I’m gonna be real with you, idk if I would have continued this trilogy if we weren’t doing this readathon lmao

6:00 wait what the person called “The Darkling” is evil?

I don't understand why authors write whiny protagonists, what's up with that?

wait for it..... Nikolai Lantsov is the best character. continue the series for him.

Alina and the Darkling’s relationship was so instant it didn’t make me feel anything.

You know there is something wrong when your favorite character is the villain and you find yourself rooting for him the whole time 🙄

Agree which a lot of what you said. This was Leigh’s first book which makes it insane what development she went through when she got to Six of Crows. Can’t wait for you to meet the prince

I love how your eye makeup matches the cover of the book. That is all.

by far my greatest pet peeve about this book is the fact that the author didn't even bother to name the PROTAGONIST right. it's Alina *Starkova* unless it's suddenly revealed at some point that she was a boy all along

When i started this book i didn't understand the hype around The Darkling, but now i get it. He is really well written and he is super interesting. Alina fell completely flat for me. Everything was handed to her and all she did was either complain or do nothing. She was so frustrating to me. I'm not interested in reading the rest of the series, but i do really want to read the Six of Crows trilogy!

Six of crows (set in the same univers post grisha trilogy) is so mucg better. Leigh has really grown as a writer and i agree with most of what you're saying about this book (don't let that stop you from reading SoC tho, It's AMAZING)

Mal is so annoying honestly if he didn’t exist not to much would change plot wise. (I’ve only read 30% of book 2 at the moment) Mal not only ruins what could have been a more interesting story but makes Alina weaker because she’s so dependent on him. I totally agree that Mal & Alina have no chemistry & as the series continues I’m just wondering WHY HIM? While reading shadow and bone I was shipping her with the darkling or Genya but I knew that wasn’t gonna happen. I’m just excited to continue because so far I love Nikolai & the series is still interesting despite how the romance ruins some opportunities that would improve it.

About her not killing the stag, it wasn't even established that she was an "animal lover" or something lmao

The Grisha Trilogy was entirely meh for me, but Six of Crows is one of my FAVORITE BOOKS OF ALL TIME. Leigh really develops as an author and creates an AMAZING story. I love it so much.

My God, how many times has an author used 'only they can save the world'? I'm tired of it, yeah, I understand it makes it more interesting, and villains always wanna destroy or rule the world, but we need better villains. As well as better problems, maybe they need to save theirselves, friends, family. Maybe they need to save what is 'their world', not the entire world. It's overused nowadays.

The Darkling is wonderful. I really enjoyed both him and the world in general, as well as how it is referenced in Six of Crows - the idea that all of these stories take place in one universe is super alluring. Because of this I can kind of appreciate the Grisha trilogy more even though they weren’t my favorite. Big fan of the SoC duology though on account of the ragtag group of characters

imagine if this story was in the pov of the darkling the power it would have 😭😭

lmao comparing Mal to white bread is the kind of content i subscribed for

"She's Mare Barrow level of inactive in her story self pity judgy indecisive" That's exactly what i thought of Alina they are literally the same except that Mare cared about her people and "cause" which Alina just does everything for Mal

16:05 - Also doesn't help that not killing the Stag ended up dooming all those people who consequently died because of her "mercy." So her one decision fucked up her world a lot. It feels like the author wrote themselves into a corner and just was like "oh but she can control the amplifier now." Like, wat.

The Winternight Trilogy (The Bear and the Nightingale) by Katherine Arden is nicely based in Russian mythology/fairy tales. The second one gets a bit more political and potentially reflective of the real Russia (I'm not well versed). They might be something to look into. The third one's not out yet, but it's scheduled for January.

Mal being white bread is the most accurate character description I've ever heard.

ahhh I love your reviews so much! jaja unfortunately Mal gets worse. The way he treats Alina in the later books pisses me off so much, like I know Alina definitely isn't perfect but Mal just shames her for every decision she makes unless it's what he wants to do and he's thinks he should be her priority just because they're childhood "friends". Not only that but he always talking about how he liked her more before she knew she was a Grisha, kinda implying he liked it better when she was weaker and more submissive to him just ahhhh I get so tired of him and his good guy facade. One thing I do like about Shadow and Bone is I can see how Bardugo has improved in her writing. (Sorry for this long ass rant jaja)

These books are like cotton candy, it looks pretty, has very little substance, and only really good in small doses. I honestly only kept reading because the Darkling and Nikolai were so well written.

Alina was so annoyiiiiiiing. Like, good gods. SO ANNOYING. I loved the Darkling, and Genya, and I dearly wish we'd had a better protagonist. I agree SO MUCH with the selfishness. I wait eagerly to hear what you think of the end of this trilogy. And yeah. Mal gets W O R S E. You'll notice that whole "I established something but now TWIST". Keep your eye on the amplifiers. I think, though, that by the time the Duology kicks in, Bardugo has improved considerably, at least when it comes to doing great protags/love interests...

I'm here for the tea spillage. ☕ And I don't know what it is with every popular YA book having 'shadow' in the title.

I also am never a fan of a love story centering around two people who start off knowing each other really well. It makes it so much more entertaining to see the development.

I agree with you on all the characters with one exception: I didn't buy the Darkling as a master manipulator. Bardugo successfully expressed his powerful magnetism to that end, which is great, but if he's been alive for so many centuries and is so good at hiding his true intentions, then why was he behaving so erratically in the beginning? There were weird tells of his deception during the first half of the book and I think that worked against his cunning and controlled characterization, compromising it in favor of foreshadowing. As for Alina - the whole mercy thing made no sense to me whatsoever either. It was not consistent with her (whiny, passive, and selfish) character.

This book literally makes me roll my eyes so far back in my head that they're just lost forever.

I much preferred the second book in the series tbh. But the one thing that drags even the 2nd and 3rd books down is Mal. If his character was killed off or wasn’t as important I feel like the series as a whole would be better.

Great review! I felt the same way about pretty much everything you said. *Spoiler* I really liked the Darkling character and I kind of wish we were led on longer. The reveal of his true intentions came too quickly in my opinion and I ended the book feeling like his character was going to to be really falt in the next two books because he becomes this one-dimensional evil character. He was the only reason why I kept reading. I also felt like the ending was so contrived and I didn't understand why she didn't kill the freaking stag. IT MAKES NO SENSE! Of all times, she picks then to suddenly care about something other than herself.

i tried hard to like them, i even rated then higher than i actually felt because i wanted to like them so much, and but then i had to admit to myself the only thing i liked about this series was the darkling

I remember talking to an Agent Intern about her getting a BAJILLION queries, saying, "My protagonist wants nothing to do with the plot~!" The beginning of this book and a bajillion others these days follow that format. Like... why? Why can't there be a character who's like, "I HAVE POWERS! COOL!! *Proceeds to going on Epic Adventures and getting himself/herself in dangerous shenanigans with her friends*"

Alina was one of the most irritating protagonists I've ever read. Drove me absolutely insane. I got so angry when (spoilers) she didn't kill the deer that I put the book down and never picked it back up.

I was a fan of these books as a teenager and you are right, it was predictable and Alena was lead around a lot. After a while I became more interested in Mal and how his story would end. I came for the fantastic Russian setting and stayed for Mal...and Genya, Bardugo made me care about Genya. In the Aparat's defense, I thought he was based on Rasputin (Because creepy religious figure in pre-revolutionary Russia, who else would it be?).

tbh I spent the whole time wishing Mal would fall off a cliff and Alina would shut up about her sad terrible life. "Oh NOOOO I HAVE AMAZING INSANE MAGICAL POWERS AND NIKOLAI KINDA LIKES ME??? AND GREAT FRIENDS??? WOE IS ME!!!"

The darkling is the only character that i like in this book.

So if she killed a deer she could have saved an entire village worths of people? And she didn't? Never read this book but I hate it already...

In my case, I LOVED THE WHOLE TRILOGY! Finished it in 3 days. The Darkling is my favourite of course and apart from Alina's love life decisions I adored her character too, specially growth throughout the books. Seeing so many dislikes, I don't think the books have the right audiences to be liked. Because I can't understand how books like acotar and rhapsodic are so loved by people when this kind of books gets so hated.

six of crows is soo much better!! can't wait for you to read it

About a minute and 20 seconds in I realized that I've READ this book

I'm only halfway through the second book (which is WAY better imo, but still nothing compared to Six of Crows duology) and I'm in the very small minority of people who actually like Mal. I just feel like I get him, and I understand why he acts and feels the way he does. Alina has always been a constant in his life, and all of a sudden all these forces are threatening to whisk her away from him and he's scared of being left in the dust. And he lashes out, broods, and grumps. But to me he feels like a very human character, and maybe that's why people hate him. Compared to the charming, larger than life characters of the Darkling and Nikolai, he's pretty plain. Normal. Idk. I think he and Alina just work together (maybe because they are both pretty plain and normal compared to everything else), and I DO NOT ship Alina with the Darkling or Nikolai. Darkling because I want her to take him down, and Nikolai because I actually think he deserves better.

this book misuses so much of russian culture, unintentionally making it hilarious that i can't read it (for eg it's literally 'the greg trilogy' etc) - very worth reading the reviews by eastern europeans on goodreads if you want a book set in in imperial russia that is fantasy, try deathless by catherynne m valente! it's very floral, language wise, but that works as it is folk inspired - and the author is lovely!

TBH some of the world-building decisions were distracting to me. I realize this is nitpicking. For instance, I think it's a cool idea to base a fantasy novel in a Russian setting, but the names are wrong for no particular reason except that I guess Leigh didn't feel like figuring out Russian names. Alina Starkov should be Alina Starkova . . . and there's no real reason for that name difference? I don't get why she decided to ignore Russian naming conventions. It's a small thing, but it felt strange. I don't get why Leigh decided to do that. (Also, "Grisha" is the short form of the name Gregory/Grigori, which I think is funny, too.) I understand this is a very small thing, but it just made me laugh the whole time. I've seen people say "It's based on Russian culture, not actual Russian culture", but it just seems weird to me to draw obvious inspiration from Russian culture and not use actual Russian naming conventions. Maybe I will try the SOC duology though. S&B didn't really draw me in that much.

Genya is actually pronounced with a soft rather than hard G. I have a Russian friend with that name and it was felt weird hearing it being pronounced differently the whole video XD

I never read the Grisha trilogy, but really enjoyed the Six of Crows duology.

I actually felt the exact same feelings! Six of Crows was such a glow-up for Leigh Bardugo

I like Shadow and Bone althought I know it's far from perfect, it's even mine second least favourite book of Bardugo. It's far from perfect; actually as stand alone book it has more cons than pros but, in Leigh's defence, it was her very first book and reading her books in chronological order is very fun bc you actually watching her developing writing skills. I think she also becomes more aware of some topics bc e.g. when Netflix bought rights to The Grisha Trilogy series, Bardugo herself said that TG wasn't diverse enough - that's why Alina is half-Shu now, that's why Zoya in King of Scars appears to be half-Suli etc. Also, many problems with first book (and whole trilogy) are effects of having first person narrator: Alina has problems with herself bc she's poor orphan and for many years she was weak and felt sick bc of her hidden powers; ofc she's whiny and judgemental. It's still nothing good but - unlike many other YA protagonists - she has *some* reasons to be the way she is. And it would be half-as-annoying as it is now if it wasn't first person narrator bc Alina's point of view is very biased and we can't trust her judgement. But, as I said, I can't call it a *good* book. It was just, for me, fun to read and interesting start of the journey into grishaverse.

Matching your eyeshadow to the cover of Shadow of Bone is true commitment and it looks amazing 👌

Really interested to find out what you think about Nikolai (a character in the second and third books who I love so damn much)

I quit this series after the middle of the second book. Could not stand the protagonist or her love interest (Mal). Also the chemistry between them is terrible! I kind of liked the Darkling in the first book but he gets so much worse...

I never read the books, only watched the show but I was kind of annoyed by the Alina/Mal romance. Very often I was thinking why the heck don't these characters just talk to one another instead of the teen angst. There were a few scenes when Alina does something that potentially dooms the world, so to speak and I remember thinking "Lady, I know that you love Mal and everything, but your love life should not be a priority right here, right now." Maybe I am too old for this, but I really wasn't invested in their romance. I loved Zoya, because she seems to be quicker on the uptake and figures out that even if she likes Darkling, the dude killed her family, doomed the country, lied to everyone, manipulated the Grisha and that is not ok. She also seems to get the most development as a character. I also liked the Eastern European aesthetic of the show, it is something one doesn't see that often.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head for everything I thought of this book. Unfortunately I personally thought the character development didnt get any better in the other books. I'm curious to read six of crows because i see a lot of people say they like it better and while i didnt like Alina's story, I did like the concept of the world.

I love that you explained the plot of this book. I don’t know if it was the writing that didn’t work for me in fully grasping the plot the way you did, but I’m glad you explained it. You made the plot so clear for me. Maybe my annoyance with Alina and Mal was what distracted me from the plot.

Never read the book but, wow, it's so unusual to hear all those russian names with English pronunciation. Х)

Yes yes yes! Jordan I love you. I’m sick as all hell right now and I’ve been miserable af all day, this is exactly what I needed! You, being all super intelligent and intellectual and articulate, looking gorgeous and giving me the tea on the latest book. Thank you!! Xxx

At first I loved this book but as it went on I just got annoyed that the characters didn't grow or do anything. It's hard to root for the protagonist when the villain is the only one doing anything interesting. Also, the DARKLING with the power to control DARKNESS, the OPPOSITE of Alina's power, is the bad guy, and was still the best twist?? I completely agree with you on that ending, I was so confused when Alina couldn't kill the deer, it was just so out of place and yet predictable at the same time.

I had some mixed feelings about this as well. I understand that the next books may be better, but honestly, if the first book isn't good, 80% of people won't continue the series/trilogy/duology. P.S.: Your eyeshadow is on point!

Am I the only one who loved The Darkling?

I love your reviews so much, especially when you roast the characters.

Alina is able to take her powers back from the darkling through the power of her mercy, and, in a display of such mercy, abandons every soldier and diplomat on the ship to be brutally ravaged by the vulcra.

First of all, I literally just read this book for the first time 2 weeks ago so it’s super ironic that you’re reading this series/just posted this review! I absolutely loved Genya, she was my favorite character! Also- I agree about Alina. She wasn’t developed enough for me, and overall I just felt like the stakes of this book weren’t high enough. I didn’t care enough about what happened really at all. I’m excited to see what you think of the rest of the series. My TBR pile is kind of big right now, but I’ve planned on finishing the series even though S&B didn’t wow me.

If you're struggling with Book 1, you're going to hate the ending. haha

I don’t have time to watch this one until later, but FYI it says “cheif” on the thumbnail and “reviw” in the title.

I have already read all the books in the grishaverse, loved your review and I agree with everything you say. The darkling is such a great villian! I personally like it when the magicsystem is explained over the course of all books, but that's just my taste :)

Genya, the Darkling, and Bahgra, are the only interesting characters.

If it wasn't for the bookclub I would not have finished this book so I'm not going to read book 2 and 3. But I'm super glad I read SoC!!! My favorite book off 2018! Great review Jordan and the make-up is 10/10 your hair is so pretty

So I definitely agree about the plot of this book. Even though this series is one of my favorites, that mainly comes from the second two books and I fully agree that this plot can drag and be expected (totally saw the darkling twist coming, but as a fan I have to say it still hurt a bit XD) Do you mind me asking what you mean by "the plot is derivative"? I'm not much as disagreeing with you, just curious to what you mean it derives itself from. Overall, really well put together review! Honestly most of the points you brought up were valid for this entry, most of those problems I can just happen to overlook. I hope (even if I weren't a fan of these books) that the rest of the read-through goes well!

The whole thing with the amplifier was so weird. They established how it worked and every time that plot needed to happen it seemed like there was always an extra detail about it that didn’t feel natural at all

I just read this book recently for the first time, and I totally agree with your review. I saw all this hype about this series and was so excited to read it. The book cover is gorgeous, too. But I was definitely disappointed. It makes sense that this is Leigh Bardugo's first book, I'm willing to give her others a try to see if/how she improves. I felt the worldbuilding was fairly interesting, but the characters were extremely lackluster. I just didn't really care what happened to them. The Darkling was perhaps the only character I found interesting, and even he seemed a bit quiet to me. He was also gone for chunks of the book, and I kind of felt like their psuedo-romance seemed a bit forced.

Nikolai is literally the only reason I'm finishing this series in preparation for King of Scars next month...

She gets rewarded for having mercy on a stag and the first thing she does is leave forty people to die horrible deaths? Btw a merciful person would feel terrible guilt about all the people killed by the Darkling as a direct result of their act of mercy, too.

Nikolai Lanstov was the only thing that kept me reading, but that was because I was desperate to finish it and find something I enjoyed about it.

I agree with you on pretty much everything you said. I read this book almost a year ago and it really discouraged me from reading the rest of the grishaverse books. I will say that the books get much MUCH better. Even just the second book in this trilogy fixes problems you mentioned and Six of Crows an Crooked Kingdom are gems.

I’ve only read the Six of Crows duology and I personally loved it. I’m interested to hear your thoughts on those two books. Love ur videos by the way❤️

This book is torture if you speak Russian. I hate the fact that Bardugo gets the credit for "exotic" location knowing that she absolutely butchered the language and culture parts she borrowed from. It was the worse type of cultural appropriation which the author didn't even have the guts to admit too as she kept using "but it's not REAL Russia, it's Ravka, get it?" excuses when being confronted about it Honestly, makes me sick. I'm never reading anything of this person even though I've heard that Six of crows is rather good. But I won't support this author. I mean it's not about the mistakes, which could have been corrected with one sensitivity reader or five minutes in google but the fact that she won't own up to those mistakes. Ugh, sorry for the rant.

I liked the Darkling. He was the only major character in the book with intelligence and a deep understanding of human nature. Alina was interesteing in the beginning but mutated to a YA sterotype and she was good just to be good.

I have only read Shadow and Bone so far and I totally agree with all you say. Its a fun read but Alina is very static tbh. I love the Darkling and Genya so much and the Apparat reminds me a lot of Rasputin. Great vid!

I was not a big fan of this book, either - but I stuck with the series (because I had bought the full trilogy when they were on sale so why not?) and Alina's characterisation improves so much in the second and third books. You can see Bardugo growing in skill and confidence as a writer, and her attempts to make the character layered and nuanced just start to gel. You get this great progression. Like: hang in there. It does get better. (Mal gets a lot worse though, sorry).

OMG, you will be doing Six of crows! Don't personally like the trilogy, but this heist fantasy was the end of me. Looking forward for you to examine it, you are marvelous.

16:00 if you’ve served in the army I presume she’s killed another person before? If not I presume she eats meet? Either way seems like that would mean she’d be fine killing this (especially to save many lives)

Nikolai is the best character and you muuuuuuuuuust continue the series for him.

Great video!!! Here for a refresher to get ready for the show... I read shadow and bones years ago but I’ll read the last too books in the series just so I can know what’s going on in the show.

I bought the first two books on audible a couple of years ago and couldn’t even finish the first one. Not because I disliked the writing, plot or the characters, but because of the “Russian” flavor. For a Russian reader it reads horribly. Like, even “grisha” is an oldfashioned diminutive for a name (Grigory), that to Russians reads like a pet name, sort of like Fido. Never mind all the other details, this one derailed me from the very start.

I liked Shadow and Bone, ADORED SIEGE AND STORM, and despised RUIN AND RISING with a passion. It turned me off of reading any of her other book series because of it.

I personally like the series but I agree with a lot of your points! I hope you enjoy the rest of the books!

I read Shadow and Bone first, didn't like it much, then read the Six of Crows duology and loved it. So I decided to give the Grisha trilogy a second chance and kind of loved hating it. My friends had to listen to a lot of rants while I read the last two books in the trilogy. I can't even begin to say how much I hated Mal! Looking forward to see if you'll make reviews for the rest of the series as well :)

I wanna read Six of Crows so bad but people say I should read the Grisha trilogy first but I tried and I couldn’t finish the first book... I really couldn’t get into it. So I don’t know what to do about Six of Crows now!

I haven’t read the original trilogy and tbh I’m sort of scared for it cause I just kind of think I’m gonna end up really disappointed, as I already read the SoC duology? Idk I just think I’ll end up sort of not happy with the differences in quality from what I’ve heard. I know it’s better not to assume things like this, but wow so many people have expressed these sentiments and I agree with a lot of things you say regarding book theory, so I may not like this one either...lots of people say 2 and 3 are better though so here’s hoping!

The Darkling bores me. Fight me. I have seen his style before. He's quite common in modern fantasy tbh. Not only that but except for a few moments, he didn't feel very charismatic to me, actually. Alina is romantically and sexually inexperienced. It doesn't take much charisma to excite her, if you will, to get her to do as he wants. A lot of people think he's the most interesting - and he has potential don't get me wrong. I even love the charismatic villain quite a bit but it wasn't executed well. I wasn't charmed by him at all and went "fucking finally" when eh stops playing good. He's far better just straight-up terrorizing then swaying. Nikolai, on the other hand, is very charismatic and how The Darkling should have been. I instantly liked him. I fell for him HARD and he has far less screen time then The Darkling.

oh, finally you rewiew somwthing that I actually read! (I'm bad with my reading and I have dozens of books on my tbr list help) to be honest, I don't really get the hype around this series. I didn't continue after this book, and I don't know if I will, but I don't think it'll get much better. I finished it a couple of months ago and was kinda "meh" about it. Now I can't even remember much of what was happening. I totally agree about The Darkling tho! He's very intriguing. Btw I didn't see much of Russian culture, but maybe it's because I'm Russian and it just doesn't surprise me that much :D I saw the parallels for sure, with the names and monarchy and surrounding countries, but that's about it.. and another thing, I'm pretty sure Genya is prounounced like "Zhenya", with Zh rather than G, if that makes sense. at least in Russian that's the name :) it's a short form of "Evgenia" (here with G not with Zh (damn Russian is weird))

I didn't have any expectations in mind for this trilogy, I just wanted to get a better understanding of its world and magic system before reading Six of crows, but I still ended up disappointed somehow (by Six of crows as well). P. S. Love your reviews! And your makeup :) (English isn't my first language, so I'm sorry if I made any mistake).

I love your rants. You expose all the reasons a lot of people don’t read anymore! Let’s make reading great again! Lol.

Why is it always a stag that is the magical animal??

To be honest, I really do agree with everything you said here, Alina and Mal are really not my favourite from this series either, however this series is kind of like this guilty pleasure for me, I know it has many flaws and yet I still love it a lot. That's though mainly for one character that appears in the second book, and of course the Darkling!

TBH i view the Grisha Trilogy as just the key into SOC. Although Nikolai my baaabYYY

If you thought this one had problems, get ready for the next one 😬

So, basically it's a Harry Potter/Voldemort slash fic.

she really named her villain "the darkling"? and her magic users "grisha"? wow ._________.

I finally decided to read this book after having it on my to read list and I’m kind of disappointed in it. Before the I read ‘the Essex serpent’ and I loved that way of writing. This way of writing felt a lot like childs writing to me 🥲 I did finish it but it did nothing for me. I ordered the other two of the trilogy at the same time so I might continue them just for the sake of it, but I’m wondering if Six of Crows has better writing?