Leigh Bardugo
358 pg., U.S. hardcover
Henry Holt and Co.
4 stars | A-
From Goodreads:
Alina Starkov doesn’t expect much from life. Orphaned by the Border Wars, the one thing she could rely on was her best friend and fellow refugee, Mal. And lately not even that seems certain. Drafted into the army of their war-torn homeland, they’re sent on a dangerous mission into the Fold, a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh.
When their convoy is attacked, all seems lost until Alina reveals a dormant power that not even she knew existed. Ripped from everything she knows, she is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling. He believes she is the answer the people have been waiting for: the one person with the power to destroy the Fold.
Swept up in a world of luxury and illusion, envied as the Darkling’s favorite, Alina struggles to fit into her new life without Mal by her side. But as the threat to the kingdom mounts, Alina uncovers a secret that sets her on a collision course with the most powerful forces in the kingdom. Now only her past can save her . . . and only she can save the future.
I went into this book not knowing anything about it, besides that it had been very critically-acclaimed. I was especially drawn in by the blurb on the front of the cover from Veronica Roth, who's one of my favorite authors, so I ultimately bought it at Powell's City of Books in Portland, OR when I was there over the summer, after planning to buy it for a while. It's safe to say that I'm pleased I'm did so, and it was such a unique read, although there was something very reminiscent that I couldn't quite put my finger on. I couldn't help but feel a sense of recall throughout the story. But that's beside the point.
While reading it, I was always picturing a beautiful, Russian winter setting, and even a little bit of the setting from the Beauty and the Beast Christmas film that Disney released to DVD. If you know what I'm talking about, you're one of the 163,000 cool people alive. I don't really know; that was just an estimation of cool people still living. The setting was really just beautiful; beautifully described, beautifully executed, beautifully used. Everything about the setting just breathed beauty.
I really liked Alina. Lately, it's been difficult to love a heroine, seeing as most of them have conformed to the stereotypical YA heroine (poor, hopeless girl who is swept into a life where she is forced into a love triangle between to insanely handsome men with some supernatural abilities, and bada-bing-bada-boom you got yourself a Young Adult trilogy admired by many, and hated by those who are mentally sane), but Alina, however, did not. She was already this wonderfully-written, admirable character, who did have her flaws, but she wasn't needy and whiny. She became this defiant, independent, strong female lead who could make her own decisions, and acknowledged her own opinions and ideas rather than being passive-aggressive, like 85% of other YA heroines. To balance out her whole situation was, indeed, a love triangle, although one guy (the Darkling) was this hot-and-heavy, mysterious love, but the other person (Mal) was Alina's best friend, who meant so much to her to the point that their relationship escalated to love; not necessarily infatuation, but pure enjoyment of each other's presence. It was for this reason that I was in full support of the love triangle. Bardugo did a fantastic job of leaving you on your seat when it came to information about the Darkling, and how vile he turned out to be, which was nice. The plot was so well thought out, original, and fascinating, and such a refresher for the genre. I liked the supporting characters a lot, something not often said, but everything (the fantastic plot, setting, and characters) were trumped by Leigh Bardugo's mesmerizing writing. The plot, filled with originality and lit with passion and intensity, would not have been as nearly as strong as it was without the astounding writing of Bardugo.
Sorry this review was kind of short; I actually finished the book a few weeks before writing the review, but I've just been so busy with school that I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and write a review, let alone read a book.
The sequel (second in the trilogy), Siege and Storm, is expected to be released in 2013.
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