CONTAINS HUUUGE SPOILERS!!!
Ruin and Rising
By: Leigh Bardugo
GrishaTrilogy #3
5 stars
The capital has fallen. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army. Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives. Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.
Omg I just realised... the series starts with Mal and Alina at the orphanage at Kermazin and it ends with them at the orphanage too!! 😭😭 So poetic!
I am broken. I am dead. I can just feel the book hangover washing over me. I feel almost numb. I love this series. I love these characters. Please read it. This trilogy deserves so much more hype. Leigh Bardugo is so very talented.
I can't write a proper review right now, but just know that this book made me sob so hard. I had tears streaming down my face. I did not think that scene would affect me so much. I know it was necessary, and I know it was meant to happen, but I still feel a void. The Darkling is just... such a complex character. Those 2 pages where he died, I just sobbed my heart out. When he touched the tears on Alina's face and said "someone to mourn me" I was bawling my eyes out. I know why he had to die, and I know that it was necessary and I don't want him to not have died. But, seriously an author that can make me feel those emotions and sob like that is to be commended. I will remember you Aleksander 💔😥 He was like say my name one last time and I just felt this ache in my heart. Then, later in the book when Alina is at her's and the Darkling's funeral... I cried again at what she said.
"Aleksander," I whispered. A boy's name, given up. Almost forgotten.
Also, after these 3 books, I can finally say that I ship Malina. The first and second book I was so annoyed by them. But, in Ruin and Rising, I finally understood and now I love their love.
When evening fell, the boy would bring the girl a glass of tea, a slice of lemon cake, an apple blossom floating in a blue cup. He would kiss her neck and whisper names in her ear: beauty, beloved, cherished, my heart. They had an ordinary life, full of ordinary things - if love can ever be called that.
I don't love Mal as a Bbf, but I will stand by Malina, even though their journey was frustrating and I was yelling at them to fricking communicate. I love them now though.
I stiffened, feeling suddenly, painfully aware of every wrong thing about me. Jutting bones, too-small breasts, skin pale and dry as an onion. Then he cupped my cheek, his thumb tracing my lip. "You are all I've ever wanted," he said. "You are the whole of my heart."
I still am and forever will be enamored by The Darkling. Not just because of his hotness, because he is one of the most amazingly complex characters I have ever read about. This scene, I was like broken but like omg at the same time.
"There will be nothing left," I whispered. "No," he said gently as he folded me in his arms. He pressed a kiss to the top of my hair. "I will strip away all that you know, all that you love, until you have no shelter but me." In grief, in horror, I let myself break apart.
I love this trilogy. Seriously. So much more than I ever thought I would. I urge everyone to read it, I don't know if it's just me but I just love it so much. I have the biggest hangover know and those 2 pages are replaying in my mind over and over and over. The Darkling is literally the best character I ever seen, so layered, so HOT and so compex and soooo morally grey (although some say downright evil). I just... I can't.
Anyways, I'm going to miss my characters so much. I'm kind of scared to read Six of Crows and delve into a whole new world without my precious characters (Alina, Mal, The Darkling, and *sniffff NIKOLAIIIII). I hope it's as good as everyone says it is!! I'm excited for King of Scars though, I need more Nikolai. That's it for this review. Hope you enjoyed it!!