Tharindu Dissanayake's Reviews > Shadow and Bone

"The usual. Life. Love. The melting point of iron ore."

Having read Six of Crows first, I was a little worried about reading Shadow and Bone. Based on a lot of reviews, I thought this will fall way behind SoC, resulting in a dull read. Turns out all that anxiety was not necessary at all. This might not be as conniving or eventful as SoC, but things turned out way better than I had hoped. I know it's not fair to compare the two, with Shadow and Bone series coming first, so I'm going to stop myself from doing that as much as possible...

Compared to the average YA fantasy book, I have no complaints about the plot. It felt unique, thrilling, and plenty interesting (again, when not compared to SoC). It's always great to dive in to a new world of fantasy, full of interesting characters, and complemented by a vivid world. We all know how great Bardugo is at that. This first book of Grishaverse offers a fast-paced series of events, with some minor twists here and there. I would've preferred it be a little more complicated, with a couple of interesting side quests, but, we are only progressing along a single story line for now. Still, it's a good one.

"Close your mouth. You look like a trout."

I have to hand it to Bardugo for her consistent, and engaging style of writing, which is something that's going to captivate the reader from beginning. Just like with SoC, she effortlessly build up the world, with some amazing elements. With that said, this is all a lot less complex than Kerch. I loved the set of characters as well. Alina Starkov, the firs-person protagonist is so much fun, and there was never a dull moment with her. Secondary characters were also interesting, even down to villains.

I'm still somewhat confused on whether or not I should've read this trilogy before SoC. Even though the trilogy came first, I feel like reading SoC first wasn't mistake. It made me fall in love with the world Bardugo created (much better than Shadow and Bone would've done if this had been my first visit to this world), and I believe it helped me navigate this one smoothly. SoC gave me a great first impression to this amazing world, which will not fade away easily. True, this does not come even closely to SoC when it comes to suspense, or the complexity of characters, but it was interesting enough. Had I started with this one first, I can't help but wonder, things might've been different, and not for the better. With that being said, as interesting as this one was, when compared, it didn't have the same energy to pull in the reader as it was with SoC duology. But I'm hoping that things will continue to better with next two.

"Why can a Grisha possess but one amplifier? I will answer this question instead: What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men."