By Leigh Bardugo
Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo is the second book in the Grisha Trilogy, AKA the Shadow and Bone Trilogy. It is a YA Fantasy book that is rated 12 and up.
Spoilers for the first two books in the trilogy ahead. Do not keep reading if you haven't already read Shadow and Bone or Siege and Storm.
Netflix will be adapting the Grishaverse books into a series premiering in April 2021 following not only the Shadow and Bones story, but also the Six of Crows story, another book by Leigh Bardugo set in the Grishaverse.
Synopsis
He did not see the moment the girl ceased to bear her weakness as a burden and began to wear it as a guise. (Pg. 4)
The Darkling sits on the throne of Ravka. Ravka's only hope is Alina Starkov, who's been beaten down and broken, unable to summon. Being held under ground by the ever-mysterious Apparat, Alina must find a way back to the surface if she hopes to restore her power, find the third amplifier, and defeat the Darkling once and for all.
No Spoiler Review
Since then, I’d been unable to summon so much as a sunbeam. But most of the Apparat’s flock had never seen what their Saint could really do, and for now, this deception was enough. (Pg. 6)
This book was definitely a let down. Without giving anything away, the ending definitely didn't happen the way I thought it would and kind of disappointing. In all fairness, there were some redeeming parts, but there were far too many disappointing parts of this book that outweighed the good. If you've made it this far in the series there's really no point in not finishing it, but just be warned that it probably won't live up to your expectations. My favorite book in this trilogy was 100% Siege and Storm. Nikolai is amazing and that final battle at the end of book 2 in the chapel was so great! Ruin and Rising just didn't live up to Siege and Storm in my opinion.
Final Thoughts Before Spoilers
This review is short, but there's not much more I can say about it without spoiling anything. Once you read the book, feel free to come back and read the Spoiler section! It will have a lot more details on my opinions of this book.
I'm glad that I have some background into this world now and I'll be able to read King of Scars and I can watch the tv show when it's released next week without being confused , but overall I feel like I wasted my time on this trilogy.
Also, please don't let my opinion of this book color your opinion of it. There are tons of people online that loved it! I just had a different experience with this book.
Get ready for my review of Six of Crows which should be up sometime next week hopefully and will definitely go into more detail than this one!
Spoiler Review
They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things—if love can ever be called that. (Pg. 417)
I'm not sure exactly where to begin with this part of my review. There's a lot to cover.
Let's start with Nikolai. I love him so much and I was so sad when he got turned into a shadow creature by the Darkling. It hurt me so much to see him struggle against himself to not hurt Alina despite his basic urges telling him to. I couldn't decide whether to cry or smile during the scene when he recognizes Alina outside of the fold and puts his ring on her finger. Nikolai was one of the few redeeming parts of this book so I was really disappointed that we didn't get to see more of him, even if he was a shadow demon.
However, there were definitely some interesting plot twists within this book that I enjoyed. For example, finding out that Baghra was Morozova's daughter, explaining the Darkling's obsession with him and his amplifiers. Additionally, finally finding out Morozova's real story was nice since we've all been wondering about it since Shadow and Bone.
But the biggest plot twist was one that I probably should've seen coming; Mal being the third amplifier, not the firebird. Once all of the proof was laid out in front of me I could see it clearly, but up until that point I'd had no idea! There were so many hints dropped throughout the books, all the way back to the first moment that Alina discovered her power in the Fold, but they'd been so well disguised I hadn't even suspected what they were leading to.
My biggest complaint about the entire book was the ending. I was so disappointed with the way it ended. The fact that all three books were alluding to this huge battle between Aline and the Darkling, and then it didn't even really happen was so frustrating! The second Alina's plan went sideways and she was discovered by the Darkling, she ran! She didn't even try to fight, she just assumed it was all over, ran away, and then killed Mal to unleash the power of the third amplifier which ended up not even working the way she had thought it would and ended up loosing all of her power. At this point in the book I thought Alina was definitely going to die unless all of the new Sun Summoners could come together to defeat the Darkling, who was now looming over Alina. But once again, I was wrong. Despite all the talk about how hard the Darkling would be to kill, even if they managed to separate him from his shadow demons, Alina was able to take him down with only a knife. That was it. After all of that build-up, that was how Leigh decided to end things.
Now that wasn't the very end, she tied up a few loose strings, but that was not the big battle I was expecting and the way the whole thing went down felt very rushed and was incredibly disappointing. I could've put up with all of the slow parts, the fact that Nikolai was absent for most of this book, the fact that we hardly saw the Darkling since the first book, etc. All of that would've been forgiven in my mind if we would've gotten the big battle we were expecting. Alina could've at least tried to fight and then if things were looking hopeless she could've killed Mal and we could've had the same end result and I would've been fine with that. But Alina didn't even try to fight! I know I've said that so many times by now but it's just so frustrating to me!
Final Thoughts
As I said before: I'm glad that I have some background into this world now and I'll be able to read King of Scars and I can watch the tv show when it's released next week without being confused , but overall I feel like I wasted my time on this trilogy.
I've started Six of Crows and already love it so much more than this trilogy! I can't wait to finish it and tell all of you what I think of it! I've heard amazing things about it and so far it's living up to my expectations for it.