Remember, how I denied that Six of Crows duology isn't closely related to Harry Potter or Game of Thrones? I am not taking my words back, but I do think Shadow and Bones trilogy have some resemblance.
I just finished reading Siege and Storm which is the second book of the Leigh Bardugo's trilogy. It was a captivating read but do I love it? Let's find out.
This review contains spoilers.
Brief Summary
Alina Starkov has become the most celebrated and hunted Grisha of all times. Some people are calling her Saint who is reborn after the deadly fight at Fold. Some people consider her the only hope against the Fold and Darkling. Darkling is hunting her to become more powerful and continue with his evil plan.
He is powerful than ever but so does Alina.
Sturmhond and his crew rescue Alina and Mal from Darkling and together they make plan for destroying him and his new army.
They return to OS Alta and allies with King and combine First and Second Army.
While the King is on his deathbed, his sons Vasily Lantsov and Nikolai Lantsov silently fight for the throne. Vasily is the crown prince but he's incapable and Nikolai is capable in every way but he is the second son.
The book mostly revolves around how Nikolai makes wise and strategic plans to prepare for the battle. He is witty, charming and apparently a powerful ally of Alina.
When the battle finally occurs, there is massacre and mass destruction. You will have to read the book to find the outcome.
Critical Analysis
The one thing that I liked about the book is that it's fast-paced. It's my personal preference, I lose interest in the reading if a book in unnecessarily dragged. There was always something going on which kept me hooked till the last page.
There were no big plot twists which blew my mind but still nothing was predictable which kept me guessing about certain characters and their behavior.
If you read my previous review, you will get to know how smitten I was by the Darkling’s character. In the beginning of this book, I was hoping for the same, wanted him to turn good or at least genuinely care for Alina for once.
But soon I forgot about him when another interesting character walked into the story. The charming Prince Nikolai. He’s everything that a good prince should be; handsome, witty, fighter, kind and caring.
But was he trustworthy? I guess I will find that out in the next book but in this book he stole the show.
Then there’s Mal. He’s the heartthrob of many girls but he’s no Grisha. I felt he was very insecure and Alina didn’t deserve him. Many people have same thoughts but unexpectedly I felt for the poor Mal as the story progressed. He has every reason to be over-possessive because his childhood sweetheart Alina is not that ordinary girl anymore and many powerful and handsome men want to marry her.
However, at some points, it felt that Mal was not only insecure of the other guys but also because Alina was becoming more and more powerful. He happily became Alina’s personal guard but later it seemed that he couldn’t stand it and he felt useless.
I was wondering if it was the other way round, Alina would have happily done anything for Mal.
Do males really can’t stand females getting ahead of them? Mal better leave Alina and let her save the world which she can with right people at her side. Mal is merely becoming a distraction for her with his childish behaviour.
Lastly, I wanted to share how Alina and Darkling strongly reminded me of Harry and Voldemort in this book. Do you remember the unusual connection that aided them to sneak into each others' mind? How Harry felt that he was going mad when he had visions of what was in Voldemort's mind. The same connection opens up between Darkling and Alina. At least, I felt that way. If you have read both series, I would like to know what you think.
Overall, it was an exciting read. The only thing off about this book was Alina and Mal's relation which is becoming ridiculous as the series progress.
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Reviewer: event-horizon
Rating: 4.5/5
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