Ruin and Rising (Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo

July 8, 2014     erinbook     Book review

Ruin and Rising (Grisha #3) by Leigh Bardugo


Release Date: June 17, 2014
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
454 Pages (B&N Edition) 
417 Pages (Standard Edition)
Received: Bought from Barnes & Noble
Format: B&N Exclusive Edition Hardcover


Rating: 

Description: The capital has fallen.
 
The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.
Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
 
Review: Oh dear lord, the feels!
This book showed up on my door step 8 days after its release, despite the fact that we preordered it a month in advance. In between the day it came out and the day I read it (because it only took a day to read) I buried my head in the proverbial internet sand to ward off spoilers. I hate spoilers more than anything and when someone tries to spoil me, his happens…
And then I turn into this…

But what I did hear made me very very nervous. I love this trilogy and I didn’t want the last book to drop the ball. Some of the reactions I saw (spoiler free, thank god) were kind of like this…
Some in good ways and some in not so good ways. Then I finally got to read the book for myself and I had a few things to say to the angry folks.
and
As for me? I loved it.
I thought that Leigh Bardugo gave this final installment the ending that it needed to have. Sometimes that means breaking some hearts. Sometimes it means killing off characters. Sometimes it means that the things you want to happen cannot possibly happen and keep the integrity of the story. That’s life, that’s fiction. I didn’t want (Spoiler) Snape to die in the last Harry Potter book, but it needed to happen. I do not hate on a book just because all of my book dreams were dashed on the rocks. In fact, those kind of feelsy moments make me respect and love both the book and the author more.
I had some moments like this…
And, because of one specific character (and his cat), a few like this…
(If you’ve read the book, you know what I’m talking about)
And then one or who like this…
I was left at the end with a lot of feels and an inability to properly explain them. I still have a difficult time expressing some of them, hence all of the gifs. Still, I think that the trilogy got the proper ending it deserved. I don’t want to talk about characters today because a lot of what I have to say is very spoilery. Maybe in the future I will post a discussion with spoilers, properly labelled of course!
What I do want do say is how much I enjoyed this unique world that Leigh Bardugo created. The magic system was absolutely gorgeous and the mythology well designed. I want more of these types of books in YA, these well put together high fantasy series that keep me hanging on every word. It’s these type of books that make me put an author on my automatic buy list. This is the group of authors who, when they release a new book, I will buy it no matter what it is about. Leigh Bardugo is now one of those authors.
What did you think of Ruin and Rising? Tell me in the comments.
Keep Reading!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.