SPOILERS! And keep your eye out at the end for my take on the sweet roll from Shadow and Bone!
"Wouldn't it be nice if we only got what we asked for?" Tamar said.
After spending months underground, regaining her strength after attempting to sacrifice herself to kill the Darkling, Alina and her friends decide it's time to break free and return to the surface. They quickly find themselves back in the company of Prince Nikolai and with the promise of West Ravka on their side, they become optimistic.
The Darkling is one step ahead of them, though, with more monsters and abominations to do his bidding. When he turns one of their own into a nightmare, Alina makes one last effort to find the final amplifier and ensure their victory over darkness.
But what do you do if the only way to win is to give up everything you've fought for?
"Na razrusha'ya. E'ya razrushost." I am not ruined. I am ruination.
REVIEW
SO... I stated a lot of my dislikes about Siege and Storm in my last review, and I knew there was a lot I wanted to see from this final installment. I can only say this: I wanted to like Ruin and Rising, I really did. But I did not like it. I adored it. It was so much more than anything I could have hoped for-- every little loose end was tied shut and I feel very content with how it ended.
I'm not even sure where to begin! I'll try to keep my thoughts as cohesive and organized as possible, but finishing an entire series always gets me too excited to properly focus. I actually find it's much easier to write a slightly negative critique of a book than to write about something I really loved (I can't just write AHHHHHH, even if that's how I'm feeling).
I suppose I will start where I left on my Siege and Storm review: the Darkling. I wanted to see his depth in the pages because I knew it lived inside of the character Bardugo had created. When I learned his real name I thought, finally! It may be simple, but he was lonely. Even if we weren't given complete detail on his entire life, we learned this much: any person he had cared for over his eternity was gone and the only thing that remained with him was his power. So why shouldn't he continue to seek out the only constant he's ever known? And finding Alina was more than just finding a pawn to gain a kingdom, he really thought he found the only person in the universe who could identify with him. Can we really blame him for doing what he thought he had to do to bring her to his side? (Yes, actually, yes we can, cause he killed like a TON of people). Regardless, I am so happy that we saw his story treated with the care it deserved-- no one is evil for the sake of being evil.
Okay, on to another point made in my last review: MAL! What's funny is that there I was going "it will take a lot of work to make me like Mal again" and meanwhile Leigh Bardugo was over here like oh, don't worry, I gotchu. He got his act together quickly and I found it hard to stay mad at him, especially because I realized you can't grow without making mistakes, and that's what the second book was for him; his moment to make mistakes. He was still cold and curt at moments, but it was because he thought he was doing the right thing by distancing himself. They say "if you love something, let it go" and poor Mal was trying to do just that. And once I understood that, I knew he had earned my respect back.
"In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach."
As for the entire plot of this book: I thought it was the most well planned, written, and paced installment of the entire series. I didn't see the twists and turns Bardugo threw at me, and each of them broke my heart in a different way. The Darkling consistently staying one step ahead of our protagonists every single time they formed a plan made me feel the same way Alina did-- hopeless. Nikolai becoming a shadowy beast kicked me in the gut. Mal being the final amplifier stabbed me in the back. His death ripped my heart out; especially when it stole Alina's powers instead of fortifying them. And yet, somehow, Alina still managed to destroy the Darkling-- not with anger or hatred guiding her, but instead with grace and respect. I remember reading Shadow and Bone and thinking that Alina had yet to show me what was special about her as a heroine, but I think in the moments where she honored the Darkling's last wishes, I finally got her.
"I screamed as power flooded through me, as I burned, consumed from the inside. I was a living star. I was combustion. I was a new sun born to shatter air and eat the earth. I am ruination."
From the beginning of the novel, I had absolutely no idea how it could possibly end. Even Alina, through the whole book, made it clear that defeating the Darkling was only one of her problems. Alina and Mal losing their powers was a bit of an icy shock, but I definitely believe it was necessary. They couldn't be with each other if they remained as they were-- they both knew that from the beginning of the novel-- and we, as the readers, knew it was the only way it should end.
"There is no end to our story."
BIRD ROLLS
"I still have the roll," I offered lamely, pulling the squashed, lint-covered lump from my pocket. It had been baked into the shape of a bird to celebrate the spring flocks, but now it looked more like a rolled-up sock...We did actually eat the roll. It was dusted with sugar and tasted just like the sweet rolls we'd eaten as children. When we finished, Mal said, "That was a really good roll," and we burst into another fit of laughter.
If you can or cannot tell, this is actually a quote from Shadow and Bone. Since I finished both Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising before this Wednesday's bake-a-thon, I figured why not do a recipe based on the entire Grisha Trilogy? (This is a lame excuse for the fact that I just really wanted to make these rolls and there weren't many-- if any-- other options from the last two books.)
The recipe I used was for regular bird-shaped dinner rolls, but since the book described them as sugar-dusted and sweet, I tried to shake things up a little bit and add some of my own personal flare.
Here's how mine came out!
They're a lil chubby and I love them!!!
To make them sweeter, I sprinkled a bit of sugar on top after brushing on the egg/milk wash. I also switched the dried currants to mini chocolate chips which I happened to already have in my pantry (and I think they're much yummier). This recipe seriously came out SO good-- the bread is soft, chewy, and the sugar adds just enough sweetness without overpowering it. Plus, they're just so stinkin' cute.
If you didn't know, I bake something from a book every week and post live updates on my Instagram. Tune in to @picklesandpages on Wednesdays to check it out!
NEXT READ: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
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