Book Summary:

The story follows this young orphan whose name is Alina Starkov. Alina ends up figuring out that she has powers known as Grisha, which is the power to manipulate elements to use as weapons. She believes this power could possibly be the key to saving her country, torn by war. There’s another kid within the orphanage whose name is Malyev Oretsev, who also is known as Mal. Alina and Mal stick together for the most part. The leader of the Grisha tells Alina her power is unique and valuable, which makes her a target by the enemies of Ravka. Throughout the rest of the book, Mal and Alina work together to flee and search for a magic stag and stay away from the Darkling’s who want to ensalve her and use the Grisha power to take over the world.

Their land, known as Ravka, is inspired by Russia and or Russian cultures.

This book is also the first of 7 in its series, along with there being a season 1 of Shadow and Bone on Netflix.

My personal thoughts:

To be honest, I rate this book about a 4.5 out of 5 because I personally love fantasy. Not to mention, the world building is impeccable. A downside is that they made an almost entirely new language, and the words are difficult to say and understand. Other than that, I find the story to be the familiar idea of, “oh I had magic powers and didn’t know” kind of deal, but it was told well. The twists in the book are also amazing. I won’t spoil them so read it for yourself, but again, it’s still a good book and it’s not like futuristic sci-fi, but medieval low fantasy with a more down to earth style of magic. Also, the maps they show in the front of the books are fantastic. For those of you that love fantasy I highly recommend it.