Book Review – Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

We maaaaaaade it to the end of the Grisha trilogy. I stayed up super late to finish this book while on vacation, and I still feel fairly wrecked. I was so happy to hear that there were more books in the universe, but none of them really feature Alina or Mal, and that makes me sad. So many feelings were had. So many. In any case, without further ado, here we go on the last of the messy adventures in the Grishaverse for a while!

“Yuyeh sesh. Despise your heart.”

“Ni weh sesh. I have no heart.”

Ruin and Rising begins a while after the end of Siege and Storm – and I say a while because I can’t exactly remember the time frame, but I know that Alina is out for a bit between the two books. She’s weak and she can’t summon the light and she’s been taken underground by the creepy monk guy who has turned her into a saint. The monk guy (What in the world was that guy’s name or title? If I cared more about him, I’d look it up.) is holding everyone who is loyal to Alina captive underground to continue to build his sun summoner cult (?? that’s what it was, right?), but Alina knows the fight is above ground.

Because she knows the Darkling isn’t dead. And she knows it because she’s learned a thing or two about his dangerous power, and she has plenty of power of her own.

“Na razrusha’ya. I am not ruined. E’ya razrushost. I am ruination.”

This is the (sometimes literally) explosive conclusion to the Grisha trilogy and I was here for it 100%. SO GOOD.

3 Things I Loved
  • The conclusion to the amplifier plotline. OH MY GOD I kind of saw this coming but it still blew me away. It was just. It was powerful (pun intended hehe) and it was heartbreaking and it was PERFECT.
  • Nikolai. I thought he was dead at the end of the second book and I was WRECKED but then he wasn’t dead! He’s so great. Even when he was a monster, he was still trying not to be, which was the best.
  • Alina and Mal’s ending. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: I’ve never felt that a YA fantasy trilogy had an ending worthy of the series as a whole. But this one did. ❤
  • Dislikes/Problematic Content

    Again… I can’t think of much. Still very white, but not as straight. I was so blown away that I really can’t remember much about problems. If I missed a bunch, please notify me. I’ll be doing a reread eventually too.

    Rating
    • Red = DNF, I hated everything
    • Orange = Ugh, no thank you
    • Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
    • Green = This was good! 
    • Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
    • Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!

    I’ve been saving this. I’m giving Ruin and Rising a BLUE rating, because I loved it and it was so good and I want everyone who even remotely likes fantasy and YA and beautiful writing to read these books. ❤

    What did y’all think of this trilogy?

    Happy reading!

    -A.

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