Name: Ruin and Rising
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Square Fish
Date published: June 2017
Genre: Fiction, young adult, fantasy, romance, adventure
Pages: 417
Rating: 4/5
This review contains major spoilers.
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.
- From Goodreads.
The continued worldbuilding in Ruin and Rising was inventive and I was always fascinated to learn more about the world. The descriptions of setting and places and the technology and architecture was always interesting to read. I thought the author was very creative when inventing new parts of her world.
I loved the power struggle between Alina and the Darkling, how their interactions played out and built up in tension. Their relationship was written so well and was so engaging to read. The build up over the three books of the war between them really came to a point in this book and was very satisfying to read.
Something else I liked was that Alina made firm friends and made herself a sort of found family within her allies. It was something more light within the darker moments of the book, and I enjoyed reading about it.
However, I still did not really enjoy Alina's relationship with Mal, although he had improved from the last book, I still did not feel the desire for them to be together and thought they might have been better as friends. I did not like that Mal often seemed to make decisions for her, Alina should have been able to make more decisions for herself. Often it felt like she was pulled and pushed around when she should have had more opportunities to make her own choices. The emphasis on their relationship made it feel like Alina deciding what she would do after everything was over depended on who she would end up with, which cheapened the grander story and themes slightly, and I think it would have been better if the decision was more about what she wanted to be after the war and what kind of life she might make for herself. I would not have minded if she did end up with someone romantically, but with Mal it just felt a little forced.
I also did not like that Alina was still made to feel like her power was bad, even when it meant so much to her. I liked that she had great power, and although I knew it was important that she did not go too far with it, I did not like the black and white nature of the implication that she would either become a villain like the Darkling or become powerless, there did not seem to be much chance for her to find a place somewhere in between.
It did not make sense to me that Mal was the third amplifier. The other amplifiers were great mythical creatures, so the fact that a person was one just felt strange and out of place. Although it was explained, it still felt like a circle had not been completed properly. Perhaps he could have had the ability to amplify, like how one of the Darkling's skills was to amplify other people's power, but it just did not fit for me that Mal was supposed to be an amplifier like the other creatures. Maybe I am biased because I am not fond of Mal as a character or love interest, but it still just seemed like it should have been the firebird to me. I did not really enjoy the way the story focused on the amplifiers generally in the book, as I found the other aspects of the story more interesting. Aspects like the dynamic between Alina and the Darkling, Alina developing as a character, resisting the pull towards the dark and learning to use her power, coming into her own, learning from people like the Darkling and Nikolai, but learning to make the most of her own strengths too, to become a wise, powerful and good person on her own, and I wish Leigh Bardugo had focused more on those. The story should have been about Alina, and I felt like towards the end it focused too much on Mal when it did not feel like it was meant to be his story.
While I did not like everything that happened and was not satisfied with every part of the ending, it was still enjoyable to read, the writing style was exciting, the plot made for a very addictive story, and I would probably happily read the book and series as a whole again. The ending was well-plotted and while I was not completely happy with how everything wrapped up, did not like everything that happened and would have liked some things to be done differently, it was clearly planned out well and well written.
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