Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo.I wear Darkling black.
Here in the Shadow Ocean,
singing to harpies.
Everyone loved this, so I figured I might eventually read it. Then Jenny said it was great & that I would really like it, so I knew I would definitely get around to it. Then when I saw her on a panel on Sunday with Marie I figured it was time. Hey guess what! It is really great, especially the lush worldbuilding of the thing, which you know I'm a sucker for. This is the first book in the Grisha Trilogy, & it is set in a very Russian-influenced world. Now, usually when I say "Russian" I mean sort of "an Eastern European soup" or "you know, that sort of fairy tale"-- like Tender Morsels-- but in this case I mean tulip bulbed towers, kaftans, fur hats, all that. The book is largely concerned with a flavorful magic system that resembles an off-kilter alchemy-- the Small Science. Oh it is...pretty neat. I dig alchemy, I dig YA, I dig primordial darkness, I dig dyed-in-the-wool worldbuilding. This was a great read.
(Map of Ravka by Keith Thompson.)
