Shadow & Bone - Leigh Bardugo | Book Review

Shadow & Bone (Grisha Book 1)

Leigh Bardugo 

Reviewed 1/19/2025

Rating:

⭐️⭐️

Review (NO spoilers):

It feels like an unoriginal, classic YA. Something I'd have loved several years ago, but compared to the books I read now, it just feels way lower quality. Pretty boring, and I don't really like any of the characters. Definitely directed towards a much younger audience, unlike Six of Crows. 

There's nothing wrong with tropes and cliches if they're well-written. But this book was just… written.

Review: (SPOILERS):

Oh my goodness… where do I start? Shadow & Bone reads like the most standard, basic, plain YA novel.

Unassuming, simple teenage girl (bonus points for being an orphan) discovers one day that she is the Chosen One, with Magic Powers and a destiny to Save The World.

She is swept away to the Big Important Place, where there are mean teachers with her best interests at heart and fake friends that nobody enjoys reading about. She endures a long Training Period that takes up way too much of the book.

She of course immediately finds herself deeply intertwined in a love triangle with the Ancient Mysterious Magical Dark Hottie and the Simple Classic Boy From Her Childhood.

Whaddya know? There is Big Danger, and she has to run away.

The book concludes with a climax, where our heroine has to make a Big Important Decision (bonus points for discovering inner strength and/or further powers).

Alina is a bland, “ugly” Chosen One heroine. She does very little over the course of the book. The Darkling had the potential to be an interesting antagonist, but I lost all respect for him when he kissed Alina, to be honest. I quite enjoyed the Grisha in Six of Crows, but Shadow & Bone is very basic Light vs Dark.

Alina was described as something in her ‘breaking’ when the Darkling told her he'd kill Mal the next day: and she returns the “mercy” by abandoning his ship in the Fold. Interesting potential for nuance and a somewhat morally gray hero!... but the book doesn't explore this at all. Maybe the sequel will? I don't have high hopes.

I'm not even touching on how badly Bardugo attempts to use Russian for Ravkan names/culture: look up other people’s reviews on that. 

Note: I read the second book but am not going to finish the series or write another review. Not worth my time.