Leigh Bardugo - King of Scars

Leigh Bardugo – King of Scars

3/5 Stars

The people of Ravka don’t know what Nikolai Lantsov endured in their bloody civil war and he intends to keep it that way. Yet each day a dark magic in him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built.

Zoya Nazyalensky has devoted her life to rebuilding the Grisha army. Despite their magical gifts, Zoya knows the Grisha cannot survive without Ravka as a place of sanctuary and she will stop at nothing to help Nikolai secure the throne.

Far north, Nina Zenik wages her own kind of war against the people who would see the Grisha destroyed. Burdened by grief and a terrifying power, Nina must face her past to have any hope of defeating the dangers that await her.

Ravka’s king, Ravka’s general, Ravka’s spy. They will risk everything to save a broken nation. But some secrets aren’t meant to stay buried, and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

Considering my unhealthy obsession with Nikolai Lantsov and my never-ending love of Nina Zenik this book should have been everything I was looking for and then some. Parts of it were. Parts of it gripped me and kept me up reading. However, a lot of it I felt was rushed, or too much to fit in one book. I feel like all of the things going on with Nikolai, and Nina’s little adventures could have been split into two entirely different books. Jumping backwards between two unrelated paths was tricky to follow, it genuinely felt like I was reading two different stories.

Nikolai. Our favourite pirate. No. Privateer. King. He is written as a character we are to be obsessed with. He is charming and arrogant and everything we all love despite all signs saying run. Yet he is also kind and wants to be a good king. Enduring what he did during the war, and the effects it is still having on him afterwards displays the strong king that readers can not help but feel for.

Zoya has grown on me. Not enough for me to actually like her character, but enough for me to read her point of view and not roll my eyes repeatedly. Understanding her family life and what she endured as a child gave me some insight into why she is the way she is which could be considered a bonus. I am mildly curious how the changes in her abilities are going to manifest in the next book. How much is she going to change because of this?

As previously mentioned, Nina’s point of view would have been better off in a separate book entirely. I haven’t yet read Rule of Wolves, I’m assuming she is going to tie in with Nikolai and Zoya at some point in that book otherwise her presence in the series is redundant. There was way too much going on in this story with no visible ties to each other for it to make sense. The mentions of Matthias and him being very much included in her journey made her point of view worth it though. In Crooked Kingdom we didn’t really get much closure of his death. It was randomly thrown in there. I liked that we got to see how his death affected Nina and how she is coping with that as well as the aftermath of taking the jurda parem. It was really nice to catch up with her. I’m hoping she is a lot more relevant in Rule of Wolves.

The mentions of Alina tying it in more closely to Shadow and Bone were a nice touch, but honestly the book probably would have read exactly the same without them. She was never a standout character for me.

The twist at the end ruined the book for me. I’m trying to remain spoiler free; we’ll see how long that lasts. Without saying too much, it made the events of Shadow and Bone pretty pointless. I wish the twist could have been something else entirely, something new.

To be able to write as many books as Bardugo has in this universe takes skill. To create so many characters and personalities, with individual backstories takes talent. I’d be a fool to try and argue that Bardugo’s writing style isn’t incredible. Perhaps this type of story just aren’t for me anymore. Maybe I’m moving away from my YA fantasy obsession.

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom remain my favourite stories from the Grishaverse. The Shadow and Bone trilogy is still my least favourite, placing King of Scars squarely in the middle. Who knows, Rule of Wolves might bump it up to favourite if it knocks my socks off.

Which one of the series’ was your favourite? Let me know, I’d love to hear your opinions too.

J x