My take: Alina didn’t grow enough throughout the series to have a different ending. And she acknowledges that that doesn’t feel great. She does go for all the power-and it gets taken away. First, I think Bardugo kind of sidestepped that accusation by making it totally not up to Alina. Which is literally all of them.ĭid Alina make herself smaller for Mal? Is the ending therefore problematic? The discussion floating around about this is really interesting. I felt like I was standing behind Alina in a concert, craning my neck to try to get a glimpse of all the other characters I cared about more than her. The narrative just kind of wandered around, occasionally picking up stakes and then forgetting they’re there. The Grishaverse is such a fun world, and it’s sad to leave it-but that doesn’t mean the journey/story was at all pleasant. I closed the final book and felt emptiness. As far as this particular ending: most seem to love it or hate it.

The series ends in a whimper, but many YA series seem to feel that way-Maas, Clare, Cashore, even Sanderson sometimes. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction-and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling’s secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.Īlina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova’s amplifiers. Now the nation’s fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.ĭeep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Grishaverse book 3