Book Review: Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone is the first book of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy, and her Grisha series. Shadow and Bone is the perfect book for someone who loves fantasy, super-human powers, and plots of self-discovery. The novel starts off with the main character, Alina, and her childhood best friend, Mal, in the orphanage that they grew up in. Grisha examiners (Grisha have special abilities like the ability to heal, or control water with a flick of a hand) come to test the children for special abilities. Both Alina and Mal are found to not have these abilities. But this does not continue to be the case. When Alina and Mal are grown up and apart of the army, they try and cross "the Fold". The Fold is a strip of darkness that divides the country of Ravka, which is based on Tsarist Russia; The dark strip was created by the Black Heretic, or a shadow summoner. The Fold is a long strip of complete darkness, full of dangerous monsters called Volcra. When one of these monsters try to come at Alina and Mal as they are trying to cross, it is revealed that Alina has sun summoning abilities, and is in fact, a Grisha. Once the army gets back to base after the attack, the General, also known as the Darkling another shadow summoner, demands that Alina comes with him back to the Little Palace to train and fight with the Grisha army, seeing as she is the only sun summoner and the one who can get rid of the Fold. Alina learns how to control her abilities better, makes new friends, starts to fall in love, and shows off her abilities to other high-up citizens of Ravka. She even learns about a way to amplify her abilities. But even while all these great things are happening, Alina can't help but to worry about what could go wrong, her friend Mal, and a possible deceiver. When one of Alina's teachers, Bahgra, reveals that someone close to Alina isn't who they claim to be, Alina runs away in fear and hope that she can find this amplifier before her traitor does. This book had many plot-twists that kept me drawn to it the entire time I was reading. Mystical creatures, political mayhem and unexpected romance. This book is the one that gave me a love for reading nd left me wanting more after the cliff-hanger at the end. This trilogy only gets better as it goes on. The novel will always be on a must-read list for me.
Reviewers Grade: 11th