Ruin and Rising

This is the third and final installment in the original Grisha series, and as much as I enjoyed / was intrigued after that first book, it was unfortunately all downhill from there… I was determined to finish it though, mostly because I am very much interested in reading Six of crows duology, and it takes place some years after this trilogy in the same world, so I wanted to read them in order, but now I think it wasn’t necessary… will let you know for sure after I read that first book… but back to the actual review of the big finale…You guys… I am sooooo disappointed… because a lot of my thoughts are spoilers not only for the previous books but also for this one, I will share as much of it as I can without many details and then we shall dive into all the spoilery parts :) unfortunately after a pretty good start with that first book… at least I thought it was decent, with a lot of potential, the second one was mostly boring… unevenly paced, with interesting scenes happening inbetween a long stretches of blah… this third one was worse… it suffered from the same pacing problem and even though there were some surprising twists and turns that saved it a bit from it being an utterly miserable experience for me (more about that in the spoilery part) it still was only 2,5 stars for me… there was a lot of build up to what I was expecting to be an epic battle at the end and it just… fizzled out :/ I never really liked Alina as the main character… I sort of liked / tolerated her in that first book, but I was not a fan of how her journey unfurled in the sequels… she was very whiny and undecided, changing her mind all the time… I never quite understood why all those guys couldn’t resist her, but ultimately I think the one she ended up with was the best choice for her (again, more about that below, in the spoilery section) the ending felt rushed and even though I liked the direction it went, the details could have been handled much better… ok, that’s all I can say without spoilers, so now let’s dive into the more interesting parts….....SPOILERS ABOUT THE WOLE SERIES, INCLUDING HOW IT ENDS.....Because I have a lot of thoughts and they are all quite chaotic, I will try my best to at least put them in points of some sort… ;)#1 the writing style - there is a lot of potential here, and I am hoping that the Six of crows duology will be better… especially when it comes to secondary characters and some witty dialogue parts, I am crossing my fingers I will enjoy her later books more… I also wished that we could saw some other perspectives besides just Alina’s… especially since she wasn’t the best main character… I would have loved to be able to see inside the minds of some other people…#2 Alina - like I said, I wasn’t her biggest fan as the main character… she’s whiny and undecided, going back and forth between “I just want to be a normal girl” and “I am a powerful Sun Summonner and I want more power, give me the amplifiers” not to mention her indecision between “I love Mal and only him, let’s just be together” and “the Darkling is the only one who can understand me, because we are alike with our powers” AND “I should agree to Nikolai’s proposal and rule as a queen by his side because it’s best for Ravka” GAH!!! just make up your damn mind and stick to it… she constantly changed her mind and it grew old pretty quickly… the same thing goes with her powers… she couldn’t summon her powers on her own at the beginning (only with Darkling’s help) until she realized that it was her who supressed it when she was a young girl so she wouldn’t have to leave Mal in the orphanage and after she remembered that it was magically unblocked just like that *snaps fingers* her powers in general are just weird, as in the way she handles it… because it’s either she struggles for weeks or months to learn to do something or she just does it at the first try :/ the more I got into the story, the more annoyed I was by her…#3 Mal - out of the three guys that were interested in her, I’m glad she ended up with Mal… I didn’t have that many problems with him as some other readers appeared to have had… I don’t think he wanted to see her powerless, but I hated that he suffered, although not as much as Alina, with the case of “I want to be with you but it will be better for our country if we won’t be together, cause you are destined for better things” ugh… and don’t even get me started on him being the third and final amplifier… it was an interesting idea, but not really executed very well, at least in my opinion… not to mention him being brought back to life after Alina killed him to access bigger powers to defeat the Darkling… I thought that bringing people back from the dead was almost impossible and not really possible to access by all Grisha, but maybe I misunderstood stuff :/#4 the Darkling - he was a really good villain, mostly because you could not only understand his motivation but also agree with his point of view… don’t get me wrong, he was still brutal and ruthless, killing without hesitation or remorse, for what he believed to be necessary reasons to achieve his goal… and mostly because of that, I really would have loved to get his perspective in the books… he feels this connection to Alina and sees her as his opposite and equal, someone to balance him out… at least I’m assuming that’s why he’s so obsessed with her and convincing her to join him… the ending of his story is very disappointing, but I will get into more about that a bit further down…#5 Nikolai - hands down my favourite character in the whole trilogy, the bastard prince of Ravka, originally introduced to us as a pirate captain :) he’s very smart, utterly charming and clever :) I loved him and will probably at some point pick up the duology all about him… mostly because I am very interested how he will deal with what he experienced with being changed by the Darkling into sort of a monster… he’s left with scars and darkness inside him… alongside Darkling he’s the most interesting character in the whole trilogy and again, I would have loved to get his perspective… especially because he’s so charming but also calculated and always thinking of how to best use all that is available for him, including people and their powers… I could understand why he wanted to seek an alliance with Alina because of her powers, but couldn’t really understand why he liked her as a person… I’m hearing some opinions that apparently Zoya is a potential love interest for him in his own story and I can understand that one so much better… I’m not sure if it’s true so don’t quote me on that, but I would love to see those interactions… ;)#6 the ending - like I already mentioned, the whole series had a start full of potential that never really went anywhere… the sequels were uneven and disappointing, but not as much as the every ending of the third one… I assumed we were building towards this epic finale / battle and what we got was… *sighs* Alina, Mal and a very small group of Grisha and not very experienced soldiers facing the Darkling and his Grisha soldiers in the Fold… and don’t even get me started on how magically and out of the blue some Grisha came up with how they can hide themselves with some trick with the sound that I still don’t understand… not only they could hide from the Volcra but they were also able to communicate with each other even if they weren’t close to one another… I was rolling my eyes so hard at this… not to mention that just like Alina and some of her tricks, they were able to pick it up very quickly… I liked how the Darkling was connected to Morozova and the idea that Mal is the actual third amplifier was interesting, if it would have been handled better… but Alina killing him to defeat the Darkling and then being slammed with additional power for it to immediately disappear was… weird… it goes to other regular people, all across the land as we later find out, and lots of people get the power of summoning light… what’s even more weird, all of them know immediately how to use it :/ regular people without any Grisha training right away know how to wield this new and completely unpredictable power and they can vanquish the Fold… there was some serious eye rolling at this point… and then Alina picks up a Grisha dagger and just kills the Darkling… I was just as surprised as he was that this is how his story ends :/ he deserved a much better ending, and I don’t mean by that, that he should have lived, but this… this whole ending was like watching a firework going up in the sky, when you follow how it ascends and you are waiting for the big boom and then… it just never happens… *sighs* the official word is Alina died during the battle when in fact she and Mal, now both of them without powers, go back to their home to open up an orphanage… it was all very disappointing and blah and I wanted and expected more from the big finale of the trilogy…Like I mentioned, this was a series with a good start and lots of potential that unfortunately fizzled out along the way… I am hoping that since these were her first books, that the future ones are better… I expect to pick up Six of crows within the next few months, so I will let you know what I think then ;) although as much as I saw mixed reviews about this one, I’ve heard nothing but praises about the sequel duology… fingers crossed I will love it :)

The writing is excellent, but the story and the characters falter.The beginning is slow. Alina is hiding. She’s lost the strength of character she developed over the first two books, never to fully regain her inner strength. The Apparat is hiding them and trying to control Alina. He’s a weak antagonist. The Darkling and the world outside the caves is worse than ever, but that’s off stage. Alina is going to hunt the firebird, but that adventure doesn’t begin right away. When Nikolai returns to help her, the story begins in earnest, and he’s charming, witty, and injected action back into the story. The later half of the book works better than the first half.For me, and I realize that many readers will find Mel a heartthrob, he doesn’t live up to the potential I saw in the first book. The Darkling still has power over Alina, which ads some tension to the story. Alina’s choices seem more like the middle book of a trilogy.The romance gets settled; however, there’s a Deus ex Machina wrap up that left me unsatisfied. I felt Alina took the easy way out.In YA fantasy, romance is mandatory. I usually ignore that part of the YA genre because the outcome is always predictable with little variation. There’s a pattern to these romances, and Ruin and Rising follows the safe path, which is a shame because the ending could have been much more powerful.

I don't hate trilogies as much as I hate the last books in them. I always feel sad and let down because bad things always happen and things aren't as exciting as the build up. With the Grisha trilogy? I don't really feel that way, I feel pretty satisfied with it.Ruin and Rising starts off a few months after the last book left off, with Alina weak and underground with the Apparat and his faith soldiers. But she needs the third amplifier and she can't just hide underground with the Darkling having free rein in Ravka. As she digs deeper into Morozova's past, she finds out more about her connection to him.I'll admit it, this trilogy has never really had a plot and this book is no exception. Alina goes from one place to the next, and the next. It's a lot of doing and more character driven, with lots of side characters and strong main characters instead of following a straight forward path.I love the characters so much, especially the Darkling. Oh man, the Darkling. He's so bad, so very, very bad. But he does it so well. Him and Alina have such a back and forth, they are literally opposites. Light and dark, good and evil. They are they only two of their kind of power and they both know it.I hate myself for wanting them to be together but I won't lie and say that I prefer Mal. I thankfully didn't hate him as much in this book, really I thought him and Alina were nice together but I still think he's kind of bland. Especially when yet another great guy- Nikolai, exists in this book but Alina is still not interested in him the way I wish she was.Alina is strong, and she's been strong even when she was weakened. She comes through when you would think she would back out and I love that. Also, friendships! Strong female friendships with multiple females. Genya is still fierce as hell despite everything she's been through, and Tamar is still badass.This series is just heartbreaking at times, it's dark and angsty but still hopeful somehow and I think the ending of this just shows that. I love this series. It actually took me longer than I wanted to finish this book because I just didn't want it to end, and I didn't want to say good-bye to these characters but I had to. But this book was so satisfying and for once I'm not let down at the end.