I just finished the Grisha Trilogy in over the course of two weeks. While I enjoyed a lot of it, I certainly prefer the Six of Crows duology (which I happened to read first – oops). But I have Thoughts™ about that ending. Spoilers below the cut. For those of you here for a review, I would give it 4 cups of tea.
Am I wrong or did everything seem to indicate that Alina should die? Because I read Six of Crows first, I honestly treated her as a doomed character through the series. And it really appears as though Leigh was writing her as such. She’s called a martyr throughout. Her confrontation (and almost death) at the end of Book 2 would have been amazing foreshadowing for a final battle that would result in both the deaths of both her and the Darkling.
But the ending we got (I know, late to the party as usual) was incredibly unsatisfying for me. Honestly I can envision it clearly – the same type of battle, Alina’s power (totally fine with killing Mal off, btw) eating away at the Darkling and Fold. There can still be an After chapter about creating Summoners, Nikolai’s concerns, etc. The ending just felt like a pulled punch.
Still obsessed with Six of Crows, tho.