KING OF SCARS BOOK REVIEW | WITH AND WITHOUT SPOILERS 

I completaly skiped the Nina's POV

@@heinemal me tooo

I guess it makes sense that The Darkling is back because they always foreshadowed that he would be redeemed in the Grisha trilogy, but he didn't technically do anything redeemable before Alina killed him. Maybe this duology is The Darkling's redemption story?? Maybe Bardugo is putting more meaning to when The Darkling said to Alina "You and I are going to change the world" and that's how he gets redeemed, but Alina doesn't have her powers anymore so I'm not sure how that would work out or if she'll even be in the next book. I don't sound like it, but I am happy The Darkling is back. I'm just worried that his story will be ruined lol.

exactly my reaction

@@ashleyelisabeth4 honestly, I'm a darkling fan but I didn't think the darkling needed to be brought back. His arc was over, over, over, this is just... Pointless. Like leigh couldn't think of a new villain and just trew him back in the most (in my opinion) ridiculous way. I also don't like how Alina's fate was made completely pointless, the trilogy is my favorite series bc of her and the darkling constant push and pull dynamic and fight against each other and now it just.... What was the point? Of it all? Really

🤣🤣🤣🤣🙌

Seems like she took the idea right from Fanfic 😂

Agreed. I also think she just squeezed more money out of his body with the books. The final scene in ruin and rising will never have the same impact, it just pisses me off

@@nataliafigueredo7126exactly! Whenever I reread ruin and rising I’ll be like “welllll he didn’t actually die”

Lol, me too, it actually makes me sad to say that king of scars felt like a fanfic. i mean, I LOVED the magic system rules and world building around grisha, but now it is just really messy and, as I said, fanfickish(?). Beacause, if this all was possible in the first place, why all the struggle during 5 books? Why make Alina lose her powers?

Yes, I agree. I felt bad for Alina because after all the things she did...he'll just be resurrected? And they have to go through this sh!t all over again?! 🙃

EXACTLY

Fanart all over the internet ruined our plan, I guess 💀

I'm happy that someone else is sad with me

PREACH

My lady, I could marry you for this comment. To me, "nikolai" series is just like the cursed child, we do not speak its name

That certain thing is my absolutely facorite character and I still did not enjoy the way it was done.

"It's good to be home"

@@bibliophage4217 I didn't mind that he was brought back, but I agree that the fact he took possession of Yuri's body was not how I wanted him to return.

He shouldn't have died in the first place

@@bibliophage4217 The Darkling is also my fav character

I am scared when reading Nina's plot. So many things can go wrong and the consequences are extreme

There is actually a Shadow and Bone prequel called 'The Demon in the Wood' that goes into detail about The Darkling's backstory where you learn why he is so detached and the reasoning behind his motives. It's short, but it definitely adds more layers to his character. On Amazon (Kindle) it's only 0.99¢.

What are Your issues with the Grisha trilogy? Are they related to the way the Russian Tsardom seems to be portrayed (positively)?

@@nosferatum791 as another Slavic person, here is a shortlist of the main points that people take issue with, the stars vague indicate my level of frustration with each point (that is not to say I, or they, dislike the series, it simply means that these things are the stuff that comes up while reading the books): ***** Improperly gendered last names. While you could say "Tamar" is Hebrew, other names do not make as much sense. This is, personally, my biggest issue with the book (which is pretty minor but it's an eyesore) is with last names of "Nazyalensky". It should have been "Nezyalenska". "Morozova" should have been "Morozov" since the last names are patronym naming the names of fathers so like Morozov is "Ilya son of Moroz" type thing. It might have been fine if only she was consistent if she wanted to make it based on the mother's side, not father's. The Russian booktubers didn't point it out (like Kopiy Semyon when mentioning Alina I think) so the Russian translation might have fixed that to be consistent. ***the food they eat, the aesthetics- very stereotypical from what other Russian booktubers mentioned (I wasn't paying attention too much to it so I'm sure someone on Goodreads has commented on the finer points). Oh, and I just remembered Books & Waffles made a video on it "Russian Reading Grisha Trilogy" for a video in English discussing Russian history and myth comparison. ** one Russian booktuber (bookspace) pointed out how it was based on the imperial period but the book used "koroleva" (so technically it should have been "tsaritsa"). Pretty minor stuff really but since you asked I thought to point it out. **the "Grisha" thing, it's not too bad but it can be annoying to some. or Ghenya instead of "Zhenya" ? Like I remember watching a video of the author pronouncing it and giving the impression that is trying to mimic Russian convention somewhat, so it's odd that she spelled it wrong. Like, since Genya lived in Ravka, you would think she would spell it according to the Ravkan convention. Idk, Google points me in the direction of Georgia but her last name seems to point to Western Europe... I didn't notice it as much until she tried to pronounce it, take that one as you will. ** kvas being an alcoholic drink (it doesn't have that many degrees. Kids drink it, I remember drinking it as a kid) it just seems odd, it's like a person telling you 'hey, that's soda is now an alcoholic drink in this world' it's like trying to sound edgy for drinking Coca-Cola. They should diversify what they drink, lol. But I guess that's a world-building thing. * the language thing- I overlook this since I can't expect her to know Russian (though the otkazatsya thing frustrated me for a bit, I may have convinced myself that they are named that because "[they] refused [magic]") but since you asked I might as well put that here. On the positive side, the adaptation seemed to have gotten a linguist so there is hope for a fully functional Ravkan language. **also a personal issue with the Grisha books: Aparat and religion, people looked like zombies and the problem is it framed the majority as such. My issue is that it shows how the nobles probably saw people instead of Idk countering by also showing the intellectual and the intelligentsia of Ravka fighting against the king (that just might be me since I'm reading Well of Ascension at the moment, lol.) Like Elliot said in her review of the series, the Grisha series' world-building suffers from being from Alina's POV since we don't really get to see much of the country. This is not to say that the problem is with Russian history shown in a positive light (though it's not if you actually look, the aesthetics seem to try to, but the king and the Aparat are shown in a bad light, same with like the 'peasant's diet' or whatever), it is simply how the author incorporated certain elements and wasn't consistent (like the gendered last names, the rest I don't particularly care that much since it's fantasy). The Russian booktubers still liked that it was based on Russian culture, but they mention things that were kind of odd, 'like Russia but in an exotic light' (I think bookspace said that). It's an interesting world, but when compared, these things come up. The whole 'what about other Slavs' as you accidentally pointed out is another topic but clearly, Ravka probably doesn't have any other Slavic groups so that's beside the point, the focus is the comparison to Russian culture as I've shown above. I'm still looking forward to seeing where the author goes with her books and how she builds up her world. If there will be separatists that split from Ravka, will there be a religious system of pagan gods that once existed (this is a stretch but I'm still wondering if this could happen)? Will, there be a class struggle, or will Marx be right for once and Ketterdam is the one to revolt (sorry, but had to add that since she started added industrialism as a theme)? Will we get more steampunk *starry-eyed*, Will WWI happen? (since it was more than just Franz Ferdinand, around that time they were on always on the brink of starting a war, it was the militarism, the imperialism, the alliances and the nationalism...) Will there be a World Fair? And so on. I'm going to go now, I am definitely overthinking this, lol.

​@@Heres_To_Music Thank You for Your reply. Just to let You know - I am Slavic myself, Polish of Rusyn/Ruthenian origin (Kamieniec Podolski), so You didn't need to explain the names endings for me, but It'll be useful for other people. I will read everything tomorrow. Hope that Elliot gives You heart :) Ещё рая большое Тебе спасибо за сообщение и pozdrawiam serdecznie :)

He died some months ago

How was it?

@@katelynn1053 believe it or not...I haven't read it yet. Somehow I'm still as excited as a year ago to read it but I just don't start it for some reason lmao.

I did the same...but I wish there was more on Zoya & Nikolai because I fell in love with the characters but I felt the Nina chapters were boring

I feel you but sadly, when this is the closest thing the Americans think they know about other cultures, they'll praise it, eat it up and profit out of it. Leigh could have easily done some good and accurate research about about it and I kid you not I could have respected that. Instead, she chose the easy way out of handpicking what she thinks that sounds cool and changing the rest up to suit her plata. Again, if she actually sat down and accepted something are meant to stay as it is or not actually the way it is if translated into English, I would have respected the decision far better than this. And don't get me started on changing other character's skin just to sound yes, Sound cause that's what POC deserve, inclusive. Zoya was drawn to be white for the longest time and she approved them in her tumblr but now she's Suli with brown skin???? No, just no. Not worth it, rather find another who's actually not a c*nt.

It is a very similar concept as Orientalism. How Middle Eastern cultures were perceived by Western civilisations.

Wait...I also said it was my least favorite. So I think we do agree.

@@ebnovels ugh you loved Zoya and Nikolai chemistry, i can't agree!!!!!!!!!! Ugh, just no.