Shadow and Bone

The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him forever.

This book had a lot of potential yet it was wasted. Alina annoyed me from the beginning. I couldn't stand her obsession with her puppy love for Mal nor her “ugly duckling” syndrome. Instead of being curious about her amazing recently-discovered-power she kept moping over how plain she was and how blindingly beautiful all the Grishas were. Who cares that you look scrawny and plain? You are the Sun Summoner for God's sake! Such a waste... What is it with this ridiculous fixation with absolute beauty in YA? I can be genuinely and immensely attracted to someone who doesn't fit in the “perfect beauty” category. And, obviously, also 90% of the people on this planet can.

Moving on. To the Darkling. I don't see what's so great about him either. I admit, he's one of the reasons I finally picked this up. I kept hearing how amazing her was. But he's barely in the book. Most of the plot consisted in Alina drooling over or envying people more attractive than her and gushing over the luxuries in Little Palace. And then in complaining about how she wasn't a Grisha, how she was so useless, how she couldn't do this, she couldn't do that. Yawn. But I guess I can see why the Darkling could've been a gripping character.

Then the romance. Can I say icky? So Alina, this mass of mush, after being ignored by Mal falls head over heels with the Darkling after 2-3 conversations. So much that he has his hand up her skirt after the second kiss. And then, 2 seconds later she finds out he's evil and runs away. And who helps her get away? No one other than Mal. And she falls head over heel with him, once more, leading to the lamest love triangle I've read in a very long time. I have no patience for this for this.

The rest: little action, weak mythology and world building, underdeveloped characters. But it could'be been good, the general idea of this book was quite nice.

I'm not going to bother with the next books because I couldn't resist the temptation and I've read a spoilery review of book number there. Not even close to deserving the effort. So the love triangle ends up being a love square. What the actual f.? Alina loses her power after all that struggle to control it and use it for the good and she ends up with Mal. *Facepalm* Then the Darkling dies without even redeeming himself.