King of Scars

First I'd like to say in Leigh Bardugo we trust and I still adore her and her work, no matter what this review will say.

But this was a MISS.

I was a mix of scared and excited to read this book because I thought S&B and SoC ended the whole grishaverse in a good place. I didn't think it needed any additional content, but I was also very curious about where all the OG characters from the first trilogy ended up.

I did like things about this book, I'm not going to lie. Nina's whole storyline in Fjerda was pretty solid. Seeing her doing good work for the Grisha there while also coming to grips with losing Matthias, mourning him, and her changing powers was all compelling. I...don't really know if I like where it ended, but the storyline itself was good. I would've enjoyed a whole book on that story alone, really.

As for Os Alta, love the banter and relationship between Zoya and Nikolai. The old favs coming back were great as well. Tamar/Nadia and Genya/David being badass married couples healed something in me for sure. The monster sticking around with Nikolai and threatening Ravka's process, the need for an heir, the Apparat hanging around, all of these things were piling up to become a very good politics-based story, which is good because that's what I was expecting going in.

And then...they brought the Saints back to life?? Or rather discovered that a select few never died? I'm gonna be honest this whole storyline seemed very goofy and unnecessary to me. It made the story take a very fantasy-esque turn that I feel like it just didn't need? The original S&B trilogy was where we got the big magic and Saints and cults and all that...this just felt so unnecessary. Like there was enough conflict in the story without shoe-horning in living Saints halfway through the book.

And to have it end by bringing the Darkling back to life? Please be so serious right now. Bringing the Big Bad back to life NEVER ends up working how you want it to plot-wise and it genuinely made me roll my eyes. The plot is THERE you don't need to bring in the Darkling for extra conflict. It just felt so unserious to me. If she excluded the Saints and the Darkling I would've rated this book much higher.

This book got a higher rating because it had good character moments in it, built on characters that I already love, but if it hadn't had that, I would've rated it much lower. I will not be picking up the sequel.