The Grisha Trilogy

Am I ever going to write reviews on time again? But I did love love love love love this series. It's one of my new favorites. As usual: first part no spoilers, second part spoilers. Let's do this.

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

This is going to be a fangirling review. I LOVED this book so much. The covers are gorgeous, the characters are awesome, and the world is a work of art. It had been a long time since I adored a book so much and wanted to add it to my favorites. (The last one was the Winner's Crime and I read that baby in May.) This series is the highway of emotions I demand from my fiction. I loved everything: the romance, the world, the Russia, the unlimited shipping possibilities, the politics. This book is haunting, worth a reread one day, and will temporarily ruin your life. Do I have to say more?

The Grisha Trilogy is set in Ravka, a great empire split in two by an ancient curse. The Grisha, humans with special powers are led by the Darkling. Ravka itself is on the verge if war.

The story is told from the perspective of Alina Starkov, an ordinary mapmaker who discovers she has a great gift. She might be Ravka's only chance. But she will soon find out that not everything is what is seems if you suddenly possess such a strong and important power.

When you should read this trilogy:

-if you haven't read it yet.

-if you like good romance, world building, character development, and plot.

Ratings:

Shadow and Bone: 4,25 stars

Siege and Storm: 5 stars

Ruin and Rising: 5 stars

This part of the review will contain spoilers for the whole entire series. Read on your own risk.

World building

The world is based on Russia, a country I'm very interested in, and I loved all of the time and work you could just feel stitched into this book. The Fold gave me this totally haunted feeling and the Volcra's scared me to death but they were also so fascinating and I'm blurting out incomprehensible sentences and... Okay. The world building is really beautiful. From the Grisha's powers to Morozova's backstory in Ruin and Rising. The neighboring countries have their own cultures and their ways of dealing with these mysterious powers is similar to the way we handled them in the past. I adored the descriptions of the Little Palace and the landscapes and clothes. Everything is just so detailed and works out perfectly.

Plotting

The plot twists are incredible. Mal is the amplifier. The Darkling is evil. (He's called the Darkling, but still...) But just the story line and the ideas all intertwine and all the pieces fit together. I love that moment when I start wondering how the F the author made this all work. I just loved the story over all. I was especially impressed with how beautiful these ancient creatures turned out. The way the story was set out really kept me reading and made it this epic journey of epicness and Russia and... This was just a shade of perfection in book form. (I'm rambling.)

That moment you realize your trust issues were caused by plot-twists in your favorite books...

Characters

These characters form the ultimate dreamteam.
I related so much to Alina and found her such an empowering character. She starts off as this naïve, small and ordinary girl and watching her grow into such a powerful person was so enjoyable. What I thought was really interesting is her compassion towards the stag in the first book. I'm so used to seeing protagonists who kill so much for their goals. It was refreshing and impressing to see Alina being such a good person without coming across as a weakling. During the series she becomes so afraid of her own power and she almost dies at the end of Siege and Storm trying to protect her people against the Darkling. She is brave and heroic without being aware of her own epicness. Such a role model.

"How do you destroy a monster without becoming one?"

Oh Mal. Finally a love interest that I can love again. One of the things I liked about this book is the complexity of the characters. Him starting to fight and drink all the time after they 'break up'. I would have teared up if I hadn't been sitting in the garden. More about Mal and Alina later.
Nikolai is the personification of comedic relief. I found myself laughing in the most inappropriate places in Siege and Storm. His transformation really made me sad.

"I love it when you quote me."

These books had no cardboard characters. Does that mean I'll have to talk about everyone?

The Darkling is one of the creepiest characters I ever fell in love with. I loved how after he dies, Alina is still so good to him. That really defines how compassionate and good her character is. The Darkling is just a fascinating villain. I love evil dictators with white roses and power-hungry cold-hearted scientists, but it was so interesting to see such a young(?) and messed-up soul haunting a girl he so desperately wants but never reaches. There is also some real conflict between them. America doesn't really have any doubts about the king. He's EVIL, Maxon is GOOD. It's good to see some moral questions pop up after someone tries to persuade you to join the dark side by talking in on your loneliness.
Baghra was my favorite non-Alina character, especially after her backstory and her ties to Mal. She fascinated me from the moment she appears on the pages, and her death broke my heart, as it should.
I loved Genya, simply because I adore complicated characters with interesting backstories. I always love watching characters lose their beautiful exterior. Not because I like watching them suffer, but because it makes me in no way love the character less. It often makes me like them more.
Harshaw just made me smile during the whole last book. He was such a delightful addition to the group with his little cat and his constant playing with fire.

Romance

*sighs* I will always ship Alina and Mal.

The romance in this series... It killed me. Twice.

What I liked that stood out from other books I read recently, is the absence of a lot of intimacy. I'm currently reading the Shatter Me trilogy and found a huge contrast between these two popular book series: the way the romance is expressed. Shatter Me is pretty touchy touchy, and I get that's because of Juliette's contrast with her lethal touch and all that cr@p. But when I was closing my eyes during a nice song and searching my brain for my most shippy moments of every book, I had two very different issues when I reached these series.

The Grisha Trilogy: I couldn't find anything fast enough.

The Shatter Me Trilogy: I couldn't pick one.
And it's not like Alina and Mal never exchange an intimate moment or Juliette and Adam never do anything else than kiss. But the focus in both books lays so differently. The most important thing (in my opinion) in Shadow and Bone is the thin line between good and evil and how this line is crossed more easily when one has great power resting in his hands. And let me tell you...
I love that.
The last word in literature is 'balance'. Romance and individuality have an equally important role in Alina's life. The action and emotional moments both have their places in the story and reinforce each other instead of disturbing each other's effects.
Now let's get to the fangirling.

This is a slow-build romance. My favorite kind. Alina was always in love with him and he was always in love with her, but their relationship keeps growing during the story. I found myself completely locked inside their romance and just always cheering them on to finally kiss and have their happily ever after. (That scene with the apple blossoms... *squeals*)

Battles

The battles in these books are gold. My personal favorite is the one at the end of Siege and Storm. When Alina pulled all of those nichevo'ya (spelling?) out of him my eyes were flying over the pages. The build-up is also really well-done. In that dining hall I could almost touch the expanding tension. And then it happened...

And it doesn't stop...

Now that we're talking about this anyway, let me ask you a very straight-forward question. Why do all our boys get controlled by the villians?

"My lips are just forming his name when his hands lock around my throat."

"Four, it's me. You're in a simulation. 

He can't hear you." 

"He's in my head. Scarlet - " 

"The darkness fractured beneath his skin, climbing his throat."

Am I the only one who sees a pattern here?

The ending

The last battle took me away from this planet and onto theirs. I was laying comfortably in our garden. And I was holding my breath.

When Alina attacks the Darkling, everything can happen. The whole outcome of the battle is a mystery until the very end. And then, when Mal dies...

My sob fests

Okay, so my mother was in the living room and I was dangerously close. My dad was about to come home from a walk. I could not cry in public. So Mal dies and the Darkling dies and the mouths of my eyes are almost choking on their own little tears. And then he's alive again and we have to eat dinner.

So that evening I decide to read the ending in bed.

And in the epilogue Alina and Mal have opened the orphanage again and they're with the little boy and Alina plays with the light through the curtains and has paintings of sea dragons and fire birds.

So I start sobbing like a crazy person.

My favorite moments

Romance: The apple blossoms. My poor shipping heart.

Funny: At some in Siege and Storm Alina and Mal are pretending to be fortune tellers from some foreign country. It was hilarious.

Emotional: Epilogue. As always with books.

Best quote: "What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men."

Intense: Sucking nichevo'ya out of the Darkling.

Beautiful description: Seeing the firebird.

After I finished this series, I had to go back to being mentally present during this new school year that's already proven itself to be the worst year yet.