Thursday, July 3, 2014

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo // My Beloved Motherland!


You know, I've always loved the Middle Ages in Western Europe (I was OBSESSED with it as a kid), but Eastern Europe is really my motherland. It's fantastic to finally read some nice Slavic fantasy! I felt right at home in Ravka.

I'm 100% Ukrainian, and I grew up in a household that celebrated all the holidays in the traditional Ukrainian way. I grew up with Ukrainian folktales (lots of talking animals), and a good bunch of Western ones made to sound more Slavic. Snow White is a Western fairy tale, right? My first introduction to it was through this epic Ukrainian picture book:

Displaying photo 1.JPG
(The publisher's name is awesome: A-BA-BA-HA-LA-MA-HA. Seriously.)

Anyway, back to Shadow and Bone. Leigh Bardugo's world felt so much like the fantasy Ukraine in my head did when I was told folktales as a kid. Every country or culture in our world has their own "structure" for folktales. You know the classic ones from Western lit: There once was an old king and he had three sons (of course, the youngest one gets the girl. WHY?). There once was princess with an evil stepmother. Etc, etc, etc. 
The Eastern ones generally start like this: There once was an old [very old - like grandparents old] couple who really wanted to have kids - but couldn't. Or: Deep in the forest there lived [insert animal].
And there's usually a Baba Yaga (old witch that lives in a house that stands on chicken feet, like this:)
Creds to LiaSelena's DeviantArt page for this awesome work!

My point is - there are things that are inherent to Slavic folktales, just as there are things that are inherant to Western ones. And Leigh Bardugo makes Shadow and Bone just feel Slavic, even if it doesn't have Baba Yagas and talking animals. There are little things that make it feel so comfortable and homey for someone like me who's been raised with this stuff.

Firstly, the Ravkan words are almost all near-legitimate translations with real Slavic roots. I don't think Leigh Bardugo is at all Slavic (the bio in my book says she was born in Jerusalem), so I highly commend her on going that extra mile and creating a language that feels Slavic, sounds Slavic, but isn't Russian, Ukrainian, Polish or whatever. It's just some Slavic language. THAT'S AWESOME. And a ton of work for someone who isn't even from a Slavic background. WA.
(I found this post where she talks about creating the Ravkan language. I totally picked up on a ton of stuff she talks about in that article!)

By the way, as she mentions in her article, kvas is real:
As she says, in the books it's a stand-in for vodka, but in reality it's not alcoholic. It's fermented rye bread.

Also, kefta is clearly taken from the word kaftan, which is basically a Ravkan kefta
 

I love how the words are sort of  the same but not exactly. This gets me SO EXCITED.

Okay, enough about the worldbuilding, which you can clearly see I ADORE. 
On to characters.

I think Mal is inching his way towards a spot my Literary Crushes list. We'll see if the next two books put him on it. I'm sort of hoping they do. :-) The Darkling, on the other hand.... everyone talks about how he's so sexy, so desirable, so yummy. To be honest, he creeps me out. I have no interest whatsoever in bad boys, and don't really see why some people think that they are so attractive - in fact, they scare me. Nice boys all the way!
But as a Character - the Darkling's pretty great. I think it's commendable that he creeps me out so much, since that means he's pretty well written.
Alina is fantastic, and I'm looking forward to seeing her development in the next two novels. 

The writing itself seemed.... simple? No, that's not it. I don't exactly know how to describe it, but let's just say I felt like I whizzed through the book. I don't want it to sound like a bad thing. It's just I felt like the story was just washing over me and I barely gave any effort to actually reading it. Maybe it was just such a contrast to recently-read books like Gone With the Wind. 

Anyway, it was an excellent book and I was SO excited to finally read some Slavic fantasy. I can't wait to read the next two books, especially now with all this hype about Ruin and Rising! I'm feeling so behind.

~Sophia

If you've read Shadow and Bone - what did you think? If you haven't - have you read any other Slavic fantasy, and do you have any recs for me? Or even any other non-Western fantasy - I'd love to read some!

7 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

    I love this trilogy. And this author. And yes!!!

    I haven't read other Slavic fantasy that I know of (but now I'm totally open to it and give it all to me). :))))))

    In general, this book was well-written and put together (I'm trying not to say anything about the other books because I've already read them!!! but as an entirety the trilogy is brilliant.) I'm not saying I'm obsessed but I am now and I don't have that many people to talk about this with. :)

    Yes, I agree the Darkling is super creepy but I like his character a lot because of that reason (and possibly other reasons but that's spoiler-y territory for you right now). And Mal is okay in my book. He's not my favorite but again, I enjoy his character and I understand why Alina loves him or whatever it is. (I can't explain anything else right now!!! darn it! it's all because I'm infatuated with a character introduced in the second book.)

    Yay! I hope you enjoy the trilogy and it satisfies (because some people got mad and I don't understand). You'll have to let me know. :)

    (sorry this is random all over the place and I haven't read many posts via your blog yet. I stumbled here through Beautiful People and saw you were reading Siege and Storm and saw your author list and Bardugo and I clicked things and found this post! yay! random! now I feel weirdly strange and creepy. :P)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haha don't feel creepy! It's all good. I actually just finished the series, even though it still says I'm reading r&r.

      I'll be writing a combined review for the second and third books sometime in September :( I have too many things scheduled now, but be sure to check it out then! And we can talk about everything! I still adore Mal, even having met Nicolai. I will ALWAYS and consistently fall for the nicest boys. It just happens. And yes, Nicolai is adorable and funny but Mal - he's like Peeta. Guys like that will infallibly get my heart :)

      It DEFINITELY satisfies. I don't know what other people are talking about?!

      Anyway, sorry this response is a bit late - blogger never emailed me about a bunch of comments - so I hope you read this and choose to stick around. :)

      Also, thanks for such a long comment! Those make me happy :D

      Delete
    2. I am definitely looking forward to reading what you have to say about both Siege & Storm/Ruin & Rising! :DDDD

      I can see why you adore Mal. :) But Nikolai has stolen my heart! *swoons* (which is odd because just like in Hunger Games, I understood why people preferred Peeta but I was infatuated with Finnick, who isn't really a love interest to the MC)

      :D

      Delete
    3. Hey, at least you're consistent - you fall for that the happy-go-lucky boisterous fellows. That's cool. :)

      Those are the guys I totally want as friends. WE WOULD HAVE THE BEST PARTIES TOGETHER!

      Delete
    4. Yes! And I see it like I want to be friend with Mal or Peeta type characters because they would be sweet and loyal and kind. :D Plus baking...

      Delete
    5. I don't know if you still get notifications for this comment, but...
      I finally posted about the other two Grisha Books! - It's up, if you care to read my post... :-)

      Delete

Book discussions make the world a better place! Write me a comment - I respond to each and every one, I promise. So check back!

(YES! I LOVE TAGS and I do them! So tag away! But no bloggerly awards, though, like the Liebster or the Sisterhood of World Bloggers. Thank you!)