Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Confession: I was attracted by the book cover when I was buying this book. I know it has quite high rating on Goodreads but I never did read the synopsis or any reviews regarding this book.

It is a decent book. Leigh Bardugo's writing style can't bring me to say that I like it very much but it's very easy to read.

The storyline is very similar to the Selection series, if you have read the latter. Please don't kill me for saying that the Grisha series is quite similar to the Selection series because I understand how bad the Selection series is! HAHA

I will choose this series over the Selection series for a million times because...Well, at least, Alina, the main character of the book, is NOT a narcissist (unlike in Selection, ugh).

The whole story is developed in a setting of an early 20th century RUSSIA-INSPIRED fantasy land of Rivka. I have no problem in dealing with the accuracy of the Russian cultures which appear in the book because I've not really read a book based on Russia-inspired fantasy.

As usual, in a young adult novel, a few things you expect from it and Leigh Bardugo gives it to you too, for example: Reason why the character was brought into the boarding school, makeovers, mean girl dramas, balls and demonstration and not forgetting, the romance with the most famous guy.

Through the reading process, I can tell that Leigh Bardugo tries to create a very distinct atmosphere in her novel. It is definitely different from other YA & fantasy series I have ever read.

However, the quote on the book cover “A dark heart. A pure soul. A love that will last forever” is kinda misleading to me or, in other words, it doesn't relate to the story at all.

From my observation, the book is not as romantic as the quote suggested (“a love that will last forever”). Why? First of all, I find the relationship between Alina and the Darkling abrupt. It's like, out of a sudden, Darkling kisses Alina without any hints of love or flirt previously. They just bloody hell kissed (WTF?). Secondly, another chunk of the book consists of how Alina runs away with Mal, nothing as romantic as you expect after reading the quote.

Besides that, I can't bring myself to say that I enjoy reading this book because it is kinda straight-forward. I expected it to be full of tales and odd cultures as its genre is of fantasy. However, it's just not very rich and the characters are pitily simple, with no detailed descriptions. Like seriously, a villain named “Darkling”? LMAO it doesn't even sound like a badass name at all!

Also, because of its straightforwardness, there is an emptiness of emotions between the characters. In simple words, the whole plot has no complexity, you feel like you are touching a plot of silk without bumps, and it's quite predictable since there won't be any twists.

People have been rating this book for 4 or 5 stars. I did really wonder what I missed. I wanted to give a 4 after I finish reading the book but when I reflect on what I've read and proceed to write the review, I decided to give it a 3 because my unfounded crush on the villain “Darkling” is just not enough to overcome my frustration towards the book.