Re-read review!

Okay, so this review is post having loved this series for a good few years + coming off the high of watching the show for the 3rd or 4th time (seriously, it's amazing. Go watch it!!)

Most of me re-reading this book is me just making shocked faces at how close the adaptation got. I read this book in 2013 or 2014 and haven't read it again since, so I honestly could not remember a single thing except like, a few key moments like

Spoiler

the stag

. This meant I enjoyed the show first entirely as its own thing, unsure of how much it deviated from the original book. Coming back to the book and then seeing just how close it was was a fantastic experience, and only made me love the show even more. These scenes were now playing out in full color in my head!

It did mean I was making comparisons of the book to the show now though, instead of vice versa. I grew to appreciate the small changes the show did in order to give Alina more agency, in all aspects of the story. I loved Alina in the books, but in the show she was a lot stronger of a character early on.

I still absolutely love the book though, probably more so than I did when I first read it. I didn't originally read the series close together at all, left me mildly disinterested after the end of book 1. (Books 2 and 3 sealed my love for Bardugo and this world though, and I do still think these are stronger books in the series). Rereading this book made me appreciate more what it contained though, and from early on Bardugo did a fantastic job of strong, distinct characters. Her world is also an easy one to sink into from the first page, though the visual imagery from the show that I know have in my head really aids the textual imagery of the book.

Overall, I can't wait to continue my re-read (I want to see Nikolai again!) and hope I get to see more of this story on screen soon!