I came across the Grishaverse backwards. Last year I read a write up for Leigh Bardugo’s The Language of Thorns and was intrigued by the concept of a book of fairytales that characters in her Grishaverse would have read or been told, when they were children. The piece said knowledge of the other books was not necessary to enjoy Language of Thorns and I put it on my Cannonball gift exchange wish list. I was delighted to discover it in my gift box (Thank you, fellow, Cannonballer!), and was entranced reading it. The fairytales are so well done, familiar but unique, and the accompanying artwork is beautiful. It made me want to seek out the origin books, and many months later, the first one, Shadow and Bone, finally found a spot in my reading queue.
Just as before with The Language of Thorns, I couldn’t put Shadow and Bone down. Bardugo’s world building and characters give vibrant life to a ‘chosen one’ story. The Grishaverse is highly stratified in status rankings. Above all you have the monarchy with its First Army comprised of mundane humans. In the second tier are the Grisha, soldiers of the Second Army and masters of ‘small science’. Grisha are humans with the power to do magic, though they call it small science. Valued for their skills they are kept in luxury apart from regular society. They have their own hierarchy with the Darkling, the most powerful Grisha with a unique set of powers at the top. Next are the Corporalki, ‘The Order of the Living and the Dead’, Heartrenders and Healers. Then the Etherealki, ‘The Order of the Summoners’, Squallers, Inferni, and Tidemakers (air, fire, water). And the Materialki, ‘The Order of the Fabricators’, Durasts and Alkemi. Mundane human peers of the realm are next on the status ladder and at the very bottom are mundanes without titles.
Alina Starkov is orphaned at a young age due to the constant wars on Ravka’s borders. Side note: I love the map in the book, it’s beautiful and sets the tone for the story. She is raised with other orphans by the largess of a Duke. Shortly after her arrival, another orphan, Mal arrives and the two develop a deep bond as they grow into adulthood. At some point in their teens, Alina realizes that she is in love with the oblivious Mal. Wanting more but afraid to hurt their friendship, Alina pines for him. With no prospects, Alina and Mal join the army, her as a cartographer, and him as infantry with a specialty in tracking.
More pressing than the wars at Ravka’s northern and southern border is the Unsea. A large swath of magically created darkness, filled with monsters, that splits Ravka in two and has done so for a couple hundred years. People do pass back and forth across the Unsea but the casualties are very high. Alina and Mal’s unit has been ordered on a mission to cross the Unsea to western Ravka.
At a young age, all children are tested by Grisha to determine if they have magical abilities. If so, they are whisked away from their families to be trained by and live with the Grisha on the grounds of the royal palace. Alina and Mal were tested but found lacking. However, in the nightmarish attack on her convoy in the Unsea, Alina finds a power deep within herself, she is the rarest of all summoners, a Sun Summoner. It is the belief of the Darkling that the power of a sun summoner, combined with his own, would be able to banish the Unsea and make Ravka whole once again.
Alina’s life is upended as she is forcibly separated from Mal, removed from her army life, and sent to live with the Grisha to develop her talent. A talent which stubbornly refuses to appear again. Alina is a fish out of water, lost among those who had been raised in affluence, wanting for nothing, and taught to use their skills at a young age. She also is off course without Mal. Her emotions a whirl at all these sudden changes she is pushed further off kilter by the attentions of the Darkling. Powerful and mysterious, with faith in her abilities, the Darkling is compelling and Alina finds herself drawn to him. Over time, Alina becomes wrapped up in her new fairytale life but then the rug is cut from under her as she learns a terrible secret.
The final third of the book gets up and takes off as everything is turned upside down once again. Sitting on the edge of my seat, I was anxious to find out what would happen next. Several twists at the end had Alina not where I expected her to be and I liked that surprise. I am eager to discover what happens next and delve deeper into the Grishaverse.