Lin's Perspective

_{This post contains SPOILERS. The sections with spoilers will be made evident, but please read at your own discretion.}

THE BOOK

The novel is set in a world of magic and darkness and centers around an orphan girl named Alina and her best friend Mal. Alina is thrown into a dangerous quest to save her homeland, and the people she loves and cares about, whilst she discovers her own hidden power along the way. The book is an epic fantasy adventure that has been turned into a Netflix original TV series.

For me personally, overall the book was a 4-star read. It was very enjoyable, easy to read, to follow the storyline, and understand the magic system.

I found the protagonists Alina and Mal to be okay. As for Shadow and Bone, we don’t see much of Mal or his growth, and I would have liked to see more of him. The main lead Alina was rather childish at times, which was quite distracting and irritating to a degree. The circumstances of living in a world of war and despair, however, cause one to mature relatively quickly, so I would have expected more from her behaviour. Anyhow this may be just me.

We have a main villain character, the Darkling, whom we don’t know much about at least at the beginning of the story. He is mysterious yet charismatic, and for me, I secretly root for him… yes, it might sound a bit controversial and unexpected, but I actually really like this character, and I am curious to see how things will develop in his direction as I move on to the next books in the series.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Would you hate me if I told you that I was more excited and hooked on the idea of the darkling and Alina rather than her and Mal?? Or am I going mad? haha, I just loved the idea of this type of possible romance and I wish we had more of it.

Considering Alina and Mal’s relationship was pretty much nonexistent, I found it hard to comprehend that he loved her and vice versa. The lack of emotional depth made it difficult to accept their relationship as genuine and meaningful. Yes, I am aware of the fact that they grew up with each other and have been through a lot, and probably feelings have developed somewhere along the way, however, we see nothing of this which makes their love for one another simply unbelievable and hard to comprehend.

The Darkling on the other hand had a natural affinity with our main female character and I was all for it. I loved their dynamic, the whole vibe of them being together felt more right than Mal. Do not get me wrong I really like Mal, but for some reason, I cannot picture him with Alina.

THE TV SHOW

The TV show entered my life before the books did haha, needless to say, I enjoyed every bit of it. I think that they did an amazing job at casting the people for the respective characters. They fit so perfectly with the way the author has described them. The special effects were really good as well and the fact that producers incorporated Six of Crows was a stroke of genius in my opinion. It just goes well with the storyline and everything just fits together. I am yet to finish the series, but regardless of what turn the show and the books take I’m confident I will enjoy all of them.

Ben Barnes is just perfect…

What are your thoughts on the book and the TV show? Which one did you enjoy most and why? What was the thing that did not work for you and wish was done differently?