Shadow and Bone Review

“Shadow and Bone,” a book written by Leigh Bardugo, is a novel that I find to be very good. “Shadow and Bone” revolves around Alina Starkov, a girl who thought herself to be a normal person until she crosses the Fold into a dark expanse of the world created by an evil being, with light hating beasts inside devouring those who cross.
I find the book to be an entertaining read; the plot shifts unexpectedly, and characters change all throughout the book. The book is based on 19th century Russia, with Russian surnames such as Starkov and names such as Vladimir and Anastasia. After the growing popularity of the book, Netflix released its very own TV series featuring both “Shadow and Bone,” and the second series “Six of Crows.”
The only problem I have with this book though is the storyline is very big. I feel that it follows a commonly used storyline: a regular person, with little money, friends, or fame, is living not knowing they are special. Then they find out they are special by doing something abnormal, meet some new friends and a love interest, go on an adventure, meet a villain, get caught by the villain, and sacrifice something or someone. And when all hope is lost, they escape and defeat said villain.
This basic storyline has been used in many popular books and movies, like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, and Percy Jackson. Though, since this book uses multiple characters’ points of view, I couldn’t always know who these parts of the plot would affect.
The big difference is what goes on inside the plot, every book has something that sets it apart from other books, and I feel that “Shadow and Bone” has a lot more emotion and human feelings than other books with this plot line. The characters do not seem to just feel love or hate, they feel happy, sad, depressed, lovesick, lonely, vengeful, and others emotions, which really add to the story’s charm.
In conclusion, I think that the book is a very enjoyable read even though it follows a plot that other books have used.