Shadow and Bone

Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy Book 1) by Leigh Bardugo

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I came to this while watching the Netflix series. What I liked about the Netflix series, I liked here, namely the Russian/Eastern European fantasy setting, which is so different from the English urban fantasy noir setting/English medieval setting. I also liked the main characters who seemed to be engaging in their peasant stereotypes

On the other hand, the book has two drawbacks. First, it is largely cliche. The main character is a beautiful girl who thinks she's homely but has a secret power that makes her the One. Naturally, once she's discovered, she's elevated to the world of high culture where she is still the honest but scorned girl. She learns how to use her art. Conspiracies are afoot.

Second, this is not a complete book. It's a rather short section of a much larger novel. The book is barely starting when it ends and we are then invited to get the next book. I don't consider that fair, but it has become very common.

Nonetheless, this is a fun read.

One interesting difference between the novel and the series - apart from the Crows not being in the book - is that the main character, Alina, is depicted as Hsu in the series, but not in the book. This allows the series to play off of the trope of racial discrimination, rather than boring old class discrimination. It's almost as if the series is telling us that being a peasant is not a big enough drawback unless there is racial discrimination in the mix.

What that says about our age is for the discriminating reader to determine.