Leigh Bardugo - Rule of Wolves

Leigh Bardugo – Rule of Wolves

4/5 Stars

The Demon King. As Fjerda’s massive army prepares to invade, Nikolai Lantsov will summon every bit of his ingenuity and charm – and even the monster within – to win this fight. But a dark threat looms that cannot be defeated by a young king’s gift for the impossible.

The Stormwitch. Zoya Nazyalensky has lost too much to war. She saw her mentor die and her worst enemy resurrected, and she refuses to bury another friend. Now duty demands she embrace her powers to become the weapon her country needs. No matter the cost.

The Queen of Mourning. Deep undercover, Nina Zenik risks discovery and death as she wages war on Fjerda from inside its capital. But her desire for revenge may cost her country its chance at freedom and Nina the chance to heal her grieving heart.

King. General. Spy. Together they must find a way to forge a future in the darkness. Or watch a nation fall.

I genuinely cannot remember the last time I read a book in one sitting. I think it was probably Chain of Iron the day it came out. I have been in the worst reading slump that has quite literally taken me years to drag myself out of. Now I am out of it and consuming every story imaginable.

I stand by the fact that I would have preferred Nina’s part to be a different book entirely. I would be reading the parts for Zoya, or Nikolai and really getting into their points of view and the main portion of the events, then being thrown back to Nina, who felt wholly unrelated to the story being told. By the end of the book, she was tied in a little more. However, it just didn’t sit right with me for the most part.

Zoya has grown on me a ridiculous amount. I kind of understand why she got the ending she did. For the most part I didn’t like it though. I understand it, but don’t love it. Her growth throughout this book was brilliant, a lot of individuals would have crumbled under the pressure. Pressure in this case just made her stronger and more of a leader than ever before.

Alina’s presence in this book felt very unnecessary. She was brought in, exposed who she was to the Darkling then left again. For me personally, unless she had a pivotal role in the story, I would have preferred to leave her ending tied in the bow it was neatly put into. Her and Mal were not needed in this story at all. It wasn’t theirs.

I think that is all the bits of the book that I could nit pick at. I really enjoyed it otherwise. It was really easy to keep up with. I liked how Kaz, Jesper and Wylan were brought into it. Unlike Alina and Mal, who had been taken out of the equation entirely, the cameo of these three characters made sense. And of course any excuse to spend time with Kaz Brekker is a winner in my book.

Bardugo’s style of writing is one that I can get on board with. Being able to see the story from the points of view of all involved made it a better experience as a reader. It doesn’t leave you wondering. You know where each character is at, how they feel about it, and what their thoughts are on the situation. As a very inquisitive person I like when writers do this. It could be compared to how Brigid Kemmerer writes. Both very similar and something I love and appreciate.

Nikolai being a bastard has been told since we first met him. We knew and had come to terms with this already. Meeting his biological father killed me. Could we have done without it? Probably. Did I think it was very cute and the secret softie side of me love it? Yes. It was nice for them to have that little interaction.

Nikolai and the relationship he had to the monster inside him was a complex one. It was also something as a reader I didn’t know I needed to see. We all have some kind of monster inside of us. Something that we need to learn to control and to use as a strength rather than our deepest shame. Whether it be something physical or a metaphor for something else, it is a feeling most of us can relate to and a lesson we could all learn from in one capacity or another. It was honestly so inspiring. Things such as this is the reason books are so important. Lessons learnt through stories and metaphors are always the most impactful.

Reading any kind of book you’re slightly aware that at some point one of your favourite characters could die, or something bad could happen, and you have absolutely no power to stop it. At some point you just accept this and move on. But I have to be honest, some of the events in this book were a tad too far and I would just like to say they broke me on a spiritual level, and I am not okay. Never trust an author. You may want to. You should not. They will take your favourite fictional people, put them through a blender, and then happily let you read it, blissfully unaware, until you fall upon said page and weep until the pages are wet. You have been warned.

That is me done for the Grishaverse. I’ve got to say after having to make myself finish Shadow and Bone I didn’t have much hope for the rest of the books. I have been pleasantly surprised and proven wrong on every level. King of Scars and Rule of Wolves were incredible. Because of my few irks mentioned first, I could not bring myself to rate this as 5 stars. If I did half stars, it would be 4.5 I promise.

What did you all think of the Grishaverse? Drop me a message I’d love to talk about it with you!

J x