King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo – 4/5

“The monster is me and I am the monster.”

– Leigh Bardugo

Book: King of Scars

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Published: 29th January, 2019

Genre: Fantasy

LGBTQIA literature: Yes

Publisher: Orion children’s books, an imprint of Hachette books

Series: The Nikolai Duology

Pages: 528

My rating: 4/5

Blurb:

FACE YOUR DEMONS…. OR FEED THEM.

THE BOY KING. THE WAR HERO. The prince with a demon curled inside his heart. The people of Ravka don’t know what Nikolai Lantsov endured in their bloody civil war and he intends to keep it that way. Yet with each day a dark magic within him grows stronger, threatening to destroy all he has built.

Zoya Nazyalensky has devoted her life to rebuilding the Grisha army. Despite their magical gifts, Zoya knows the Grisha cannot survive without Ravka as a place of sanctuary – and she will stop at nothing to help Nikolai secure the throne.

Far North, Nina Zenik wages her own kind of war against the people who would see the Grisha destroyed. Burdened by grief and a terrifying power, Nina must face the pain of her past if she has any hope of defeating the dangers that await her on the ice.

Ravka’s king. Ravka’s general. Ravka’s spy. They will journey past the boundaries of science and superstition, of magic and faith, and risk everything to save a broken nation. But some secrets aren’t meant to say buried, and some wounds aren’t meant to heal.

“Most women suffer thorns for the sake of the flowers, but we who wield power adorn ourselves with flowers to hide the sting of our thorns.”

– Leigh Bardugo

Review:

Leigh Bardugo can take my heart and shred it into pieces and I won’t stop loving her. She is a freaking queen and I would like to live my life reading and re-reading and forcing people read her work.

Author appreciation aside, King of Scars is the book one of the Nikolai Duology and it not only continued the phenomenol writing style of the author but also gave us more than we bargained for.

We couldn’t expect any less from Leigh Bardugo though!

King of Scars had everything. It had the stunning world of the Grisha as created in the Grisha Trilogy and also fed our hunger of another heist as fuelled by the ending of the Six of Crows duology.

It was like a perfect mixture of the right things from both the series with an extra pinch of special ingredients of its own. The sarcasm lives on!!!

We see a comeback of so many characters. We obviously have the Grisha triumvirate and the twins supporting Nikolai. Adrik and Nadia also bless us with their presence. The star for me however was Nina Zenik and my love for her will never end.

And just when we thought that Leigh Bardugo has given us everything, enter the newest and the most interesting characters and plots to the Grishaverse.

I’ll talk about these in the spoilers but let me finish my review before I end up chugging all the words I know to describe how amazing the author is.

The book is very gripping and the writing is amazing as always. I had low expectations since Six of crows was like the best thing I’ve ever read and I didn’t know if it could be overpowered.

Though KOS isn’t as brilliant as SOC is, it has maintained the standard of the brand that the author has set. There are a lot of unexpected additions that do not fall easy on your heart.

The book is from multiple POV’s and did I act all snoopy and read ahead to find out what happens to one character instead of reading what’s immediately after it? Hell yeah I did.

One thing I’ve noticed in all her books is, she makes sure to take something or someone away from us. It’s like she has to even out the stupefying effect of an ingenious work of art that you’ve just read by punishing you. Why Madam Leigh? Why???

Okay my review has turned into more of an ‘Declaring my love to the author’ kinda thingy.

I am rating the book 4/5 stars because I don’t think anything can beat the miracle that six of crows duology is.

“If men were ashamed when they should be, they’d have no time for anything else.”

– Leigh Bardugo

Spoiler alert:

First things first, there were some subtle calls into the current relationship status of a few peeps from the past books. There are two freaking married couples. David and Genya, Nadia and Tamar are married. It melted my heart when I heard that.

Nina stole the show tbh. She can listen to the dead. She can speak for the dead. She can channel the dead to fight for her. I’m sorry but how can you not fall flat for this woman who inspite of being broken and turned inside out, manages to embrace everything that she is?

Jarl Brum being a complete piece of shit and experimenting on young Grisha women, getting them impregnated and used to parem while acting like it’s the right thing to do was so infuriating. I’m glad Hanne doesn’t take after him.

Also, the shadow fold is not completely gone. It’s mainly because the darkling is a clever, clever man who planted a lot of faith in some old flames that could do anything for him and also put some darkness inside Nikolai.

Elizaveta stole his body and tailored someone else to be in his place for the burning. So the amazing funeral in the finale Shadow and Bone was with two fake bodies.

So, even though Zoya sabotages her evil plan to bring the Darkling back through Nikolai, he manages to escape into Yuri. So the darkling is back. We’re in for a treat in Rule of Wolves.

A classic Leigh Bardugo thing is to kill someone who has become dear to our heart. This time, Isaac took one for the team. He died for his king and for his country but with a terrible feeling of being betrayed by someone he fell for and someone he thought had fallen for him. May his soul rest in peace.

“You are strong enough to survive the fall.”

– Leigh Bardugo

Coming to the characters:

Nikolai Lantsov: My beautiful, beautiful Korol Rezni, Nikolai Lantsov has grown into such a mind blowing character in King of Scars. I absolutely love him. He’s mine. I knew he would fight off the monster and he does. He loves Zoya, clearly but now in a very strategic move is engaged to Princess Ehri Kir-Taban. I can’t wait to see what we have in store for him and Zoya in part II

Zoya Nazyalensky: Someone who has grown immensely through the series inspite of all the people bringing her down is out breathtaking Zoya. We learn her back story a little of how she was about to be married off to an old man for money and is saved by her aunt. Zoya has her priorities right. She has feelings for Nikolai but she won’t admit because it’s not strategically correct. She lives and breathes for Ravka. She has a new amplifier and she is fiercer than ever before.

Isaak: When Zoya and Nikolai go missing, a highly calculated plan to tailoring Isaak to look like Nikolai is put into place by the remaining members. He is the kindest soul and falls in love with the princess of Shu Han. Turns out, she is an assassin and she kills him. She kills the sweet Isaak who braves himself and enters the position of the King of Ravka to prevent war.

Nina Zenik: My favourite of the crows, our bone queen, the modified Grisha can listen to the dead. She made me cry with all her emotions. She vows to speak for the dead. She also stages a heist of her own and she gets people on board. They hit them head on and escape with the girls with a lot of interruptions but they do succeed. I love her so much more now.

Hanne: Our new addition to the fam, Hanne is a grisha hiding her powers. She has the natural intentions to help and save people in distress. She also is Jarl Brums daughter and is very very brave and lovely. Nina helps her discover he true potential and with her help, frees the girls being exploited. They take a vow to save all the other girls together. I ship them y’all! What should we call them?

Yuri: The desciple of the Darkling, Yuri is now the darkling. Now, that’s a promotion. He was so adamant about his devotion for him and everyone thought that was because of insanity or he was just seeking attention. Turns out, he has always been in on the plan of Sankta Elizaveta all along.

Sankta Elizaveta: She is so blind in love just like Genya and Zoya and Alina for a a while were for the darkling. She and Yuri together make an evil plan to bring back the darkling and they kill Juris in that process. It’s terrible. But Zoya has killed her and her evil love can stop. Also, as much as I love insects, her being a beehive and being bees and wasps and using it as a murder weapon is low-key creeping me out.

Santa Juris: He was so brave and bold. He was a dragon and he taught Zoya about how the Grisha would be before – without boundaries. He is someone who shows tough love and makes sure his death also counts. Even though he broke Zoya’s amplifier in the first place, he also becomes her amplifier in the end. I can’t wait to see Zoya become a dragon.

“It’s not exciting if nothing can go wrong.”

– Leigh Bardugo

What I liked about it:

1. It has a phenomenal writing (classic Leigh)
2. It’s a great addition to the Grishaverse
3. No disappointments, whatsoever
4. Fast read
5. Gripping
6. Amazing ending
7. Powerful characters
8. Lgbtq plus literature

“You’re late,” said Zoya. “I’m the king,” said Nikolai. “That means you’re early.”

– Leigh Bardugo

What I did not fancy:

1. It’s a duology and the agony in waiting for part two is killing me
2. I think I’m in love with the author and I don’t know how to express it and I know it’s bad but now that I am already in love with her, I can’t really do anything about it and it sucks, big time.
3. My stomach hurts because I was so in awe of the ending that I couldn’t move and my bladder almost explode

“Everyone mourns the first blossom.

Who will grieve the rest who fall?”

– Leigh Bardugo