The Aussie Zombie

I'm not really a reader of fantasy - I don't quite know why, but it just doesn't hold my attention, or I get confused (this is not surprising) and give up, or just get too frustrated with my memory to really enjoy it.

But after hearing Judith and Daisy talk about how amazing it was when I was in Amsterdam a few weeks ago, and seeing Daisy 'pitch' it in the American Book Centre, I thought I would give Shadow and Bone a try - after all, what's the worst that could happen?

The first thing I fell in love with, and stayed in love with the whole way through was Alina. Bardugo takes that horrible 'I'm so beautiful but I don't know it, yet all the boys flock to me' cliche and chucks it right out the window. There are no long-winded, sappy descriptions of boys that smell like oceans or girls with eyes that sparkle like diamonds shit - Shadow and Bone has characters that are chock full of personality without being cliched, and the romance is incredibly well-done - the characters are friends for life before realising that they have had feelings for each other for a long time and they fit perfectly together.

World-building is something I often struggle with when it comes to fantasy novels. I seem to have trouble envisioning scenes and places which I can do perfectly fine with contemporary or even dystopians, but Bardugo has written Shadow and Bone in a way that even if you aren't a fantasy fanatic, the imagery is the perfect mixture of unique and familiar. I also loved the Russian influences - it was enough to be interesting but not overwhelming.

The plot twists and turns and there are a few moments that had me a little :-O because I just didn't see what was coming and when they did it was completely out of the blue for me. The final thing that made this book so awesome for me was the ending - although this is the first book in a trilogy and I'm already itching to go straight onto Seige and Storm, it ended in a way that didn't want to make me throw the book across the room - it actually left me feeling quite satisfied because although it's a little cliffhanger-y, it's the perfect type of cliffhanger - there's enough closure to make it ok not to have the next book immediately to hand, but still enough to make me obsess about it.


Even if you don't like fantasy as a rule, this is a book worth breaking rules for. If you have it on a bookshelf, go get it, now! And if you haven't, go beg or borrow a copy (I won't say steal because it's illegal, but possibly worth the risk) and read it. This is a book that is pushed relentlessly by fans because it deserves it.