Leigh BardugoFiction · Fantasy·b. 1975
Ruin and Rising
Synopsis
The Darkling rules Ravka from the shadows, and the Shadow Fold has swallowed the land in darkness. Weakened and half-broken, Alina Starkov is hidden away underground, kept from the daylight that fuels her power and increasingly at the mercy of the fanatical priest known as the Apparat, whose followers have begun to worship her as a living Saint. Cut off from the throne and the war she once tried to lead, Alina must find a way to break free.
Reunited with Mal and the ragged remnants of her friends, Alina sets out on a final, desperate hunt for the last of Morozova's amplifiers — the legendary firebird — the one thing that might give her the strength to face the Darkling and end the ruin he has unleashed. But the deeper she digs into the mystery of the amplifiers, the more she learns about their true cost, and about the ties that bind her to the enemy she is sworn to destroy.
The concluding book of Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy brings Alina's story to its reckoning, testing every loyalty and every sacrifice as the fate of Ravka hangs in the balance.
How it reads
Prose complexity 4/10
Content warnings (1)
Violence
Readers say (1)Bittersweet
- This book was a damn rollercoaster! Alina starts out the book by trading one form of imprisonment for another, then she escapes, hunts for the next amplifier, has mini escapades with the darkling etcetcetc... I am sure we all can see the pattern going on. One thing I did not bank on was how emotionally attached I had become to the characters. The final few chapters I was broken - how is oncat going to survive without Harshaw.... Baghda finally faced her son and we learnt about why they hold such unique powers. We learnt The Darklings name - why do I like the darkling so much, he was a sociopath and yet... In the final scene - at the funeral, when Alina said his name when no one else would, that just broke me.... Overall, I really enjoyed this book, despite it making me an emotional wreck
- The beginning was actually really strong, and it felt like Leigh Bardugo had grown as a writer there was more tension, higher stakes, and better character development overall, which I appreciated. But the ending really didn’t work for me. It felt like a letdown after all that build-up, and it kind of took away from how good the middle of the book was. Still, I’m glad I finished the trilogy. It makes me more curious about the rest of this universe. I’m planning to start Six of Crows next, and I really hope it lives up to the hype. I also found out there’s a Nikolai-focused book, and since he was my favorite character in the series, I’ll probably check that out after the duology.
- Decent end to the series. Alina still isn’t that great and neither is Mal, Nikolai and the Darkling are still the best in the series.







