Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4/5 cats
“You are on your knees, ” I said. “We are not negotiating.”
i am pretty damned pleased with the way this third part wrapped up. after a kind of milquetoasty first book, bardugo kicked some ass with the second one, smearing pain and suffering all over her characters with a gleeful cackle. and it doesn’t let up in this here third part. this one begins with alina in a very bad place, and it’s all “oh no!! how is she going to get herself out of this??” and then—“oh, like THAT!” and it’s perfection. and that’s what shines in this third part—her attention to detail, the density in the character development and the plots and counterplots; all those clockwork gears working together as horrible things are grafted on top of more horrible things and there are just so many ingenious exit strategies leading up to that moment where she rips out your heart and it’s awesome. i love that she had the balls to go there, but i do not love that she View Spoiler »
and am i the only one disappointed by oncat and how NOTHING cool happened with her?? if you have a cat, use a cat! don’t just write her in as some feather boa accessory. the felines of literature are displeased.
(okay, he doesn’t look displeased, but i assure you, he is)
but still—so many great things in this book:
genya gets some fantastic lines in this. and david gets his version of a love-speech and i finally consider him worthy of her.
mal. mal is a little too ooh-rah-hero for me to have a character crush on, but in this book, i developed a begrudging admiration for him and forgave him all his emo-mopery and “i know i have been with a million girls, but now that i want you, i’m gonna get cranky that you have other suitors—moo” in that second book.
and while alina will always be a poor man’s daenerys stormborn,
i loved watching her trajectory as she struggles with the demands of her power and position.
nikolai. man, poor nikolai. this is an unexpected turn of events for him, and one that’s difficult to chase away with cheerful blather. i feel you, man.
darkling. call me!
i’m glad i read on in this series after my disappointment with Shadow and Bone, because all the PSAs are right—it does get better! and while none of the novels quite reached that zenith of perfection that were those free tor shorts, i feel like she has found her writer’s stride and from here on out, it’s all gonna be brutally beautiful. i am on board.
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