Going into this I didn't realize this was part of the Grishaverse series. I didn't even know what the Grishaverse was, I'd just heard it mentioned.

But after a couple of chapters it was clear I shouldn't have been reading this (yet I still finished it). There's history, world building and magic systems that are not explained at all and it made reading this very confusing. Honestly, this shouldn't be considered a duology. The previous books of the Grishaverse should be mentioned SOMEWHERE in the description, not just on the back cover as if they're just promoting other books by the same author.

However, I still liked the story and the characters a lot. I just read this because I had heard good things and now I just can't feel the same. I'd only recommend this to people who have read other books in the Grishaverse series, although I'm not sure if you're supposed to read all of them or just some of them because this book definitely has spoilers about the previous books.

Now I'm kind of worried about reading The Six of Crows because I heard people promoting it on pretty much every platform but no one has mentioned anything about the Shadow and Bone trilogy that came before it.