Endgame for a poignant, mesmerizing and awe-striking trilogy by the one and only Leigh Bardugo. Definitely not disappointing, the third book of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy provides heart-pacing reveals, action, agonizing good-byes and dialogues that can even make a rock cry.
Don’t let me be alone.
Title: Ruin and Rising
Series: Shadow and Bone Trilogy (#3)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publish Date: 17th June 2014
Pages: 422
Personal Rating: 10/10
Quick question. Can I even write this review without breaking out in tears? Another one. How exactly am I supposed to cope with the ending of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy?
This book has put me completely in ruin and, let me tell you one thing, I didn’t have any rising at all. First I soared so high, then the fucking plummet to the ground, shattering me in pieces, stomping me flat, leaving me totally ruined and not mendable for a freaking century (at least). So, yeah, Ruin and Rising went absolutely great! (Please do note the sarcasm.)
When a book makes me cry then for a good reason. Let me tell you something, Ruin and Rising provided more than one.
The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne. Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army. Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives. Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
Frankly, I don’t know what I should tell you. Neither what reasons I can give you to read it. I am at a loss of words over here. Obviously, a lot of people will read it since they’ve read the two other books (I guess there is no other reason why people would look at this post if they hadn’t read any of the prequels).
Nevertheless, I’ll pull myself together and present you three reasons why this book is phenomenal and should be read and appreciated.
Too many, too good reveals
Dramatic and bittersweet ending
The Darkling’s story
“Know that I loved you. Know that it was not enough.”
It’s a rare occasion I rate a book with 10/10 but, man, what terrible person would I be if I didn’t give Ruin and Rising the highest score? The conclusion of the Shadow and Bone Trilogy surely didn’t disappoint. It was packed with heart-aching moments which made my heart jump, triggered tears pooling in my eyes and made me eager to ravish more of the book. When the book didn’t make me dedicate myself to several crying sessions, there was a fast-paced plot that held on for the entire book and provided several slack-jawed reveals in such an awesome and good way. The action was poignant, I got goosebumps and I cried a lot when the life-shattering ending came knocking on my door. Though I’d wished for another ending, in the aftermath I can only say that I couldn’t have wished for a better one than the one Leigh Bardugo created for us.
Honestly, now I get the whole hype and praise for this jewel of a book series. It’s a fantastic one, based on a Russian inspired breath-taking world-building, discusses some very fundamental and important things like loneliness, greed and burden, and the mother of these books crushed us with those dialogues. Whatever she wrote I could see it vividly in my imagination, the characters were relatable and I understood their motives, moreover, almost every sentence of Ruin and Rising is quoting material. I’m not even kidding.
Since I don’t want to give away anything and leave this part of the review without spoilers, you have to proceed reading below the divider for any more discussion.
Ruin and Rising aka Ache and Stabbing
“I’m the Sun Summoner. It gets dark when I say it does.”
Woman, Leigh Bardugo, you really enjoy tearing my heart to shreds, don’t you?
This book was fantastic in multiple ways. It has everything I look for in a book even if the ending is heart-crushing and I still haven’t recovered from it. Bittersweet ending that makes you feel like standing at the edge of a cliff, wind tearing through your hair, eyes shut and full of tears while a faint smile plays on your lips and your heart bleeds. That’s exactly how I felt after turning the last page of Ruin and Rising and the adjoined Darkling prequel story The Demon in the Woods.
“You might make me a better man.” “And you might make me a monster.”
Now, what am I going to discuss here.
The ending
The Darkling
Quotes
My playlist
The Ending. I think we can all agree that the ending is actually the only thing people want to hear and read about. The ending it is then.
Let’s be real about it. We all knew it had to come to this end, didn’t we? Of course I clung to the last straw of hope that it wouldn’t end with Alina powerless, the Darkling dead and Malina married, and my fucking heart in shreds. At some point we’re all hopeless dreamers who aren’t grounded in reality.
The ending… You had one job. Alina Starkov, dammit, you had one single fucking job, to save the Darkling and get together with him, but, no, lovely, the girl just had to stab him. Fun fact, minutes before she stabbed another one, her dear Mal (I’m sure the Alarklings wre cheering like nuts, I certainly was) got the same fate and earned a knife to his heart, thrust in by Alina. Wonderful.
Then she moves on to the Darkling, stabs him, my reaction “This is it?! With a knife?”, and then one of the most painful last exchange of words.
“No grave,” he grasped, his hand tightening on mine, “for them to desecrate.” “All right,” I said. The tears came harder. There will be nothing left. He shuddered. His eyelids drooped. “Once more,” he said. “Speak my name once more.” He was ancient, I knew that. But in this moment he was just a boy – brilliant, blessed with too much power, burdened by eternity. “Aleksander.” His eyes fluttered. “Don’t let me be alone,” he murmured. And then he was gone.
The whole Darkling fanbase running riot, shrieking, crying, ready to play nurse with needle and thread to piece him together, hoping that he will miraculously live on with a pierce heart and finally be not alone in this world who’s rejected him the whole time because he was burdened with too much power and never fit in anywhere. Tears sliding down cheeks, sob-filled crying and then he was gone. A handsome, broken, powerful boy. And then? Fucking sorry-ass Mal chokes in the background, back from the dead.
Whut? I beg your pardon? What did just happen?
Instead of hopping across a grass field Mal is back among the living while a dark-haired, beautiful but broken soul lies on the floor, not resurrected. Sorry what? If the Darkling fanbase was running riot back then, now they’re thrashing and savaging everything they can find.
All jokes aside, I just cried in agony and mourned the Darkling. My heart still aches.
Alina loses her power, which is also very painful and aching to read about. To cut a long story short, the ending is filled with heart-shredding lines after lines. It never ends. And the fucking pain just goes on in the additional prequel to the Darkling’s story. Like what the fuck, please, give me one freaking break to recover just a bit! It was simply overwhelmingly hurtful.
The Darkling. I told you that dude didn’t pop up in the world without a name. Beautiful Aleksander Morozova. Definitely, a name to build an altar for.
He dropped his hands. I saw the realization strike him. He was truly alone. And he always would be. I saw the emptiness enter his eyes, felt the yawning void inside him stretch wider, an infinite wasteland. The calm left him, all that cool certainty. He cried out in rage.
That dude seriously has a very good chance to be on the top of the dark-haired-handsome-twisted-high-cheekbones-guy list. He has such a freaking amazing power with the shadows, the cut, being an amplifier, is handsome as hell, and longs to finally find a place in the world, not alone, not feared, not hated, not used, juts simply not alone. And that was probably the part that stung the most. With his background story of having to travel and take on a new identity ever so often, always being the feared one and the outcast, his death was both merciful and unbearable.
Let me make a mark on this world before I leave it.
Loneliness is a really nasty feeling and when you have so much power, everyone around you comes and goes and you outlive them again and again, there isn’t much left but turning to power and darkness, the one thing that you have and can’t be altered.
“It’s my own name I’m afraid of forgetting.” “Your true name is written here,” she said tapping his chest. “Tattooed on your heart. You don’t let just anybody read it.”
And now some serious Darkling appreciation quotes.
Make me your villain. “I know what you thought, what you’ve always thought of me. It’s so much easier that way, isn’t it? To puff yourself up with your own righteousness.”
“No,” he said gently as he folded me in his arms. He pressed a kiss to the top of my hair. “I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but me.”
“I will not fight you,” the Darkling said. “Then strike me down.” “You know I won’t.” She smiled then and gave a little chuckle, as if she were pleased with a precocious student. “It’s true. That’s why I still have hope.”
I’ll tell you a story – one I used to tell a little boy with dark hair, a silent boy who rarely laughed, who listened more closely than I realized. A boy who had a name and not a title.
“You were meant to be my balance, Alina.”
“Let me,” he murmured against my throat. “It isn’t real,” he said. “Let me.”
His smile deepened and he cocked his head to the side. It almost hurt to see him this way. “Will you say it?” he asked. I hesitated, feeling danger crowd in on me. “Aleksander,” I whispered. His grin faded, and his gray eyes seemed to flicker. “Again,” he said.
Lovely, I am back with the heart-jabs and the tears in my eyes. I’ll never get over him, won’t I? It’s high time to turn to fanfics.
Honestly, the whole book is quoting material but that’s not manageable. My computer would likely overheat and shut down and my fingers would hurt from typing. Hence the answer is no.
“Impressive,” Mal said. I shook my head in wonder. “How does he do it?” “Want to know my secret?” Nikolai asked from behind us. We both jumped. He leaned in, looking from left to right, and whispered loudly. “I have a lot of money.” I rolled my eyes. “No, really,” he protested. “A lot of money.”
Sometimes he would find her standing by a window, fingers playing in the beams of sunlight that streamed through the glass, or sitting on the front steps of the orphanage, staring at the stump of the oak next to the drive.
Last but not least. My Playlist. I know everyone tends to listen to the shit they prefer but some of the songs I listened to whilst reading were just way too beautiful no to share them with the world.
Julien Baker – Appointments
Vera Blue – Mended
Lewis Capaldi – Someone You Loved
Aquilo – Almost Over
Khalid – Better
PVRIS – Eyelids
Alessia Cara – I’m Yours
WILD - Throw Me in the Water
That’s it guys. The Shadow and Bone Trilogy or Grisha Verse Trilogy is over. Done. But I’m sure there will be a re-read again. And Aleksander Morozova won’t leave my mind and heart anytime soon.
Read my 5-star review of Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo on Goodreads and follow me there to check out the books I've read and are on my to-do list.
“Aleksander,” I whispered. A boy’s name, given up. Almost forgotten.
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