Leigh Bardugo: Shadow and Bone
Dear Author:
Here we are on our first trip into the Grishaverse where the towns have Slavic sounding names and people hang icons of the Saints on their walls. When the vampires got boring, Young Adult fiction turned to Russian mythology. Grisha, an abbreviation of the name Grigori, is your word for a wizard. The Grisha themselves don't use the word magic; they call it the Small Science.
All children are tested for Grisha powers. Those with a gift go to the capital where they train to serve the king in his Second Army. Alina, the main character, manages to suppress her power in the screening because she doesn't want to be separated from her only friend Mal. Mal has a gift, too: He is a hunter and tracker with abilities beyond natural talent or practice. How did he slip the net?
Baghra says the Darkling faked his death and came back to be his own successor. Several times. How did he fake his birth and childhood? Wouldn't it draw attention if Darklings only ever appeared as grown men? Who ruled in the intervals, when the Darkling was supposedly dead and hadn't yet risen to take back over? And what about Baghra: How did he get her to stay and train Grisha for him, knowing what she knows?
Despite these questions, I enjoyed the ride. My favourite character is the Apparat: Always whispering and smelling of graveyard. He's so cryptic and creepy he turns into comic relief. I hope to see him again in the second volume.
Yours sincerely
Christina Widmann de Fran
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
first published in 2012 with Henry Holt and Company
ISBN: 978-0-8050-9459-6
Get your copy on Amazon.co.uk or visit the author on www.leighbardugo.com.
