Darkling’s clutches with her childhood friend and true love,
Mal. Living in a new country with the hopes of disappearing, the two don’t get
much of a reprieve; the Darkling soon capture them once again. With the help of
the sly foxlike captain, Sturmhond, and the rest of his crew, they escape from
the Darkling and all of the Grisha that defected to his side when he tried to
overthrow the King. With the King sick, the Apparat missing and raising a cult
to follow “Sankta Alina,” and the Darkling all but abandoning his control of
Ravka, the country has little leadership. It’s up to Alina and her friends to
control the Second Army and mount an attack against the Darkling, who has
showed an interesting, and frightening, new power. Meanwhile, Alina must fight
against her growing internal corruption as her power grows stronger and she
feels more and more alienated from humanity. Will Alina be able to defeat the
Darkling and save all of Ravka? When the time comes, will she even want to?
Told from
the point-of-view of Alina, as was the first book, you can’t help but feel
attached to her. She has an amazing power, she can fight pretty well, and she
always means well. Well, most of the time, anyway. What was most impressive
about her character though, was something that Bardugo did extraordinarily
well. She showed Alina’s slow descent into corruptness in a way that wasn’t
obvious. It wasn’t like there was a single dark statement thrown into a bunch
of cheery sentiments that blatantly stated “oh, look how what she wants to
think now is so different from what she normally thinks.” No, none of that. It
was subtle, but I could still pick it up while I was reading it, and it was
really skillfully done and awesome.
Mal kind of
annoyed me in this book. Like to the point where I wanted Alina to be with the Darkling and love him forever. I mean,
I’ve actually been thinking that the whole time, but who hasn’t, honestly? It’s
obvious Alina and the Darkling are perfect for each other, but I digress…
Right, Mal. He was really possessive and cranky, but I guess I’ll let him off
the hook considering the number of times he was almost killed and his entire
life destroyed, but still. Sometimes, I just did not appreciate his attitude,
but I think the point of him acting so annoyingly was so that it would show
just how different Alina is becoming from the rest of human kind. Not that all
human kind are annoying and cranky, but… I don’t know I’m just going to stop
there before I dig myself a deeper hole.
Sturmhond/Nikolai
was my favorite character, perhaps of all time. He was absolutely AMAZING. He
was hilarious all the time, to the point where I would actually burst out
laughing. He was wise even though he was young (and gave great advice on how to
be a leader, honestly), slightly ruthless and slightly sweet, just an awesome
character all around. Plus, he’s a prince and a mighty good one, at that.
However, he was a bit deceptive and sneaky for my taste, but everyone has their
flaws, right? I say Alina should forget Mal and just become a queen with
Nikolai… At least that’s what I’d do if the whole Darkling thing didn’t work
out.
Both the
story and the writing were phenomenal. Bardugo can write anything and I would
love it. Her humor is so similar to my own that I can’t help but laugh out loud
at some of the jokes she makes and the things she says. I want to be best
friends with her; I think we’d get along really well. Anyway, the story had
just the right balance between action and dialogue, just as Shadow and Bone did. Her diction brought
the book to life before my very eyes and I absolutely loved the Russian
influence in the book. I really have nothing bad to say about this book.
AMAZING!!
SO MUCH LOVE!! 5 Smileys!!
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