'Rule of Wolves' by Leigh Bardugo - Review

Rule of Wolves crept up on me, but now I wish it was twice as long. 

Before I dived into Rule of Wolves, I had to head to Wikipedia to check up on the plot of King of Scars. It had been so long since I’d read the first instalment of this particular duology that I felt a bit overwhelmed to be going into this book – especially as I knew it would be tying up every Grishaverse string. I must say I am a bigger fan of the stories based out of Bardugo’s Ketterdam. I adore Six of Crows and its sequel Crooked Kingdom, but the Shadow and Bone trilogy never really grabbed me. That being said, I did read all three a few years ago now and something in me knew to pre-order Rule of Wolves. After being so pleasantly surprised by Bardugo’s New Adult novel Ninth House, I knew I couldn’t let this one pass me by. 

As a big fan of the Crow Club members, I did find myself most engaged in Rule of Wolves when Nikolai and Zoya head into Ketterdam to seek their help – even if it was only briefly. I was also consistently enamoured by Nina Zenik’s burgeoning relationship with Hanne Brum and the really interesting way this developed. There was one moment near the end where I clapped my hand over my mouth in a pleased state of shock as something clicked for me just before it clicked for Nina. But Nikolai’s narration is comfortably charming and I found myself warming to Zoya too, the character I have felt the most distant from in this entire Saga. 

There were some points along the way where my lack of Shadow and Bone knowledge really let me down – most notably (spoiler alert) the fact that I had completely forgotten that Alina does not die at the end of that series! I understand that this isn’t really a fault of Rule of Wolves, but as this book isn’t a direct sequel to the Shadow and Bone series I could have done with some more backtracking – but then again I can imagine I would be making the opposite complaints had these existed and I did know the Grishaverse as well as Kaz knows the Barrel. 

All in all, Bardugo is yet to truly let me down. And after that ending, I cannot wait to see where the Grisha take us next.  

4/5 Stars