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Ruin and Rising is the third and final book of Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse Trilogy.
The capital has fallen.
The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.
Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.
Deep 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. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.
Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. 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. 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.
Just a heads up, this review is going to have spoilers for possibly the entire series as I wrap up my thoughts, so if you want to avoid those... You have been warned :D
This series... Was a series. And this book... This book was a wrap up of said series.
I think the best way to sum up this book is that it was a whole ocean of potential, but the very core of it just acted as a whirlpool that would not let that ocean flow.
What is that core? Quite simply, Alina. And Mal.
It is so confusing how the creator of the Grisha lore, of the complexity that is the Darkling, of the gloriousness of Nikolai, is also the creator of Alina and Mal. The concept of them as orphans trying to find a place they belong and this plot always seeming to offer Alina a place yet never really, and Mal feeling like he's losing his place, has potential. But it was always carried out in the most roll-your-eyes way possible.
Alina was cardboard. Mal was clay that just got shaped however the plot needed him at the time. Like, seriously, Mal, Alina has felt alone and lost in her power for the last three books, why is it only now when Bardugo is trying to solidify your ship that you're suddenly like "let us be there for you"????
When every aspect of the plot revolves around Alina and every acting party wants her to be something for them... It just killed things. So hard. Because it never made sense why anyone was interested in her except her power. And if a character has literally nothing driving them in the plot but their power... I get that was supposed to be the point, that everyone just wanted to use her, but there has to be strength of character behind the face of that. Otherwise she's no different from a magical rock everyone wants control of. Granted, she did get more and more agency as the books went on... But only really to fulfil a hunger for more power or to get to safety.
I don't know. When a character's only motivations are "power" and "safety", it just feels like there's a big something missing. Even when she wanted to kill the Darkling, it seemed more so she could stop always having to run and less because of helping Ravka. Because aside from Bardugo randomly telling us that Alina wanted to help Ravka in S&S without ever showing real moments where she felt the desire... It just wasn't there.
However, the book is enjoyable enough because of everything outside of Alina and Mal.
The Darkling is a complex villain, where his motivations make a lot of sense. He's human even while being monstrous. There's so much pain that he has experienced and seen, and he also shows the dark side of long life. Now if his obsession for Alina could just be more clearly about finding someone else with long life rather than acting like Alina is anything worth obsessing over... But seriously. When he asked Alina to use his real name, my heart just kinda broke. He's really a lost little boy who saw too many horrors ;-; Not that that makes his actions excusable or anything. Just love him because of the fact that there is humanity in him and behind what he does.
Nikolai is a lovable prince who truly wants to do what's best for his country but has had to put up walls and shields because A - royal life and B - constantly being degraded for his existence. He is also a hurt boy who needs all the huggles, and then the Darkling GOES AND TURNS HIM INTO A MONSTER. My poor baby ;-; It was so hard not to dive straight for his series after the Grisha trilogy, but alas, SoC and CK first.
The supporting cast was great, even ones just introduced in this book, though it really felt like the whole Saint thing could have been expanded as well as its connection with the twins. I also really hope we get to see more of them in KoS and RoW, like the young boys. Though we won't be seeing Hershaw ;-; He shall be missed.
I faintly recall guessing that Mal would be a descendant of Morosova, but I kinda brushed off the thought when we found out that the Darkling was. Low and behold... They just both were. So I can say I called that?
But speaking of him being a descendant... Nope, that ending is a cop out. That ending makes no sense. I hate the ending. There was no indication that getting all three of the amplifiers could give Alina's power to everyone else. There was no indication that Mal had any way of coming back (how would they indicate that? No idea, but it's still such a major cop out). It just feels like such an absolutely stupid way of wrapping it all up.
Also, yes, Alina being able to use the shadows was set up, and her being able to kill the Darkling using that made sense, but... The entirety of it was just so painfully anticlimactic. Maybe the big emotion carried through was supposed to come to some attachment to Alina and Mal and that's why I just didn't feel it? Or maybe because I had no doubt that Mal wasn't dead and that everything was somehow gonna end with a happy little bow on top?
I don't know. All I know was it was all so stupid.
Speaking of stupid, it's also stupid that out of all the people Alina ended up with, it was the one who couldn't be with her when she had her powers. Like, I know the message wasn't "she has to be weak for Mal to like her." I know it's more that the power just put them on entirely different fields of play in the world. But it just felt so... squirmy? Forced? Just something about that whole dynamic didn't sit right.
The Grisha universe is interesting and filled with complex characters whose stories I want to explore. It just so happened that the one who the story focused on... Wasn't worth caring about. The entire time I was reading, I wanted to enjoy myself more than I was, but it always felt like everyone else was in their final draft form while Alina, Mal, and the things surrounding them felt like their first draft.
Now I can finally move on to the book everyone actually likes. Still eager for the show since we aren't actually in Alina's head, and the series had some scenes I really enjoyed, but man, I can't see myself ever coming back to this.
