Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

TL;DR magical civil war

TBR #1512, added Mar 8 2016

library ebook (no hold) 8/21/16

finished 9/1/16

I wasn't expecting to get my hands on Siege and Storm for at least a few more months. I figured I'd be reading the physical copies at the library, or that I'd wait to get my hands on more paperback copies since I already owned Shadow and Bone. 

I'd read a Google Play sample of Siege and Storm back towards the spring, so it was really easy to jump back into the story. It was also memorable enough that I remembered the events of the last book without needing too much narrative prompting. 

The story is ... dark. I think it's actually pretty honest, because there's a lot of doubts about what's going on and what their future will look like, and there's a lot of loss as well. It doesn't hold back with the brutalities of a civil war. (... I'm not entirely sure civil war is the correct term for what's going on, but I can't come up with anything else.) 

There's some really good character growth over the course of the book and compared to where they started from. It definitely propels and strengthens the plot and the overall morals of the story. The morals did feel a little heavy-handed at times but that might've also just been me. There's definitely a lot to be said about what's going on around them and what everyone's various choices mean for their future outcome. 

I waited three weeks to write this review. In case you couldn't tell.

This series is definitely ranking close in my favorites to The Lunar Chronicles, which is no easy feat. I'm looking forward to continuing the story and I know I'll probably be sad once I finish. That said, my ebook had a significant preview of Six of Crows at the end, so I know I don't have to leave the world just yet. I'm going to pace myself and not read the Ketterdam books until I finish Ruin and Rising. (Which I already have as a Kindle ebook! My claim on it expires around October 8th so I'll definitely have it finished by then.) 

TL;DR I'm making my way through this series a lot faster than I was expecting, and my only saving grace to that is that it feels so worth it, and there's another series following in its footsteps. Leigh Bardugo is definitely earning her place in my favorites ranking. 

CWs: death, injuries, torture, loss of autonomy, and probably a lot of others I've forgotten. Nothing's really held back. Proceed with caution.