Book: Shadow and Bone- Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Fiction
Moods: Adventurous, Dark, Mysterious, Tense
Movie/T.V. Adaptation: T.V. Show – Netflix
“‘You’re interfering with my plan.’
‘Oh really?’
‘Yes. Faint, get trampled, grievous injuries all around.’
‘That sounds like a brilliant plan’
‘Ah, but if I’m horribly maimed, I won’t be able to cross the Fold.’
Mal nodded slowly. ‘I see. I can shove you under a cart if that would help.’
‘I’ll think about it,’ I grumbled, but I felt my mood lifting all the same. Despite my best efforts, Mal still had that effect on me.”
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
Shadow and Bone is part of the main trilogy of a book universe which currently has seven books. For those of you who aren’t readers, Shadow and Bone also has a Netflix adaptation with one season currently out and a second season on the way.
Alina Starkov is an orphan who, like everyone dreams, finds out she is not just a normal girl in a world of unbelievable abilities. After saving her best friend, (maybe more?) Mal, from monsters in the Shadow Fold with her previously unknown and never before seen magic, Alina is whisked away to the royal palace by the mysterious and powerful Darkling to be trained as a Grisha. Grisha are the magical elite led by the Darkling who takes an immediate interest in Alina, and she in him. With darkness looming on the horizon Alina must make hard choices about which love, and life, she will choose.
Shadow and Bone happens to be a part of one of my favorite series so I thought I would share it even though it is quite popular. One of my favorite parts of a book is the setting, and this book really delivers. It takes a real-world, familiar base with Russian folklore and culture, and adds a fantasy element with magic. The Netflix show is, in my opinion, even better than the books. Both the characters from the original trilogy and the duology, Six of Crows, are together in the same timeline. This gives new interactions to my favorite characters which would never have happened before. Shadow and Bone is a book I would reread time and time again.
You can borrow this book from the Barberton High School library!