Reviews with content warning for Blood - Ruin and Rising

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Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

153 reviews

ladygetslit's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Series Overall: fell a bit flat for me. I never felt connected to the characters, despite being shoved in Alina’s head the whole time. I never felt myself rooting for her relationship with Mal. To be honest, I think if I had read this series years ago and before reading Bardugo’s other books, I might not be so disappointed, but this was clearly her first major go at it. The storyline itself and the world is amazing, but the execution just wasn’t it for me. I’m still glad I read it though!

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mckiheather's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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filipacmiranda's review against another edition

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3.75

Ruin and Rising starts strong with Alina, Mal and all the other Grisha hiding in the White Cathedral, growing Alina's holly following, and escaping the Apparat's schemes. After that, they head towards the Spinning Wheel and reunite with Nikolai. These events also bring back Baghra and a few other (not so) beloved characters.

Regarding characters, this book creates a few important arcs that open doors for the King of Scars duology. I also enjoyed reading about the group's journey towards the Spinning Wheel and their expedition looking for the Firebird. It allowed space to watch them grow tighter and learn to work together as a team. Despite this, I have liked the Alina-Darkling interactions to be more deeply explored, in the sense that I wanted them to better build up to the ending the author designed for both characters.

Finally, the Darkling's and Mal's fates annoyed me. While the first one's death was mundane and, in a way, didn't seem fitting for the character's relevance throughout the story, the other's survival sounded unlikely and was poorly explained. I appreciated the trilogy's ending and how it turned into a full-circle moment for the main character, but I believe a few tweaks could have made it more memorable.

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1st Read (2020): 4.25 stars

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justagirlwithbooks's review against another edition

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3.25

"They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things—if love can ever be called that."

I can't believe I actually managed to read this book in one day! There were parts I liked, parts that I didn't like, but all in all I liked the ending to this trilogy. There were quite a few quotes that I liked too, more in this book compared to the other two. I'm looking forward to reading King of Scars and seeing where Nikolai's story picks up.

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emilywemily6's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I’m conflicted about this rating because I feel like the reading experience was so much more fun for this book because there were twists and turns at every chapter and I could not put this book down- BUT- some of the things that happened to Nikolai and Mal and even a little bit of Alina bothered me at the end of the book. There were some tropes and cop outs that made the ending tie up too nicely, especially with how much build up there was to the climax of the final battle. I still love how much nuance the Darkling has. And while I liked Mal better in this book than the last, I am team Nikolai all the way!

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bubbly_lara's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I absolutely loved this. All the stars, 10/10, highly recommend this series! I literally did not know what to do with myself for hours after finishing it. We meet Alina

and the group of survivors in the White Cathedral

right where "Siege and Storm" ended. We follow along as they grow together as a group and plan their escape from underground to find Nikolai and his troops in order to face the Darkling and save Ravka. They venture on the journey to find the third amplifier while they learn more about the Darklings past, Ilya Morozova and how it is all interconnected. At the end of the day, they must each choose whether they can live with the price to be paid to end this war.

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

For a moment there, I thought my little heart could not take how the story was unfolding. In what the Darkling decided on as a punishment for

Nikolai

we see once more how cruel he can truly be. The moments between

Alina and Nikolai in his monster form

made my heart ache for the both of them and the choices they must make. Also, how could I not talk about Alina and Mal.

For a moment there, I thought they would not get to live the life they both want and deserve. What with Mal being the Third Amplifier and both of them knowing he must die in order for Alina to absorb the power within Mal. No words, just heartbreak. I did love the epilogue and how they rebuilt Keramzin to be a better home for others than it was for them. Zoya handing Alina blue Grisha robes with the note "You will always be one of us" makes me tear up even writing this review.

.

Please do yourself a favour and go read this series. It deserves all the hype it's getting. I cannot wait to go dive back into the Grishaverse with "Six of Crows" next.

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fionamatilda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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toastyghosty13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I felt that this book actually started off pretty strong and was much better than the previous book of this series for the first half of it. As the book drew to a close, it felt too slow and too rushed in parts.

One thing that bothered me was that

Mal was the third amplifier. This just seemed strange to me, especially when the idea of Morozova and his normal daughter surviving being drowned in chains is a huge reach, on top of the fact that Mal is some supposed descendant of the daughter. I found this to be a weird plot point, but I guess it can work.

Something that really bothered me that stems from this is that when Alina killed Mal to try to use him as the last amplifier as a last resort, she lost all of her power and it was reflected in all of the other normal citizens instead. I found this very cheesy and a weird way to take it. I doubt I am the only one that wanted to see Alina go super saiyan on the darkling in some massive showdown, so this was a huge letdown to me.

I did not realize how many people would die off, nor did I realize that they had even died until spoken about in past tense.

Harshaw is one of these, plus Ruby and some others that were from the final battle and the battle at spinning wheel. I think all of these characters got done dirty, plus Genya got done dirty for no reason, in my opinion. Same goes for Botkin and anyone that was defending the orphanage; I feel that that was totally unnecessary for them to die and did not really add anything to the plot.

The end bothered me unbelievably.

Leigh pulled a Game of Thrones, where we are all expecting some epic showdown just for the big ending move to be getting stabbed in the heart by some forgotten dagger. This was boring and a disappointing cop out, since she is the main character and I expected a lot more for the final scene.

The afterward I actually quite liked. It was quaint, and pretty wholesome. I enjoy that

they still have contact with everyone that stayed on to be advisors to Nikolai in the palace and that Alina and Mal are not just cut off from the world completely. They opened an orphanage that they really care about and are able to reminisce whenever old friends from the palace come by to visit. Overall a great afterward.

I have heard that the other duologies are a lot better than this. I am pretty disappointed with the turn this series took after how much I enjoyed the first book. I have the boxset so I will at least be reading The Six of Crows Duology since I already own it. I would not purchase King of Scars unless Six of Crows makes a huge turnaround of what Shadow and Bone left me feeling.

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aidareads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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this_is_naomimi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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