Siege and Storm

Siege and Storm is the second book in the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and it is the dictionary definition of middle book syndrome. This book brings so little to the table it is genuinely a Herculean feat.

The story starts out a few weeks following Shadow and Bone's ending, with Mal and Alina on a boat bound for Kerch, ready to start a life away from the clutches of the Darkling, and bide their time to return and stop him. This plan is put out to pasture almost immediately however, as they're tracked down almost instantly to the inn that they've been staying at, and recaptured.

The Darkling now has the ability to summon creatures using his powers, and the Grisha are even more under his thumb than ever following Alina's escape from him. As he's transporting Alina back to Ravka, with the help of a pirate he's hired, he tells her that they're going to be getting her another of Morozova's amplifiers, this time from a mythical sea-serpent, which is a shock to both the reader and Alina, as Grisha have historically only ever had one amplifier.

With the help of the pirate working for the Darkling, the serpent is tracked down and brought low, but then the pirate betrays the Darkling and helps Alina escape from his clutches, stealing the serpent from him in the process as well. Alina then kills the serpent, taking her second amplifier, but this time it's fully in her control.

This all happens in the first 60 or so pages of the book, so by this point, I was ready for a book that was absolutely jam packed with action. But, alas, that wasn't what I was to get from this book. Instead, Alina returns to court to mope about and pretend to lead the Grisha for about 250 pages, while dealing with some of the most irritatingly dumb relationship problems that I've had the misfortune to read for a while.

Her and Mal go through around 3 arguments in this book, and all of them are easily avoided if they just spoke to each other. But no, that would require these characters to have an ounce of spine to them for even a second. Communication issues are a very real thing in relationship, but they're almost never enjoyable to read about, instead just being this really banal piece of storytelling that's frustrating to read.

But hey, at least we get court politics, which were a highlight of the last book, but again, no such luck. Alina takes almost no action of worth throughout this book, instead allowing everybody else to be a driving force behind her in court. This just felt like a carbon copy of the last books court drama, but much more rote and tedious. We keep getting the excuse that she's hunting for the last of Morozova's amplifiers, but that goes absolutely nowhere for the entire book.

But of important note is just how mediocre of a protagonist Alina actually is throughout this book. She, for some mental reason, is still hung up on the Darkling. Why? Your guess is as good as mine. Apparently Alina is red-green colourblind, so the massacre of innocents is A-ok to her. What this leads to is this bizarre love-quadrangle between her, Mal, the Darkling, and Nikolai, but we all know who'll she end up with by the end. If I'm being honest, I could have dealt with an Alina/Mal/Nikolai triangle, but the books insistence that she would have any continued interest in the Darkling is fucking baffling, as by this point, his only redeeming quality is being attractive, and even that's becoming less true as he uses his power more.

But the worst part of this book, by far and away, is that by the end of it, I was genuinely confused why this series was a trilogy. The majority of this book was an utter waste of time and energy, and were I not positive that there's greener pastures ahead in the series, I wouldn't be continuing after this shift show of a book.

And then there's the ending to the book. I hated it. It was so insanely boring, and made the rest of the book even more pointless, as it effectively wiped the slate entirely clean, leaving me confused as to why there even needed to be a middle book. On top of that, there was a major asspull that I really disliked, but I'm going to refrain from going into too much detail because of spoilers

My recommendation is going to be contingent on whether or not book 3 is good, so I'll edit this review after having finished that, but this book just wasn't it. 2/5 stars, with it being saved from being 1-star just by virtue of how enjoyable the opening to the book was.

EDIT: After finishing Ruin & Rising, I can fully recommend this book. This was a hiccup, not an indication of things to come ^^