Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: "The Shadow and Bone Trilogy" #1
Genre: YA Fantasy
Page Length: 358 pages
Publication Date: June 5, 2012
Rating: 4 // 5 stars
Rating: 4 // 5 stars
Well folks...it finally happened. I finally read Shadow and Bone. In some
ways, I wish I had read it sooner. But in other ways, I think this was the
perfect time for me to read it.
I will admit, part of why it took me so long to read it was because the hype
is extreme for any of Leigh Bardugo's books. I'd read Six of Crows
previously and, while I enjoyed it, I didn't love it. I had to read it for
class and that dampened my spirits. So when everyone was saying Six of Crows
was a million times better than Shadow and Bone, I'll admit it put me off
for a while.
However, with the release of the show in April and all of the hype
surrounding it, I started getting more excited. I had been gifted the boxset
years ago and I told myself I'd read all the books before the show came out.
Obviously, that did not happen. But between the trailer that looked amazing,
the hype around the show, and just my own personal interest, I started being
drawn more and more towards reading Shadow and Bone.
As I write this, it's only been a few hours since I picked Shadow and Bone
off my bookshelf and randomly started reading it out of the blue. If I had
not had a night class, I would have devoured the entire book in one sitting.
It was exactly what I needed and I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to.
The characters were interesting and I really enjoyed our main protagonist. I
will say that I wish I'd seen more depth to a lot of the other characters,
though I can't tell if I just read it too fast or not. I think that with
future books this will happen though, so I'm not too worried about this.
One thing about having waited so long to read these books was that I have
gotten small spoilers over the years regarding different characters.
Combined with trailers and clips from the show that pop up on social media,
I had some vague expectations for what things were going to happen. That's
why, even though I don't know exact plot or story details, I wasn't
surprised when the big plot twist came because I was expected a certain
character to do something like that.
As much as I enjoyed this book, I will say that having been exposed to so
much discussion about the characters and why people like/dislike different
ones definitely impacted how I read it. I subconciously pulled back from
connecting with certain characters because I'd heard things about them. I do
think it would have been reader if I'd read these years and years ago when I
could have avoided spoilers, but I also really enjoyed reading this book at
this time in my life.
I have high hopes for the next book. Now that a lot of the stuff I was
expecting has been dealt with, I truly have no idea what will happen
plot-wise and between most characters (though I still have some suspicions
on a few of them). I'm starting the second book today and hopefully will
enjoy it even more than I did the first. Hopefully, I'll read these quickly
and be able to jump into the show ASAP!
Thanks for reading!
xoxo
Lauren
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