The Grisha Trilogy

⭐ 4.2/5

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Publishing House: Henry Holt & Company

#1 - Shadow and Bone

⭐ 3.5/5

Pages: 358

ISBN:

Synopsis

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

#2 Siege and Storm

⭐ 4.8/5

Páginas: 435

Synopsis

Darkness never dies.

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land, all while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. But she can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her—or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

#3 Ruin and Rising

⭐ 4.5/5

Páginas: 422

Synopsis

The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

“The problem with wanting”, he whispered, his mouth railing along my jaw until it hovered over my lips, “is that it makes us weak”

-Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

Opinion

I am not new to the universe that Leigh Bardugo has created, the Six of Crows saga was one of my favorites while I was reading it, and so far it is, due to its characters, the history and the world that the author has created in her pages. So I had to give the Grisha Trilogy a try, although it is not my favorite, it was entertaining as I read the pages of it.

The first thing I want to point out is the world that Leigh Bardugo has created. I loved it. I liked knowing more about this world, since while I was reading Six of Crows I did not know some words or ranges that they spoke about until this saga. We are in Ravka, the country where the grisha are not treated like witches or freaks, where they actually have a role within the government army. Now I can say that I finally understand more about this world and the grisha.

The story is actually entertaining, the further you go through the books you want to know more about what is going to happen to the characters and how everything is going to unfold, including the plot twists that are going to take place in the story. These, although surprising, some for their simplicity and others for their unfolding, in one way or another you expected them, because these books, especially Siege and Storm, are oriented towards the end.

Even with this factor, Leigh Bardugo keeps us entertained in her pages because most of the time, in the story, she keeps the suspense and mystery factor in her pages. Which makes us want to know how the story is going to unfold. The rhythm of each book is different from each other, while the first and second are calm, the third it's on fire.

“The Darkling slumped back in his chair. “Fine”, he said with a weary shrug. “Make me your villain”

-Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone

About the characters I have very diverse opinions, I even think an unpopular one, Dreamers.

At the beginning of the saga I did not like Alina, the main character. She was too innocent, too manipulable, without her own opinion or judgment about what they said, what she saw, what she said and what she did. She made me too desperate in some moments, I have to admit, she did develop well as we went into the books and got closer to the end of the whole story.

Mal, one of Alina's love interests, this character is very, VERY FLAT. He has no development whatsoever in the story, and he is practically irrelevant in the story until we reach the end of the saga.

The Darkling, well what a villain we have here, one of the best villains I have seen in a fantasy book! Manipulative, observant, and too much ambition, he is undoubtedly the greatest character in this story. He is even more complex and rounder than Alina herself. I wouldn't be surprised if Leigh Bardugo created this story because of him.

And we have Nikolai, another wonderful character. Handsome, rich, charismatic, intelligent and somewhat nerdy (as cliché as this character may seem), I proudly say that I fell in love with him from the first moment that he appeared in the story.

About the romance of the story, I didn't like it at all. Alina had more chemistry with the villain than with her romantic interest in the entire series. That is the only thing I am going to say on this subject, Dreamers.

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Final Opinion

Although Shadow and Bone was an entertaining saga while it lasted, I would not read the saga again, as much as I liked the world and the atmosphere that Leigh Bardugo developed in this story. The main characters lacked development and did not grow into me, I did not like the romance of the story at all, and Alina despaired me a lot throughout the story.

-Fer 🌙