Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

[lightreads]

Shadow and Bone (The Grisha Book 1)

3/5. Bland paint-by-numbers fantasy about the girl who is taken to court after discovering her hidden power that might save them all. Boy am I glad I read Six of Crows, Bardugo's fourth book, first. That one is complicated and scary. This one – her debut -- is derivative in the dull way, not the fun way. And it's never good when the love interest is in deathly peril and I start vigorously cheering for his death, because that could only improve things.

I mean, I guess it's a demonstration of how fast a person's writing can improve?

Comments

[readerjane]

I think debut novels sometimes suffer, not only from inexperience, but from the author's overexposure to the story itself. They're the books that took years to gestate, to the point where the author can't see their flaws anymore, and could do a lot better by now, but has lived with the story so long she can't bear to change those parts which really should be cut or revised.

[lightreads]

Yes, probably. And worse where it's a long series, as here, since often the whole trilogy or what have you will be at least drafted before the agent makes a sale.