So at the end of King of Scars (the first book in this duology) Leigh Bardugo made a decision that left me very, very torn and I thought I’d have to read the second in order to see if she justifies it.
And well it’s read.
And I’m still torn.
SPOILERS FOR KING OF SCARS BELOW!!!
Okay first of all we’re just days away from Shadow and Bone dropping on Netflix and everything I’m hearing has been good!!!
But my happiness on that aside: back to the book.
At the end of King of Scars where Nikolai and the triumvirate are still attempting to avoid war on multiple fronts she resurrected the Darkling, who of course was well highly important in the Shadow and Bone trilogy and we’ll just leave it at that.
We do get a POV from said character in Rule of Wolves and…
I’m still torn.
It was fine. It didn’t like destroy the book for me in fact we don’t really spend that much time with him though I must say his POV is about what you expect and he’s better when bouncing off other people for sure. He is important to the end but that whole sequence seemed a bit of an ass pull.
So I’m fifty-fifty. His resurrection didn’t kill the book but I don’t think it added much either.
The characters are still strong, brave, funny and lovable but oh one other big thing I’m torn on…
Cameos.
At times I felt like I was watching Star Wars where it’s like remember all those characters from the other stuff that you really love well I’m gonna stick them in here and there and you may love that to!
And damn it I did.
But I could still feel it you know?
I also couldn’t figure out if this was still actually a duology. This story closes I think although until like 75% or so I didn’t know if it actually would but there’s heavy, heavy foreshadowing for another book with more involvement from those much loved characters who maybe could have just been teased here.
But to each their own 🙂
I have to say at this point Grishaverse is maybe a perfect choice for an adaptation because despite some big issues and eh maybe that could have worked better this way or not been necessary at all I did still enjoy the book. The world and the characters.
It’s like Marvel if Marvel makes it I will… probably watch it. Now if Bardugo writes in and it’s in the Verse. I’ll read it.
Recommend: Yes.
But probably more toward hardcore fans of the series.