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A review by foxon
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
3.0
PSA: Not every writer can do witty banter well and thats ok! It is not a requirement for a good story. Just stop.
This book gave me some serious déjà vu. There is not a lot here that hasnt been covered before, and if you are going to walk a well worn trail,you better do it with some serious flair. This book just didn't do that for me and was headed for a low star review, until about half way through, that is. Just to be clear, I am not saying the plot twist wasn't easy to see coming, but I was captivated by the villain nonetheless.
The prose is a little lack luster, but the banter is atrocious. The dialogue in particular made these characters seem like they were preteens, and not funny preteens at that. And what this book really needed was some spot on writing to make up for the unoriginal plot.
Our heroine is a quite frankly very boring. What is her personality other then being moody, insecure about her looks and in love with her best friend? For this whole book Alina just seems along for the ride even though she is suppose to be the Chosen One. And when she isnt being shuffled around from place to place by others, she is saying very stupid things to very powerful people. By that I of course mean the Darkling, whom Alina talks back to right from the start, even though in her own words he is terrifying and he can cut people in half with a wave of his hands. I just don't like her.
The Darkling on the other hand is a complex character with an emotional depth I can get behind. The more of him in these books the better as he is by far the most intriguing one of the lot. He is the only reason I will read the rest of these books to be honest.
This book gave me some serious déjà vu. There is not a lot here that hasnt been covered before, and if you are going to walk a well worn trail,you better do it with some serious flair. This book just didn't do that for me and was headed for a low star review, until about half way through, that is. Just to be clear, I am not saying the plot twist wasn't easy to see coming, but I was captivated by the villain nonetheless.
The prose is a little lack luster, but the banter is atrocious. The dialogue in particular made these characters seem like they were preteens, and not funny preteens at that. And what this book really needed was some spot on writing to make up for the unoriginal plot.
Our heroine is a quite frankly very boring. What is her personality other then being moody, insecure about her looks and in love with her best friend? For this whole book Alina just seems along for the ride even though she is suppose to be the Chosen One. And when she isnt being shuffled around from place to place by others, she is saying very stupid things to very powerful people. By that I of course mean the Darkling, whom Alina talks back to right from the start, even though in her own words he is terrifying and he can cut people in half with a wave of his hands. I just don't like her.
The Darkling on the other hand is a complex character with an emotional depth I can get behind. The more of him in these books the better as he is by far the most intriguing one of the lot. He is the only reason I will read the rest of these books to be honest.