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Nikki admitted last week that she had avoided reading Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale for years as it sat on her family bookshelf. We’ve both done something similar with today’s title by skipping over this YA series for other YA series that are on our TBR (or by re-reading other series as I have unashamedly admitted). Well, dear readers, now is the time to take both The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments off the proverbial ‘should read’ list and place them on the ‘have read’ list so that you can join us in discussing these powerfully relevant titles at 7:30pm CST on Friday 17 September 2021 for Virtual Book Club! Register at the link here. You have 7 weeks to prepare!

Oh dear readers, as I shared earlier this week, sometimes it takes a special delivery from a bookish friend to push a book to the top of your TBR list!  A new Netflix show certainly doesn’t hurt either, and now I’m way more excited about said show, and the previews even make sense too!  One of my favorite librarians has been encouraging me to dive into the Grishaverse for sometime now, and I’m only sad I have to wait to talk with her about the first book, but it’s also a challenge to see if I can get through the trilogy before I see her again.  And since it’s vacation week coupled with the fact I consider any easy-to-read, engaging title a ‘beach read’: challenge accepted.

In case you aren’t up on the YA lingo from 2012 (yes, this book was first published nearly a decade ago), I’m talking about Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.  I’ve been hearing about these books for years and have finally taken the plunge.  I adore YA fantasy and great writing, and when the two combine, I’m so here for it!  If you like the atmosphere of The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden AND you enjoy YA fantasy (because I see The Winternight Trilogy as more magical realism meets historical fiction), then definitely give this a try!  

But why, you ask?  Well, in Shadow and Bone we have two orphans who grew up as BFFs and really the other’s only person in a duke’s care, as they are two of many orphans of the war he has welcomed into his household.  They’re now a year into their military careers as a tracker and a cartographer and are sent with their respective units on a dangerous mission.  Predictable danger happens and there launches the journey Alina, our narrator, takes into magic, self-discovery, and learning how to trust oneself above all others.  Now, this is only book one of the trilogy, because I haven’t even opened book two [as of this writing] so as to not accidentally mix them up (but oh it is staring at me from across the room), so I’m confident there’s more drama and adventure to come, and likely some more magic and further self-discovery.  You are formally invited into our DMs if you need to know before diving in.  Do please hold spoilers for a bit, as it’ll take a week or two for me to finish the trilogy (and the show will be after that, perhaps even after finishing Six of Crows too).  

I’m excited and hopeful about the rest of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy.  The writing is gorgeous even if I’m finding the story a bit tropey and predictable.  Perhaps I’m just not the traditional YA reader, or perhaps I just read too much YA (nope…never too much).  Regardless, I’m thoroughly enjoying the experience of the book and am giving book one 3.5 stars, and rounding up to 4.  I’m not certain if I’ll reread Shadow and Bone, but as of now, I can see potential for it, and also potential of leaving the box set on a lower shelf so my little people can grab it as they like (they’ve both already asked, and so far I’m inclined, but also waiting until I finish the trilogy).  (Judge all you want, it worked for the Song of the Lioness Quartet.)  

What is something you’ve been meaning to read for years and very much enjoyed when you finally picked it up?

~Nikki

Leigh Bardugo is a #1 New York Times bestselling author for her Grishaverse series of books, which include today’s title, Shadow and Bone. Her other works include the first title in the DC Icons series, 2017’s Wonder Woman: Warbringer (which I recommend for lots of reasons) and 2019’s GoodReads Reader’s Choice Award Winner for Best Fantasy Ninth House. Leigh graduated from Yale University, where Ninth House is set, but grew up in Southern California and currently lives and writes from Los Angeles. Be warned, oh ye fans of YA, Ninth House is not that, and is the first of a series, an unknown fact which upset me very much when I finished reading the title! Am I sad I read it for Barnes & Noble Book Club? Not at all, I loved it, fabulous writing and world building set within Yale’s secret societies – think 2000’s The Skulls – but with MAGIC! I JUST WANT MORE, and probably would have waited until more of the series was released to begin reading them, but I’m not sad about a potential re-read.

But that’s not our title this week. Shadow and Bone is definitely a YA fantasy title that is focused on the actions of our narrator Alina Starkov and her best friend and fellow war-orphan, Malyen Orestev. I am so here for the world of the magic-wielding Grishas and exploring the wide world of the Grishaverse in the rest of the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the subsequent duologies, Six of Crows and King of Scars. With the amount of young adult we say we read, I’m surprised that we haven’t before read any of the Grishaverse novels since they have been a BIG part of the past decade’s fandom life. I guess sometimes it just takes the right motivation – thanks Netflix and S for giving Nikki copies of the books – and a break in the re-reads of our favorite other series. I’m not going to apologize for that habit, but it does take away time we could spend reading other things we might love! 

When you open Shadow and Bone you’re greeted with a map and a frontispiece explaining what the Grisha are. They are Soldiers of the Second Army (we come to find out the First Army are those Ravkans without magic) and Masters of the Small Science and are divided into three orders: Corporalki: the Order of the Living and the Dead, Etherealki: the Order of Summoners, and Materialki: the Order of Fabrikators. There’s a place where Alina is discussing the Grisha with the Darkling – a one of a kind Grisha who can summon darkness, they said: 

“Our teachers told us that you strengthened the Second Army by gathering Grisha from outside of Ravka.” “I [the Darkling] didn’t have to gather them. They came to me. Other countries don’t treat their Grisha so well as Ravka,” he said grimly. “The Fjerdans burn us as witches, and the Kerch sell us as slaves. The Shu Han carve us up seeking the source of our power.” 

I am mightily intrigued to continue on Alina’s journey and meet more Grisha in these other countries! I am, like Nikki, going to give Shadow and Bone a 3.5 rounded up to 4 star rating. It is a debut novel and reads as such. I do suggest, once you have completed your reading of the book, you check out Leigh Bardugo’s highlights and notes on GoodReads. You can learn quite a bit about what the author intended and why she wrote some parts the way she did. I don’t suggest you read the comments on her notes or you’re going to READ ALL THE SPOILERS. Also, there are spoilers in her notes for the book itself, which is why I am telling you now to wait until you have finished reading as well. Picking up the dead tree library copy of Siege and Storm off my table is only waiting on my finishing up the re-read of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. (I told you re-reads take away time for new things to love…)

~Ashley

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