Ruin and Rising (Shadow and Bone #3)

Synopsis

The nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

The Darkling rules from his shadow throne while a weakened Alina Starkov recovers from their battle under the dubious protection of the zealots who worship her as a Saint. How her hopes lie with the magic of a long-vanished ancient creature and the chance that an outlaw prince still survives.

As her allies and enemies race toward war, only Alina stands between her country and a rising tide of darkness that could destroy the world. To win this fight, she must seize a legend's power- but claiming the firebird may be her ruin.

Loved

• The crew. This beginning of this third book is quite bleak, since the last remnants of the Second Army are a ragtag group who don't always get along or agree on motives. However, this group quickly wins us over with their banter, loyalty to Alina, and subtle acts of kindness for each other. Even sour and prickly Zoya charms readers with her sarcasm, roguish vanity, and fierce bravery. This last book is reminiscent of Six of Crows in that a band of misfits pulls off a near impossible task equipped with only guts, pluck, and brains.

• Mal. Okay, I don't understand why a lot of the bookish world hates on Mal. He is just so good. In the second book he's a little angsty and frustrating, but in this book he is just purely loyal, selfless, and sacrificing. It's fun to see him grow into his leadership role and he really holds the crew together throughout this book. This book highlights his unwavering loyalty and let's be real- he's the true hero of this series.

• Nikolai. Ah, Nikolai. You kill me. This story is treats him so badly, yet he is charming and charismatic as ever. His unflappable confidence and quick wit are honestly good enough reasons to read this series- I promise he does not disappoint! Although he endures a lot in this story, his scars make him even more lovable and real, and I'm head over heels for this guy (which is why I can't wait to read King of Scars!).

• The ending. Don't worry, I won't spoil anything, but the ending had an awesome plot twist that I wouldn't have seen coming with binoculars and a telescope. I feel like a lot of YA plots are pretty easy to predict, but this twist was both jarring and exciting, and props to Bardugo for pulling it off. I'm glad the series ended with a bang after so much buildup and leading up to the battle at the end.

Didn't Love

• My only complaint about this book is that Alina got on my nerves a few times with her angstiness. Sometimes she picked fights just to relieve her own stress and tension, and it bristled me when she picked on Mal, who has only ever loved her and sacrificed for her. However, I did appreciate that Alina recognizes when she's been unfair and is pretty good about apologizing and making up for it . . . usually :)

Content

• Language: 
• Occasional uses of "damn," "hell," and "a**."

• Sexual content: 
• A brief fade-to-black sex scene, described as kissing, undressing, and then his body over her moving in a rhythm together (pages 361-363).
• Some mild kisses between the main couple and secondary couples, not much described.
• Villain tries to seduce Alina- a few steamy scenes where he kisses her, wraps his arms/leg around her, and embraces her.
• Suggestive comments made in banter and jest.
• A female character testifies against a man for raping her repeatedly. She talks about putting poison on her lips so every time he kissed her it would poison him. 

• Violence
• Lots of killing with knives, arrows, swords, and Grisha powers (squeezing their hearts to stop, burning, etc.)
• People are killed with the Cut, which slices them in half.
• Many people killed by shadow volcra, which are very violent and bloody and maime their victims. Describes people being ripped to pieces by volcra in front of other characters.
• A character dies by throwing herself off a mountain and being "dashed upon the rocks."
• A main character becomes a shadow volcra and tries to eat and kill other characters.
• Main characters are stabbed with knives, some die.
• A female character testifies against a man for raping her repeatedly. She puts poison on her lips so that every time he kisses her he is poisoned.
• Stories of Grisha being killed for their powers- being drowned, hanged, and burned. A child is drowned by a village because of her power.


• Other themes:
• Alina is seen as a saint and cults begin to form to worship her. The cults get to the point of fanaticism. Lots of religious themes with martyrdoms and saints.
• LGBTQ+ Rep: Two secondary female characters form a relationship.

Overall Thoughts

The beginning of this story was a little frustrating because it felt so bleak and hopeless, with hardly any of the Grisha surviving. However, the remaining crew ended up winning me over as they grow to care about each other and fight the looming darkness and trauma with banter, sarcasm, and small acts of understanding. This book felt wittier than the others and I found myself laughing out loud a few times at the characters' teasing each other. The main characters all developed nicely in this story, with all of them making sacrifices and self-discoveries at the climax of the story. The ending was clever and unexpected, which was refreshing and compelling. Overall, this was a dynamic ending to the series and did credit to the detail, cleverness, intensity, and originality of the this Grisha world.