I've had this on my to-read list for a while and only plunged into it once I was halfway through Six of Crows. Despite all the tropey YA nonsense, I enjoyed the hell out of this book. I might have enjoyed it more if I hadn't started reading Six of Crows first; the prose and narrative are way more refined in Six of Crows compared to Shadow and Bone. That and I'm not a huge fan of first-person pov. Other than that, I still managed to love this story.

The worldbuilding, oh man, it's gorgeous. I love the take on magic with the Grisha and how that plays into the world. The interactions were intriguing and while the plot was kind of predictable, it was still suspenseful enough to keep me digging for me.

The unfortunate faults in this book are that it is a YA novel and leans so hard into those particular tropes that it leaves a noticeable dent. Plain looking girl who doesn't think she's pretty or worthwhile and is deemed to be The Chosen One and gets a glow-up? Check. Handsome guy is actually the villain? Check. Love triangle? Check. One guy in said love triangle is a childhood friend? Check. Bitchy rival? Check. Poor girl experiencing luxuries and stuff for the first time? Check. I could keep going, but probably write a book on its own about it. And while it's disappointing to see so many overused tropes used in this story (even more so when reading Six of Crows first; it's a lot of mental whiplash), there was just this genuine pull from the story that made me want to read more instead of rolling my eyes and chucking it out the window.

I'll definitely read more from this series, mostly for the worldbuilding and the events happening around Alina instead of like... Alina herself. I'm not really invested in her as a character, but I do love the situations she's thrown into and how she reacts because of it. Not the best thing I've read this year, but it was highly entertaining. A bit of an odd scale to balance, but it works nonetheless.