King of Scars

I'm sorry, but this is just dreadful. I read some of it, but... I can't do this. As much as I liked Nikolai in the original trilogy, he couldn't save this. Leigh Bardugo found success among the trendy YA of today, but lost me as a reader. Yes, I know, I am also sure she is crying into her pile of money about that, it must be difficult to hear I won't be reading any more of her books. So let me also tell you why. The thing I loved about the first trilogy was the worldbuilding. I like the pseudo-Russia and the powers and the Little Palace and the monsters and shit. That was what got me into this. I also really hated a lot of the characters and just wished for the author to do better at that. What she did was... go for the exact opposite with the Six of Crows duology. Yes, every person who isn't me absolutely freaking adored that one. I found the setting boring and the characters the perfect example of juvenile “UWU, a bunch of quirky weirdos together”. They were caricatures and totally unbelievable as a band of for realsies badass gansters. Like do fuck off, actual criminals won't fear a bunch of teenie bopper cartoon characters. So... I quit in the middle of the first book, which is supposedly not a great idea, as like one of the POV characters is from there. Whoops, my bad? Now lets just talk about this one. I do not expect every single character to be a nice person, and that's perfectly fine. I love a good asshole (don't quote me on that, I don't want to be known as the person who said that), but I want them to be known and accepted as assholes. Authors, please. STOP making bitchy, rude, horrid female characters seem like they are not only right to be so, but adored and treated like they are perfect little cupcakes for being abusive to everyone around them. First [b:A Deadly Education 50548197 A Deadly Education (The Scholomance, #1) Naomi Novik https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596909044l/50548197.SY75.jpg 75543174], now this? Now some of you will be like “but ma'am, why are you saying that about female characters???”. Because male characters are regularly called out for this shit and we STILL pretend a cunty female character is yaaaas kweeeeen. Somehow people are stupid. Will I have to read through one more scene of Zoya being absolutely shitty and yet everyone falling over themselves for her? We all know she will end up with Nikolai and not change, so like. Just stop. Nina is annoying. Look. I know. Nina is fat. Which is... representation? Okay, but do we really have to mention it a million times that she does indeed like eating sweets? We all know what fat means and what you generally do to be so. I do eat a lot of stuff, candy included and I'm not skinny. Do you have to go there and do the whole “and Nina would never say no to a second slice of cake”? That sounds almost mean. Another piece of representation that went tits up is Nina being bisexual. Her boyfriend dies in a previous book, which is obviously a sad thing. At the beginning of this one she is absolutely wrecked by it still, perfectly understandable. So much so she drags his dead body through countries and hears his voice in her head. But like look, there is a girl riding a horse in men's clothes. Boom, bitch, a love interest. So what was that big fuss about the dead dude? Liking a woman is so different from liking a man that it's like romantic trauma doesn't matter if you just go play the other team. Again, so woke it's turning kind of horrible and hurtful. Besides, it's totally wasted writing, like what was such a big drama about Dude dying if she can just hop over like it's nothing? Another similarly tonedeaf moment. At one point Nina and her totally uninteresting companions (cheerful black girl and emo white boy with one arm) run into Girl in Dude Clothes and her similarly attired friends. To which Nina, traumatised by death, thinks ‘“oh, these oppressed girls, at least in my country women can be soldiers, that's so good”. Excuse me? They are FORCED. Grisha children are snatched from their families. Sure, supposedly not anymore, but I distinctly remember in the original trilogy extensively talking about this. How Grisha kids could never see their families again. They got abused into using their powers better. They were forced to hunt for special magical animals to have amplified powers. Then they became birds in gilded cages, who were just tools at the disposal of the rulers. One of the big plot points was the protagonist making herself sick with suppressing her powers to be allowed to stay with her friend! Hey, even the normal army had women. Surprise, they were all miserable and then they died. HOW EQUAL. HOW FREE. Why do people pretend that being forced into the exact same kind of slavery, pain and death as men is so much more free for women? What I've read of this was not great. I didn't have fun and I wasn't inspired to go on. It was just so... what sells now. In an uninspired way.