#shadow ampersand throne

[legalist217]

fifth january 2018

dear @alskaichou,

know that my affection for you must run pretty damn deep at this point because all the standard YA bells are being rung as fast as they can be rattled off, except in fantasy Russia this time which is I guess something different. bitch be skinny and pale (such repulsive traits in the 2010s how can she even bear to step onto the page for the shame of it all) but the boys still want her, just not the right boys, only the incels and even then only when they’re drunk. we shall for the moment ignore how uncomfortably #true that is to life’s actual experiences because my god, it’s genretastic. 

still, there is like a lot of book left. like most of it. okay almost all of it. and I’m mostly salty because i had the name mikhail in reserve for a character (still do) and really didn’t need the conflation with this generic neckbeard who’s either going to be torn to pieces by the not-dragons in five minutes or get hella fuckin buff by book three and bone that not-witch who’s recently been making moon eyes at not-Gale. also it’s too damned cold outside and my extremities are just opting out of warmth in response. 

yes, this is going to be how I react to these books. no, I don’t know how many of these letters I’ll be writing you. tags may or may not develop as they’re appropriate. i’m sure it’ll get remarkable in some manner or other. but wow what a generic start. why must YA be this way. lord knows i’ve long since given up the idea of solving the problem. that’s a young woman’s mad dream. like sixteen young. not whatever-this-is young. 

at least there’s the veneer of Russia. I didn’t know that was a thing. and that’s actually got my interest reasonably piqued. 

right, back into the fray.

fond regards,

legalist217

[legalist217]

SHADOW AND BONE: After-Action Report

I’m writing this before cracking Siege and Storm--okay, I’ve read the first page, but MOSTLY true--because each book deserves its own fair chance and its own assessment. Sure, they also need to work together as a trilogy, but each one is a book in itself. And the first book of any trilogy particularly must be able to stand alone, both to ensure the series is picked up and to provide narrative satisfaction in case it isn’t. 

Before beginning, a note of explanation regarding tags. While thinking the title was “Shadow and THRONE” was a genuine mistake on my part--I blame the swoopy font and the fact both words suit the narrative--tagging with the & spelled out was not. It’s the same reason why most of my live-blogging of this book went on Twitter. While my whinging about YA tropes entertains some and is cathartic to me, I understand people not wanting negative interaction in their tag. Plus, sometimes those tropes are there for a reason and I didn’t really feel like looking like a damn fool in real time on this platform. (Besides, there’s only a handful of people for me to directly annoy on Twitter, versus this blog having a diverse portfolio of followers who likely do not give a shit about the actual thesis statement that brought me to tumblr.)

That being said, this is serious thought and will go in the tag (under a readmore), warts and all, because now that I’ve read the book, it has to stand on its feet. So, what’ve we got?

I was texting a friend and came up with the following analogy:

[Shadow and Bone] blends a lot of pleasing attributes from series that I liked, but, not necessarily well. Like if it was cake batter, there would still be distinct lumps of identifiable flour and butter. But it’s a good recipe and a first part and the lumps aren’t that distracting so I’m inclined to forgive and want another piece. 

For once, I don’t think the metaphor ran away from me. Often, this is simply that the book is using the YA tropes I’ve come to hate, but then deftly shifts (most of) them into something that makes functional sense. However, while reading this book, the following connections came to mind unbidden:

for all they go on about being practitioners of the Small Science (which would make you think an alchemy comparison would be forthcoming), the Grisha more resemble benders from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Actually, it reminds me more of Korra due to the cultural attitudes separating Grisha and otkazat’sya (aka normies). There’s a mention at the end that the First Army (normie soldiers) and the Second Army (Grisha) are rumored to be warring with each other. 

one night, the protagonist is alone in the hospital wing recovering from having broken bones speed-mended when suddenly the character who keeps trying to help via unsettling cryptic clues which mostly amount to GTFO shows up over the protagonist’s bed to deliver more cryptic warnings. Did I just recount to you a scene from Shadow and Bone between Alina and the Apparat, or was that Harry and Dobby in Chamber of Secrets?

But these are the unblended parts. I’m still #shook by just how well Mr. the Darkling is written as a manipulator. I knew it was coming. It couldn’t not. But the book lulls you the same way he lulls Alina, whisking you from the genuinely horrifying Fold to a beautiful castle full of beautiful distractions. He knows just how much carrot to offer via conversations and appearing vulnerable. He applies the stick by not talking to her, and also implicitly by stopping her mail from reaching Mal. Because the book is narrated by Alina, we only pick up anything she does. And she misses much, misinterprets more, and gets so hung up on the kiss that it’s hard not to be swept along with her. All according to keikaku.

One of my favorite instances of this is in the choice of kefta colors. A garment that only Grisha wear, kefta are color-coded based on the individual’s ability. Mr. the Darkling announces that Alina will wear black, a color reserved only for himself. She rejects this in favor of Summoner-blue. It’s a choice that she makes because she doesn’t want to be socially isolated, and Mr. the Darkling seems pissy about her not acceding to his offer of fanciness. Her best gal pal Genya, who’s stuck wearing servant white in accordance with being the Queen’s cosmetic magician and the King’s bedwarmer, is stunned that such an offer of status would be let go. 

But Alina was correct, just not for the reasons she thought she was. Being elevated to the same status as the leader of the Grisha would have kept her isolated from the others. Were it not for her standard-issue YA protagonist personality preventing her from making more than like two real friends, Mr. the Darkling might’ve had reason to worry about her getting away from him. But, no, her only female friend is stuck spending her nights away at the palace, and Gale from The Hunger Games is off tracking game. She’s a loner who is alone. And he cultivates that aloneness, kisses her when she’s distracted, then leaves her to stew on these new complex feelings. Is it any wonder she doesn’t resist the black kefta at the fete?

As someone who’s been played multiple times, it’s shiveringly real. I dig it. I’m intrigued to see what happens next. What a sneaky boy. Someone hurry up and make an edit of the OOH MR DARCY comic to justify my persistent nickname for him.

As for Mal, I called him Gale, and I’m sure those who’ve read the entire trilogy are protesting that this is an entirely unfair assessment of his character. Recall that I’m only addressing book one in this. What I do like, honestly, is that he seems better written than Gale did. I understand that war does different things to different people, but so many of Suzanne Collins’s characters had the same response to war that it at some point seemed improbable that they’d all become hardened near-sociopaths. Mal, however, has a real and believable love for Alina, the kind that leaves him too angry to speak to her for ages, but that ultimately allows him to forgive everything that went wrong in the face of peril. I can’t wait to see how his character gets from here to where I know from sundry spoilers it’ll end up. Definitely a more interesting boy than Gale. 

Alina herself? At first, I didn’t want to like her. She read so much like all the other YA girls with all their other sad backstories, their pale faces, their skinny bodies, their clumsy lack of athleticism. But all of these attributes seemed like they were being announced so as to get them out of the way, as if we needed to get past them in order to make room for the good stuff. When it’s revealed that her bad health is directly tied to having suppressed her Grisha-ness for all those years, and that her acceptance of her gift correlates to a sunburst of good health, it’s a rush of maddeningly fresh air. All I want is a real reason for things to be presented as they are. The book gave it to me. 

This doesn’t address her personality, which I earlier called standard-issue. I’m not really going to back down from that; YA heroines as a rule are sassy and straightforward and speak their mind. What lets her work better is that she lives in a world where the characters don’t respond with pearl-clutching. Alina isn’t the sole master of witty banter. She plays really nicely off of Genya, Mal, and especially Mr. the Darkling. Again, that’s all I need, guys, take note. 

I’m told there are ways in which the sequels will burn off my goodwill, but that is a problem for future Liz to address in a future report. I liked this one. I don’t stay up until past two in the morning for every book I read; I have to either hate it or love it. This one was the second one. 

Thanks to @alskaichou for recommending the Grishaverse. I hope you’re happy, missy >_> and don’t worry, I’ll write you fresh letters and link the fresh twitter threads as soon as I start Siege.

[legalist217]

ok but before I start S&S here are my stupid thought predictions for future books (all two of them)

based on the fact that both of them have a claim to the collar, the stag antlers are going to telepathically link Alina and Mr. the Darkling, which is going to be how he next works at manipulating her only maybe (hopefully?) this time she learns how to manipulate back. this guess made mainly possible by @alskaichou complaining about reylo comparisons being made in the alarkling tag, but even without that fostering, they’ve both still got a claim and he was able to beam instructions to her non-verbally at the end of this book. So, we’ll see. (we’ll also see if that’s even a reasonable comparison to make. based on two movies and one book worth of knowledge, it doesn’t seem completely insane? but I’m not playing with the full deck yet for either narrative.)

when I was tagging an earlier post, I saw that baghra’s last name is apparently morozova. like the stag. did she fuck the stag????

is Mr. the Darkling Ilya Morozova? Or was that his daddo?

did baghra fuck a stag

have fun laughing, I’m going to church

[legalist217]

sixth january 2018

dear @alskaichou

tara what the fuck did i just read and why did it kind of blow my mind

i’m far too old to actually be impressed by young adult novels now. surely that’s the case. but my, what a stack of unexpected feelings that made me feel. 

i look forward to mightily resenting how the remaining narrative fails us.

yours in suffering,

liz

p.s. for someone who just shotgunned a book, i sure can’t read titles for beans

[legalist217]

So I’d made my choice. I’d pushed my power down and held it there each day, with all my energy and will, without ever realizing it. I’d used up every bit of myself to keep the secret. 

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, p. 181

this photo was taken during a week where I wished I looked as tired as I felt