By Leigh Bardugo
I did really enjoy this! I wanted to give it more than three stars on Goodreads but I can't quite stretch to four. It is really good, but has its flaws.
Veronica Roth, author of the Divergent series, described this as being unlike anything she has ever read. In my opinion, this is ABSOLUTELY ridiculous! The first half of the book reminded me so much of Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas that it actually put me off a little - that was not a book I enjoyed at all. I found out after I finished it that this was actually published before A Throne of Glass so perhaps if I had read this first I would have enjoyed it more. Overlooking that, so far so good. The world building and characters are far superior. But then the love triangle appears - how often does this appear in YA novels??? Far too much - still unlike anything you've ever read Veronica Roth??? One thing I would say is that this love triangle has a very different ending than anything else I've read so Bardugo gets points for that.
The world building was great but not perfect. I was able to picture everything clearly in my head perfectly. I was confused in parts however - the book is set in a country like Russia and so there are a lot of words mentioned that are not explained. It would be nice if there was a little glossary at the beginning to avoid this confusion. I did like these references however, it really added to the world building, but a little explanation wouldn't have gone amiss.
I did like all the characters. Because I kept comparing it to Throne of Glass, I kept comparing Alina to Celaena (I think that's her name!) - even their names are similar! Alina is far more likeable and much less stubborn. She was a character I rooted for. I didn't see her fascination with Mal but then towards the end this is explored a bit more and you begin to understand. The Darkling was quite likeable also. I did wonder for the first half of the book where the story was going with the lack of a villain but then around the halfway mark it takes a dark turn. From this point it was much more enjoyable and I felt that this was where I stopped comparing it to Maas' book.
The ending was done really well - I really had no clue whether or not Alina would manage to get out of the predicament she found herself in but it was really exciting to see her try.
Although not amazing, I did really enjoy this and loved Leigh Bardugo's writing style, so I will definitely be picking up books 2 and 3.
Rating: 7/10
Date read: May 2017.
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