Spoilers ahead!
"Anything worth doing always starts as a bad idea."
Believing that she defeated the Darkling on The Fold, Alina tries to start a new life on the run with Mal. However, running away from her powers and hiding her identity prove to be far more complicated than she originally presumed.
As the Darkling resurfaces with new powers and creatures at his command, Alina makes an unlikely ally in a dangerously famous pirate and his unique crew. Forced to return to her home country, she earns herself a position leading the Second Army-- a position her greatest enemy held for hundreds of years. As threats of war come closer and closer to her home, Alina must choose between her powers and the only person she's ever loved.
"No matter what I said, we both knew the hard truth. We do our best. We try. And usually, it makes no difference at all."
REVIEW
SO...I will not be harsh and say that I didn't like this book, because I don't finish books that I don't like. And I finished this one! I just found that there were some things that, to me, felt redundant, unoriginal, or frustrating. However, even if I didn't like all of the elements, I'm still definitely invested in the characters and their story. I would just like to point out the things that I didn't particularly enjoy and my theories on why the series might have gone in such a direction.
The first thing that struck me was how repetitive it seemed-- one of the first scenes is Mal and Alina being captured by the Darkling. I was like... uh... haven't we seen this happen a hundred times already? I was afraid the rest of the book was just going to be them running away and getting caught over and over and over again. I was happy to see that it was just a quick little hitch at the beginning to set up a big plot twist (Nikolai, baby!). Also redundant was the amplifiers-- I suppose it's not supposed to be redundant because we know Alina's powers won't be complete without all three-- BUT I do think that the three amplifiers should have been mentioned in the first book. Without the previous knowledge of multiple Morozova amplifiers, it seemed like the author was running out of ideas for what should happen in the books and just thought, "Oh! What if there were more amplifiers??" Again, I do think that my first impressions were harsh, because I truly believe Bardugo had a plan in mind-- I just think that if we'd had a bit more of an idea of that plan, it wouldn't have come across as unplanned (if that makes sense??).
Okay, this one might not be a hot take so just sit tight with me for a second.
I hated Mal in this book. I mean, I was fully prepared for there to be some new surprise love interest ("NIKOLAI!!!!" I scream from the balcony) because of how poorly Mal was behaving. All he did was resent Alina for her powers--WHICH SHE DID NOT ASK FOR-- and complain about no longer having a "purpose" even though he had as much of a purpose as any of the Grisha in the Second Army. He was constantly insecure, rude, unsupportive, and selfish. I get it, he was unhappy with the changes happening around him and he had no control over his life anymore. I understand that, but everyone else around him was under the same exact circumstances. He even said to Alina in Shadow and Bone "you belong with me" when she said that she had never fit in anywhere, and it was considered a wildly romantic, swoon-worthy moment; but here he is in book two complaining about not belonging for the first time ever and Alina says "you belong with me" and he REFUSES to hear it! Come on, am I still supposed to root for this guy to get the girl? Not even to mention the fact that he constantly throws his past relationships in Alina's face and then goes so far as kissing another girl in front of her-- specifically, a girl who had bullied Alina since the moment she stepped foot in the Little Palace. I honestly, I had hoped that this would be one of those cases where we realize the first book's love interest is actually trash and we meet a new, incredible leading man who sweeps us off our feet (hello, Shatter Me fans, this comment is for you). It will take a lot of work to make me like Mal again in book 3.
Now, I do want to say that after finishing Siege and Storm, I think I have a much better understanding of why Bardugo wrote Mal in such a way. For this book to progress in the right direction, Alina needed a connection with the Darkling-- stronger than any she had experienced before. The only way to get there was to distance her from Mal, leaving her lonely and vulnerable. That was how the Darkling came to her in visions-- if Mal had behaved as I wanted him to, those visions would have been impossible, and the ending of the book could not have happened. I also believe that Bardugo wanted to make the reader feel as frustrated and disappointed as Alina felt throughout whole book. While reading I kept thinking: Well, why shouldn't she get the third amplifier? Why shouldn't she become as powerful as possible if that's the only way to defeat the Darkling? The more I read, the more I realized I was identifying with Alina's thoughts and emotions. I think that's an example of an incredible author-- it's one thing to read about how a character is feeling, it's another thing to feel it along with them.
"I want to kiss you," Nikolai said. "But I won't. Not until you're thinking of me instead of trying to forget him."
My final point to get across is about the Darkling. I have a bit of a soft spot for him-- and perhaps this is partially because I know Ben Barnes will be playing him in the Netflix series (I am making actual heart eyes as I type this). However, my problem with the Darkling in Siege and Storm is that he seems to have no depth. No one is just evil for the sake of being evil; we all have our motivations and I don't think Bardugo has fleshed his out for us yet. I want more from his character-- I want to know his real driving force because I don't fully believe that he's just looking for power. There's got to be something more to him and I really want to discover that in the third book.
"This time, I didn't fight. I let go of my fear, my guilt, my shame. There was darkness inside me. He had put it there, and I would no longer deny it. The volcra, the nichevo'ya, they were my monsters, all of them. And he was my monster, too."
After finishing this book and, honestly, after writing this review, I think I can say I liked Siege and Storm far more than I thought I was going to. When you really think about the choices an author makes and why they've made those choices, it's easier to enjoy a piece. I appreciate what Bardugo has done and I'm looking forward to the final installment.
"You know the problem with heroes and saints, Nikolai?" I asked as I closed the book's cover and headed for the door. "They always end up dead."
(I did not cook anything for this book as I started reading it after Wednesday and finished it before the following Wednesday! I will be cooking something from Ruin and Rising this week! Stay tuned!)
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: Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
Comments