Demon in the Wood

#0.1 The Demon in the Wood ★★★★★
#1 Shadow and Bone ★★★☆☆
#1.5 The Tailor ★★★★★
#2 Siege and Storm ★★★☆☆
#3 Ruin and Rising ★★★★☆

This story is marked as #0.1, and it is certainly a prequel story, but I'm not sure if it would've had half as much impact on me, had I read it before finishing Ruin and Rising. On its own, this is a sad, haunting story about a sweet little boy, on the run with his mother, seeking sanctuary and finding none.

After finishing the main trilogy, however, this story becomes so much more: it's a story of how the Darkling came to be, the moment of his villain origin story's beginning. It puts weight on why his name is so closely guarded (and why it means so much to him in Ruin), on how far his relationship with his mother came over the years (or should I say, how far it fell), and on why he so desperately wanted to create a safe world for the Grisha.

Where Ruin at times damaged his character arc for me, this story repaired some of that, and made me love the Darkling a little bit again. I enjoyed this short tremendously, and for the first time in a while, found myself wishing for more time with precious Aleksander.