Shop Talk with Leigh Bardugo

I love Leigh Bardugo. She just spouts off wisdom like a teapot, and I always look forward to her events, Twitter chats, livestreams, etc. because I know I'm going to learn something new. It just so happens that Monica Sanz (@MonicaBSanz), Rebecca Sky (@RebeccaSky), Erin Latimer(@ELatimerWrites), and Leah Crichton (@LDCrichton) of the Wattpad4 hosted a Twitter chat with Leigh back in November and I was lucky enough to catch it.

As always, I'm not recapping what happened play-by-play, but instead highlighting what I found to be the most interesting & insightful moments. But... it was a short chat, so this is pretty comprehensive. ;D

Tell us why/how you started writing, and what inspired you to write the Grisha trilogy.

I was born of poor but honest folk... Erm, this is a tough one. Always wanted to be a writer, trick was finishing a book. I had a bad habit of starting strong and then just fizzling out. I needed to find my process (for me it's outlining). I'm going to tell you what EVERYONE tells you, banish perfection! Write a dreadful, messy, shoddy first draft but FINISH. I think we get a little too hung up on inspiration or THE BIG IDEA. The first idea is easy, first act is easy. The trick isn't falling in love, it's staying in love.

a better man | a monster – Fanmix for the Grisha Trilogy

"Why won’t you leave me alone?” I whispered one night as he hovered behind me while I tried to work at my desk.

Long minutes passed. I didn’t think he would answer. I even had time to hope he might have gone, until I felt his hand on my shoulder.

“Then I’d be alone, too," he said, and he stayed the whole night through, till the lamps burned down to nothing.

( listen )

01 // Glory and Gore Lorde
Roughing up our minds so we're ready when the kill time comes / Wide awake in bed, words in my brain / "Secretly you love this, do you even wanna go free?"

02 // Degausser Brand New
Take me, take me back to your bed / I love you so much that it hurts my head / Say I don't mind you under my skin, I'll let the bad parts in, the bad parts in

03 // Medicine Daughter
You could still be what you want to, what you said you were when I met you / You've got a warm heart, you've got a beautiful brain / But it's disintegrating

04 // I Found Amber Run
I found love where it wasn't supposed to be, right in front of me / I'll use you as a makeshift gauge of how much to give and how much to take

05 // No Light, No Light Florence + the Machine
No light, no light in your bright blue eyes / I never knew daylight could be so violent / A revelation in the light of day / You can't choose what stays and what fades away

06 // Tamer Animals Other Lives
But we're all just an end to a simple thing, and it's all you see, and it's all you see / We're just tamer animals

07 // Glass Bat for Lashes
I tried to hold him, I tried for the creed / When two suns are shining, the battle becomes blinding

08 // No Rest for the Wicked Lykke Li
There'll be no rest for the wicked / I had his heart but I broke it every time

09 // Youth Daughter
And if you're still breathing, you're the lucky ones / 'Cause most of us are heaving through corrupted lungs / Setting fire to our insides for fun / Collecting names of the lovers that went wrong

10 // Fish Wye Oak
They who made you, they made me too / Quiet like you, violent like you / I see you there, wild in my dreams / You'll be at peace now, at last from the sea / You will forget eventually the life that you wasted that led to the sea

11 // Lilies Bat for Lashes
I was empty as a grave and ghostless was the air / Again begged the thunder bolt to strike to mark me or else I will die / Oh, the lilies on the hill scented the night / Thank God I'm alive, thank God I'm alive

Ruin and Rising: More like I'M RUINED & NEVER GETTING UP OFF THE FLOOR.

Morozova's Stag.

A photo posted by Tiffany Jyang (@tiffydiffy) on Jul 18, 2015 at 9:29am PDT

Okay, discussion time. While everyone else is getting in a tizzy over Six of Crows (September 29 release date – eeek), I'm still obsessing over the Grisha series. I managed to review Ruin and Rising without giving away major plot points, but as we all know, it's actually impossible – improbable, not impossible – to talk about the third book in a trilogy without any spoilers.

And I want talk about Ruin and Rising because, I mean, it's 422 pages of mind-blowing, soul-killing storytelling. (Just kidding about the soul-killing. Sort of.) (Also, it's been an entire week since I've talked about the Grisha books on my blog, so I figured it was time.)

So, without further ado… SPOILER ALERT. (For all two of you who still haven't read these books.)

Here's what really happens in Ruin and Rising.

Mini-Review: Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Ruin and Rising (The Grisha #3)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication date: June 17, 2014
Rating: ★★★★½

Summary (via Goodreads):

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction – and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.

I don't know how to review this book. I can't stop thinking about it. Ruin and Rising left me wordless and reeling. Here's what happens when you read this book: Your heart pumps faster. Your body stills. Your throat clenches up. You gasp and cover your mouth at some parts. You cry and try not to screw up your face at others. You laugh one minute and you're somber again the next.

This book – this series, really – is a rollercoaster that I want to ride again and again until I can understand exactly how Leigh Bardugo put it together. She is uncannily good at teasing out every single emotion you could ever imagine, spinning a web of subtleties and gray areas until you're not sure what to think. You love a character something fierce and you question them with the turn of a page. You want to mourn and you want to sigh in relief and you secretly maybe want to find fan fiction that brings all of your favorite characters back to life. (Moi? Why, I would never.)

Everyone becomes a more intense version of themselves: the Darkling becomes ever more tragic. Mal becomes… truer, somehow. Steadier and more sure-footed. Alina becomes fiercer, stronger – and not just more powerful, but more demanding of what she wants and, maybe more importantly, what she needs. Nikolai manages to take "charming" to the next level – but also he becomes tangible in a way that he hasn't been before. He becomes human. He becomes real. And that's not even the whole squad. So many stories. So many motivations. So many histories that are hinted at, but that we'll never fully know (until Leigh Bardugo writes the epilogue to the epilogue, obviously).

I've been replaying words and events from this book in my mind for days and days. And days. (Really, it's been weeks if we're being technical.) I keep repeating things like "I CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS BOOK" and "WHY LEIGH BARDUGO WHY" and I'm probably driving her crazy with my every-other-day tweets about how I'm still crying over these frickin' books. Can't stop, won't stop. Couldn't stop if I tried.

Mini-Review: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Siege and Storm (The Grisha #2)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication date: June 4, 2013
Rating: ★★★★★

Summary (via Goodreads):

Hunted across the True Sea, haunted by the lives she took on the Fold, Alina must try to make a life with Mal in an unfamiliar land. She finds starting new is not easy while keeping her identity as the Sun Summoner a secret. She can’t outrun her past or her destiny for long.

The Darkling has emerged from the Shadow Fold with a terrifying new power and a dangerous plan that will test the very boundaries of the natural world. With the help of a notorious privateer, Alina returns to the country she abandoned, determined to fight the forces gathering against Ravka. But as her power grows, Alina slips deeper into the Darkling’s game of forbidden magic, and farther away from Mal. Somehow, she will have to choose between her country, her power, and the love she always thought would guide her – or risk losing everything to the oncoming storm.

Hi. It's me again, here to continue talking about my newly realized obsession with the Grishaverse.

Siege and Storm is the perfect sequel in Leigh Bardugo's Grisha series.

(I could end this review right there.)

Really though, this is what I think all sequels should be. Some characters' stories end; new character arcs begin. There's a mix of sadness in letting go of characters we've admired and respected, but there's also a joy in saying hello to new faces and personalities.

Relationships are less cut and dry. People are less cut and dry. The heroes turn out to be less noble than we once thought, and the villains are laid bare – certainly still dark and evil, but now even more intricate and baffling and somewhat enigmatic, and you can't help but commiserate with them in spite of their horrifying deeds.

This book is better than the first. It's more complex, it's a deeper dive, it's stark and it's gripping and it's suspenseful and lively and heartrending (did you see what I did there?) and no one – not even you, lovely reader – will get out unscathed. Read Shadow and Bone, and then read Siege and Storm, and make sure you have Ruin and Rising on hand while you're at it – otherwise you'll make yourself sick with anticipation if it's not within reach by the time you turn the last page.

I just finished reading Siege & Storm by @LBardugo and I think I'm like... shaking? Is this what withdrawal feels like?

— TIFFANY (@codenametiffany) July 13, 2015

Review: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Shadow and Bone (The Grisha #1)
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Publication date: June 5, 2012
Rating: ★★★½

Summary (via Goodreads):

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life – a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha… and the secrets of her heart.

After ten thousand Tumblr picture sets and countless playlists made in honor of Leigh Bardugo's Grisha trilogy, I finally bit the bullet and committed myself to yet another YA fantasy series.

Unpopular opinion time: I didn't love this book. It's my fault, really. Actually, no. I take that back. It's Leigh Bardugo's fault for making me fall so in love with the villain of the story that the real love interest never had a fighting chance. Sorry I'm not sorry.

That being said, the story itself was beyond clever. I secretly pride myself on being able to spot plot twists and unoriginal storylines from a mile away, but Leigh Bardugo was always two steps ahead of me, and it's refreshing when a YA fantasy novel like this doesn't fall neatly into the same hackneyed structure that so many others do.

I do think the pacing in Shadow and Bone was a little bit off. Parts of the story dragged on, while others needed to be drawn out more than they were. I wish there had been a more measured buildup between Alina and the Darkling, and even between Alina and her best friend Mal. Each of these relationships had twists and turns that didn't feel as organic as I would have liked.

Things with the Darkling moved so quickly – he was with Alina, protecting her, spending time with her, and then he was gone for weeks at a time, and then he was back for a second, and then gone again. I would have liked to see their dynamic explored more gradually. The Darkling may be the most complex character in the book, and yet, so much of what we learn about him is discovered secondhand only – through other people's conversations with Alina, rather than through his own actions and words. It was hard for me to reconcile my first impression of him with the information I found out later.

There's one page in the book that caught me by surprise and made me want to sit and read it again and again and try to figure out these characters and who they really are and what they're thinking. I haven't quite gotten it yet, but I do love the concept – of our own memories and desires coloring our perception of people and making us look back and wonder if anything was real at all:

I remembered his perfect face in the lamplight, his stunned expression, his rumpled hair. … I could still feel his warm breath on my neck, hear his whisper in my ear. The problem with wanting is that it makes us weak.

I'm not sure why these few sentences hit me so hard, when there are so many other moments that are written even more beautifully: Alina's description of the Darkling's soul. Mal's certainty of Alina. Mal's impassioned speeches (he's talkative, that one). I guess it just reminds me of unfinished business, of what if?, of this weird need I've always had to strip people down to their core and see them for who they are. I can't help but hope that there is some degree of realness behind a person's facade.

My sole consolation is that Leigh Bardugo says in her acknowledgments: "I blame Gamynne Guillote for fostering my megalomania and encouraging my love of villains." Which just means that she loves this villain as much as I do. So I can only hope that the next two books in the series are more satisfying in regards to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.