#grisa

Spooky and Cute? She's got it under wraps!

📸 Snail Shell - RPG-03 Grisa

Warning: Shadow and Bone HEAVY spoilers ahead...

So I finished Shadow and Bone and I loved every page of it...except for the end. Because, really, Alina? Mal? You had Nikolai, and you went for MAL!? You had the Darkling and you went for MAL!?

Don’t get me wrong, I did like Mal as a character (all though not even close to how much I liked the rest), but that ship was not only predictable, but I feel like it downplays Alina. Mal would not accept Alina unless she was the person he wanted her to be, unless she was normal. Like the relationship could not happen if she was extraordinary. Hell, she had to loose her power for them to be together. Otherwise, even if Alina had faked her death, but still retained her power, I bet Mal would not have had her. 

I know, I know, it’s probably meant to say that “Mal loved her for who she was, he didn’t care for her power or her status”. But the thing is...he did. The only difference is that unlike Nikolai and the Darkling, he saw it in a negative light, as something to be eliminated. He was constantly brooding over the fact that she had changed and she was not the girl he used to know and bla bla bla and all the while I was like “No shit, Mal, welcome to life” Like really, is it so terrible to be and ordinary man at the side of an extraordinary woman? Both Nikolai and the Darkling, I feel, wanted Alina in both her conditions. They would not have spared her a second glance if they had met her while she was still ordinary, but I think they would have wanted her after she lost her power. Yes, even the Darkling. In the end, he trusted her with the last piece of himself that was left: his name. Yes, he said she was nothing, but he still loved her. He still wanted her (not for his plans, but as a woman). Mal sacrificed himself to give her more power, but I feel like even that act reflects how much he could not live in a world in which Alina was powerful and be with her.

Anyways, I love how this series deals with ambition and power. In most stories, they are always depicted as something negative. Attributed just to the villains, and ignored at best by the good guys. Here, the good guys admit they have ambition both to themselves and to others, they want power, they feel greed. Is that good or bad? The judgement stands, but they recognize it as something that is part of them, which I find fascinating.

Also the aesthetic. Man, the aesthetic is just a dream come true. All these references to Russian culture and Russian history just gave me the biggest heart eyes ever. Everything is so vividly described. And the dialogues and character interactions cracked me up too. 

Já tak hrozně nechci, aby série Šest vran skončila! Prosím, prosím, ať autorka napíše další. Chci víc Kaze, chci víc Inej! Druhý díl byl sice o milisetinku slabší než ten první, ale to čistě jen proto, že mě moc nebavila minulost Jespera a Wylana. O kus víc mě zas zajímal Kaz s Inej, Ravčani a jak se z téhle kaše vůbec dokážou všichni vyhrabat. I když vím, že není Leigh Bardugo takový vrahoun hlavních postav jako ehm, ehm… (koukáte na GoT, že jo?), stejně jsem se při každém zaškobrtnutí bála, že tohle je konec toho či onoho. (A možná, že fakt je!) A teď malé upozornění: neměli byste číst Prohnilé město, pokud plánujete dočíst Grišu, je v něm totiž vyspoilerovaný konec. Mně osobně to teda nevadí, protože Alinu moc nemusím, takže ji asi dočtu jen proto, že se mi nechce opouštět tohle univerzum, ale smutná z toho, že vím, jak skončí, teda nejsem.

Leigh Bardugo: Prohnilé město