Shadow and Bone Trilogy Review, Part Three: Ruin and Rising & Full Trilogy
Shadow and Bone Book Three: Ruin and Rising
by Leigh Bardugo
*This review contains spoilers*
Introduction
The third and final installment of the Shadow and Bone trilogy
is about on par with me as Siege and Storm was in my level of
enjoyment. It picks up with Alina and her friends and allies hidden beneath the
ground amongst The Apparat's sun soldiers, where Alina cannot use her powers
because she has no access to the light, and she's growing physically weaker
because of this. We start to get a full understanding here that The Apparat is
not a friend, and not explicitly a foe, but really a man with his own political
agenda. I enjoyed these early chapters and the way that the Soldat Sol and the
sway that Alina holds over them were being explored. However, like with both
previous books, the novel's action starts right away and these chapters are
over way too quickly.
Summary & Review
We spend a lot of time getting Alina's group back together with Nikolai's.
One of the highlights of this point in the novels was watching Alina use The
Cut (a lethal fighting move used previously by The Darkling that literally
chops the victim's body in half) to defend herself and her people, further
exploring the idea that Alina and The Darkling are becoming even more similar
to one another as Alina's power grows. One could even make the argument that
Alina, essentially, is The Darkling, just four hundred years
earlier--a grisha trying to protect her own people, with a rare power that
people fear.
Oh, and we finally learn The Darkling's real name. It's Aleksander.
Some other highlights of this novel included learning about The
Darkling--sorry, Aleksander's--family heritage. Ruin and Rising finally
gives the truth: Ilya Morozova, the creator of the amplifiers, was Baghra's
father, and The Darkling's grandfather, and their shadow summoning abilities
were the result of his tampering with merzost (black magic). I
liked this reveal a lot. When looking back on previous information, I feel like
I should have seen this coming. That being said, I'm glad Bardugo went the
route of Morozova being Baghra's father and not The Darkling's, and giving
Baghra the tragic backstory of accidentally killing her sister with The Cut.
Bardugo could have easily relegated this tragic story to Aleksander as a sort
of cop-out way of trying to justify his actions or his development into a
villain. So many authors use the idea of tragic backstory = redeemable bad guy.
But instead, Bardugo gave it to Baghra, who never resorted to committing the
atrocities that her son did just because of her dark history. Instead, an older
Baghra imprinted the lessons she learned as a result of the tragedy on a still
young and impressionable Aleksander. It wasn't his tragedy, but he still, to
some degree, carried the weight of its consequences. Does Baghra's upbringing
of Aleksander make her partially responsible for the man he became later? Is
Morozova to blame for it all?
This is also why Baghra's death--as heartbreaking and heroic as it was--was
such a high point for Ruin and Rising. She makes the ultimate
sacrifice to try and stop her son and his pursuit of Alina, and in doing so
takes his nichevo'ya down with her when she plummets to her
death. Does she do this because she recognizes her part in making him the man
that he is? Is it simply because she knows she's the only one who can? Is she
mourning the loss of the son she once knew, who is now beyond redeeming
himself? It's some combination of all of these things, I believe. All I know
for certain is that when she came out to confront Aleksander and yelled "abomination!"
at him, I gasped out loud because I knew the showdown would not end well for
her. I would go so far as to say that this moment held more tension for me than
the final confrontation between Alina and The Darkling.
Baghra's ability to summon control of the nichevo'ya over
The Darkling also reinforces one of the ideas that has been consistent through
all three novels, the idea that "like calls to like." Since she and
The Darkling share the same power, she is able to command them as much as he
is. I was glad that Bardugo stayed consistent in this regard.
Baghra's death is not the only character death in Ruin and
Rising, as the final book in the trilogy has the darkest tone of all
three. Some of these other character deaths worked well, like the fates of
Botkin and Ana Kuya at the orphanage. I found Bardugo's way of making Ana
Kuya's death emotional and impactful on both Alina and the reader was very well
done, as Ana Kuya was never a recurring character who appears in the story. We
only ever know her in Alina's memories of growing up at the orphanage.
Nonetheless, when The Darkling decided to have her killed in vengeance for
Baghra's death--citing that Ana Kuya was the closest thing Alina ever had to a
mother--I felt every raw emotion of that.
A death that I felt didn't quite work as well as the others was Harshaw's.
As I pointed out with Ana Kuya, a character doesn't necessarily need to be
major to the story for their death to have an impact. But it does have to feel
genuine. Ana Kuya's death felt like a realistically genuine reaction that The
Darkling would have to Baghra's death and how he blamed Alina for it. And
having him actually kill to get vengeance for it, unlike the
restraint from killing that he showed Genya and Baghra previously, showed the
part of him that still held his mother dear. Harshaw's death, however, felt
like an invention on Bardugo's part to avoid killing any of the recurring
characters that fans had grown attached to (Genya, David, Zoya, Nikolia, Tamar,
Tolya, Mal, etc), but also making sure that there was a casualty in the final
confrontation between Alina and The Darkling. If no one died during that last
battle, it all would have probably felt a little too easy.
Harshaw's character specifically seemed like an invention to fix that, as he
wasn't present in the first two books. He appears for the first time as a
member of Alina's inner circle of allies for this book only. At first, I
thought his purpose was to add a bit of comic relief in the beginning, and then
he would serve a purpose on the plot later, but then he was simply
unceremoniously killed off during the confrontation in the Shadow Fold. His
character's entire presence in the story felt a bit unnecessary if all it
amounted to was to make sure that someone died. Bardugo might have been better
off leaving Fedyor alive after the slaughter at the Little Palace at the end
of Siege and Storm and then had him die in place of inventing
Harshaw. At least Fedyor was a recognizable character who had been around since
the first book.
The shadow monster inside Nikolai is a plot point that I go back and forth
with whether or not I actually liked. On one hand, I liked the opening it left
for Nikolai's arc in King of Scars (even if I didn't love that
duology). It also fits with Ruin and Rising's darker tone, it
was true to The Darkling's nature to do something this cruel to Nikolai that
would also emotionally impact Alina, and it followed suit with Bardugo showing
her audience that death isn't the worst thing that can happen to a character, especially
when this novel has more death in it than the two previous installments.
On the other hand, in my opinion, it felt a bit... Out There... as the
established rules of how the fantasy elements of this series functioned. It
also felt like a convenient way of removing Nikolai from the story temporarily
to focus on "Malina" more, avoiding the fact that Alina was actually
beginning to develop real feelings for Nikolai. Maybe if I had read this as an
adolescent, I would have found this whole plot more disturbing. Or perhaps
seeing the horror of it play out on screen in the Netflix adaptation will help
it feel more real to me. Either way, I don't hate it. Maybe I just wanted more
to it. But I've made my peace with this storyline.
And now for the ending. I know it was controversial among fans. I know some
people hated it. I was expecting that I wouldn't like it either because endings
are often my least favorite part of a series. That being said, I was pleasantly
surprised when I read it and didn't hate it!
To really pick apart this ending and pin down why it was that I actually
enjoyed it, I have to start where it all really unfolded--that little reveal
about the third amplifier. Spoiler alert, it's not the firebird; it's Mal
himself. Was this revelation done perfectly? Absolutely not. I think the
previous two books could have done a lot more to cleverly hide yet still
foreshadow this plot twist without it feeling like it came out of nowhere. I
don't consider that a flaw with Ruin and Rising specifically
though, because the fumbling of the amplifier lore was more an issue with the
first book, and I think its repercussions just carried over into the next
books. Also, I can forgive Bardugo for not entirely setting it up properly
because I like a lot of what this twist does.
For one thing, revealing that Mal is actually Morozova's descendant avoids
the cliche (and the red herring that I fell for) that Alina was his descendant.
It was so obvious that it would be Alina, that I'm relieved it wasn't. She's
already the Sun Summoner and doesn't really need to be singled out in the
Chosen One trope any more than that. This also helps to leave the origins of
Alina's rare power ambiguous. Some might consider this a flaw in the writing,
but thinking back on it, I actually like it. Grisha power itself may be a form
of science, but the Sun Summoner specifically is also considered a religious
belief. Leaving the origins of Alina's powers mysterious helps it lean into the
religious undertones more.
Making Mal the third amplifier also helps finally make him
a more likable character. After being mostly absent in book one and irritating
in book two, Mal's selfless decision to let Alina kill him to save Ravka and
their friends' lives actually allows me to empathize with him and root for his
survival. It also shows how Mal has finally accepted Alina's power, something
that he's struggled with for most of the trilogy. H knows how powerful a third
amplifier will make her, and he's finally willing to let her reach that full
potential without holding her back anymore. It's growth, even if it didn't come
until the end of the story. I just wish that Bardugo had shown us more of this
side of his character earlier on.
I also like the way that Mal as the third amplifier retrospectively explains
how Alina was able to repress her power during her grisha testing as a child.
It bothered me in the previous novel that this didn't seem like it should be
possible, but now it actually seems like it was just Alina subconsciously
staying connected to her amplifier.
As the battle between Alina's and The Darkling's forces finally happens and
things seem to take a turn in The Darkling's favor, Mal, of course, realizes
it's all futile unless Alina uses all three amplifiers. He puts the knife into
her hand and pulls the blade into himself, allowing Alina to take his power
with the cost of his own life. With the power of all three amplifiers, Alina is
finally able to destroy the Fold. Only she doesn't exactly do
it. Her power leaves her own body and goes into everyone else there in The Fold
who isn't already Grisha, creating an entire army of Sun Summoners. They then
all use their combined power to destroy the Fold together.
I know that a lot of fans didn't like this. They didn't like that Alina had
to lose her powers after fighting so hard to hone them and accept herself as
being a grisha. That is a valid criticism, but I actually did like it. In fact,
I liked it a lot.
"What is infinite? The universe and the greed of man."
Bardugo warned us many times throughout the story that no grisha was ever
meant to have as much power as three amplifiers would give them. She warned us
that tampering with merzost had consequences. The Darkling
suffered them; Morozova suffered them. It wouldn't have been fair or in line
with the laws of the Grishaverse for Alina to tamper with the same things and
not suffer the consequences as well. She took the risks she did because she
wanted to stop The Darkling and destroy The Fold, which essentially, she still
did. She just had to lose her own power to do it.
It's a tragic kind of victory, which I often feel is the most powerful kind.
But there's also that darker side of Alina, the one that is more similar to
Aleksander, who wanted that power because she was tempted by it. Letting her
get away with all the power and still allowing her to be the hero wouldn't have
been a good ending because it would have violated the idea that Bardugo had
been building with The Darkling--having that much power corrupts and twists
even those with the noblest of intentions. Alina realizes this as well, and
she's terrified of how much more like The Darkling she's growing. She doesn't
want to become the villain someday, and she also doesn't want to become
immortal and outlive everyone she loves. In losing her powers and becoming
mortal, it's a loss for her, but it's also a gain. She won't ever have to
become like The Darkling, and she won't have to lose everyone she loves to
time. It's both heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time.
Having Alina not destroy The Fold on her own perhaps prevents her from looking too much like a Mary Sue, but Bardugo still balances this well with letting her still get her own personal victory. The part that Alina does get to do all on her own is kill The Darkling. She gets to kill him herself, defeat him herself, with a knife covered in Mal's blood (Morozova's blood, which can therefore defeat Aleksander). She may not have destroyed The Fold on her own, but she did defeat him, and that's the perfect balance on Bardugo's part. She also perfectly layers this moment to highlight the complexity of Alina and Aleksander's relationship. It isn't completely based off of hate, after all. It's not all about wanting to kill him. It's also about that emotional push-and-pull between them. So while killing him was the "push," Alina still grants him one last kindness--to say his real name, Aleksander, one last time before he dies--and there's the "pull."
Then there's where Mal comes back into play.
I didn't really love or hate that Tamar and Tolya were able to resurrect him, but I did find the explanation of how it was possible a bit weak. I personally feel that it makes more sense that he should have stayed dead, as Alina had already taken his power as an amplifier. Then again, Morozova was able to resurrect his daughter, so maybe it kind of (sort of, not really) makes sense. Even though I'm not fully convinced by this point, I'm willing to forgive it. It's a young adult book after all, and letting Alina lose both Mal and her powers would have perhaps been too morose.
I would have liked Mal coming back to life more if he and Alina didn't end up together, or at least not right away. After all, they did just learn that Mal was always meant to be her amplifier and that was a big part of the reason that they were so desperate to never be separated. I think it might have been better if the two decided to spend some time away from each other to figure out who they each were as individuals and people, instead of amplifier and grisha. Bardugo could have used her signature "after" epilogue at the end of the novel to show them reunite as adults, find their way back to each other in a more stable and healthy relationship.
There are other things I liked about the ending. Of course, I love that Nikolai became king. I also loved Genya, David, and Zoya becoming the Grisha Triumvirate. Alina choosing to let her loss of power on The Fold be her supposed martyrdom was good too because she never wanted to be a Saint, so I'm glad that she found a way out of it. Mal and Alina going on to run the orphanage in Ana Kuya's place was also okay with me. Even though I wasn't completely satisfied with the way they ended up together, they'll get to care for children who were orphaned like them, so I'm all right with that.
I would ultimately give Ruin and Rising 3 stars out of 5. It had ups and downs, emotional high points, a beginning that didn't much come back into play later, but an ending that I found mostly satisfying to both the book itself and the entire trilogy.
Thoughts on Full Trilogy
One high point of the entire trilogy that I wanted to cast some light on is Genya Safin's story. I didn't discuss it in depth for any of the individual novels because I felt that it deserved a section of its own.
Her character was such a strong presence in the story, and her story was arguably just as important for readers to read about as Alina's was. Oftentimes, books geared towards young adults don't discuss heavier topics, or they gloss over them because they think young readers can't handle the content. The story of Genya's sexual abuse by the king was perfectly written in a way that addressed the issue, didn't gloss over it, and presented it in a way that young readers could understand, but at the same time, it wasn't graphic or gratuitous.
Ruin and Rising's handling of it was perhaps the best. When the king is put on trial for assaulting Genya, it doesn't matter that he's royalty and she was a servant; Nikolai is still willing to see justice done. They don't try and deny that he raped her or excuse it. The reveal of how Genya poisoned the king to protect herself was so cleverly done--she poisoned her own body, so that every time the king took advantage of her, he was essentially poisoning himself. Then she took the antidote. Genya never actually administered him poison, he did it to himself by assaulting her. If he never would have touched her without her consent, he never would have fallen ill. It makes it perfectly clear who the real victim is in this situation. It also allowed her to take agency of her own body back, to use her own body as a weapon to defend herself. It's an important story for all readers to understand, but especially for young women and girls.
A low point of the entire trilogy is The Apparat. In the first two novels, it felt as though his character was really building to something big, especially with that climax at the end of Siege and Storm. Bardugo was perfectly crafting him as a politically complex power-player in Ruin and Rising, who was the perfect blend of an important ally but also a dangerous adversary. However, The Apparat never comes back into full play by the end of the third book, and so all this potential of his character is essentially lost.
Final Thoughts
I would give the Shadow and Bone trilogy as a whole story 3 stars out of 5. It wasn't without its weaknesses, but I liked the characters a lot, I liked the universe, and the whole story built to a conclusion that I found satisfying. There were smaller nuances within the story that are also very empowering about women taking control back in their lives that were done really well. It had a complex antagonist and a protagonist not without realistic flaws. Overall, it was very enjoyable and worth the read!
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