The third book in the “Grishaverse” series and the last in the Alina Starkhov trilogy. There’s a lot to like about this book, but there are parts that frustrate me too. While I enjoyed this trilogy on the whole, I’m still mulling over how it ends, and although I’m glad that I still have four more books to go in this universe, it’ll be nice to follow different characters going forward.
After taking an incredibly hard hit in Siege and Storm, Alina has gone to ground. She’s accompanied by a few factions of allies, but she knows not everyone survived their last encounter with the Darkling, and the fates of some of her friends are still unknown. With the Darkling more determined than ever to harness her powers, Alina sets her sights on an ancient, immensely-powerful creature as her only hope of defeating him.
There’s a line in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead where the lead player says, “Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go when things have got about as bad as they can reasonably get,” and that’s kind of the theme of this book. Things get dark. And I know there was a tertiary character who got disemboweled in the last book, but there are moments here where I had to pause in my reading to go, “Yikes, that’s horrific!” In addition to the general angst, moral complexities, and literal army of darkness, we’re treated to some additional body horror. There are tense moments when you’re not sure if some of your favorites are going to survive, or if they’ll be able to live with what they have to do to get through it.
We also have Grisha lore and historical world-building galore, getting much deeper into Morozova, the amplifiers, and the whole concept of Grisha tampering with forbidden power. A fair amount of this ties into the present – while it all hangs together with an internal consistency and some of it really adds to a few of the characters for me, I find other parts a bit too convenient. For the most part, the trilogy has done a decent job navigating Alina’s Chosen One narrative without going too rote with it, but some of the historical tie-ins here are a little too “and lo, it is as it was foretold” for my tastes.
In the midst of all that darkness and that the nuts and bolts of Grisha amplifiers, though, the book takes time for important character beats and developing relationships. I appreciate the moments of characters reckoning with who they are, as well as characters relating to one another. There’s a slow-burn romance that pays off here in a really nice way, and I like getting a more complex view of characters who’ve previously had less dimension.
Ending a story, especially an epic, is tough. It’s really hard to wrap things up, to give the hero a victory that feels earned with well-laid groundwork but doesn’t feel too expected or predictable. The question of how much the hero has to sacrifice to save the day, whether there can be a happily-ever-after in store and who will make it to the final pages intact. For my money, lots of series stumble on the finish line. As for Ruin and Rising, I’m still thinking about the ending quite a bit, so it’s memorable at the least. But I also feel really torn on it, with parts of it feeling thematically resonant while others don’t sit well with me. More on that another day when I can go into spoilers.
As I’ve said, the Alina trilogy is definitely much better than three books to hurriedly get through so I can get to the Crows. The story is gripping, the characters are engaging, and the tangled morality it explores is compelling. I’m happy to have read these books and excited to see Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising adapted for the Netflix series (especially since I’ve enjoyed the changes they’ve made for the show – will they ultimately take things in a direction I find more satisfying?) That said, I’m also super excited to be leaving Alina’s story and moving onto the Six of Crows duology. Give me all the Kaz, Inej, and Jesper action, please!
Warnings
Violence, disturbing imagery, sexual references, drinking, and strong thematic elements.
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