This book started beautifully. Leigh Bardugo has an excellent handle of language and description when it comes to setting up a story. Her concept was fascinating, pulling from Russian folklore, which was a refresher from Western centric mythologies and stories. Riordan has already dominated the Greco-Roman angle, so this was a great idea! However, after looking through some other reviews I found that her Russian influence was poorly executed. She butchered parts of the language and did not use the correct endings for characters’ names (apparently Russians feminize the last names of women, so the main character should have been named Alina Starkova instead of Alina Starkov). There was also an issue with the term Grisha, which is the word Bardugo assigns to her magical warriors. Grisha is a diminutive of the Russian name Grigory. What I’m saying here is that Grisha means Greg. She literally named her super beings the Gregs. Since I am not Russian myself or a Russian scholar or someone with prior knowledge of Russian culture these issues didn’t stand out to me, but I can see how they would be annoying to another reader. I still chuckle when I think about the fact that Grishas are basically called Gregs. I also found Bardugo’s sporadic use of Russian words and names distracting. Nothing disturbs a reading like having to stumble over an italicized word you can’t pronounce with no translation or context. Pulling from another culture is fine, but a writer needs to provide the right amount of context for their less educated readers. (Review Review Review)

See full review here: https://aggietheskeletonreads.wordpress.com/2016/07/11/review-shadow-and-bone/