Beware shippers, you guys.
Sigh. I ruined this review before it ever began, because right after I finished Ruin and Rising, I ran (internet-ran) to the reviews on Goodreads, excitedly, to hit the “like” button a bunch of times on said reviews, and instead, I was confronted with a bunch of one- and two-star reviews from people who were devastated that their favorite series would end this way. Some of them made valid points, that I nonetheless disagree with, but I understand their interpretations. But others?
Look — this may be a rant moreso than a review, and technically I’ll be 100% spoiling one aspect of the ending, but it’s actually only really a spoiler if you have never heard a story about war or war heroes or good/evil conflict. Ready? Here it is:
Alina does NOT end up, romantically, with the Darkling.
Yeah, the Darkling. Her adversary. Granted — he’s not 100% evil. In fact, the more we learn about him, the more we learn that a lot of his intentions, both at the beginning and even throughout the war that takes place in the series, were noble. But he unquestionably went about achieving them in a manipulative, dangerous, mass-murdery way that made his thirst for power and disregard for human life abundantly clear. So, while he’s a complex, interesting bad guy, he’s still a bad guy! And while Alina has some souls on her conscience, and is not without her own selfish impulses or power-hungry tendencies, she still was fighting against the Darkling’s blase annihilation of entire towns to ensure his successful dictatorship. The two are tethered by their unique powers, and they share a type of connection and respect borne out of each others’ understanding of their mutual isolation. But they are still enemies, and Alina is just straight-up too smart to fall, romantically, for a guy hundreds of years older than her, who has already demonstrated his willingness and ability to manipulate her into compliance. So I simply cannot fathom the reviews whose complaints — however obliquely stated — seem to boil down to “Alina and the Darkling were meant to be together and I am MAD that they are not.” Like, did you read the same book I did? Or, did you watch Marvel’s “Jessica Jones”? Two people aren’t meant to be together just because they have powers, ESPECIALLY if one uses their powers to manipulate and emotionally abuse the other. Do I personally love the guy she ended up with? No! But it made perfect sense, and if you read the books at all, it was not going to end any other way, except maybe for her being with no one, period.
This is such an issue with YA fantasy, and by extension much of the community who reads YA fantasy, because you have these epic stories of conflict, coming of age, and realizing one’s full potential, that are also inextricably linked with a romantic element. And so much of the time, the rest of the story takes a backseat to the romance, and if the readers don’t like the romance, well poof! The whole book goes up in flames. But it’s even a bit more complicated than that, because a lot of the time, either intentionally or by accident — because you’re writing about young people with geysers of heartfelt emotion — the individual arc of the main character becomes intertwined with his/her love interest, so it’s impossible to discuss their growth without considering the romance. There is a bit of that here, with discussion over Alina’s fate and how it services the romance. As I said earlier, I understand where those points are coming from, but I disagree that what happened is a unilaterally bad (and misogynistic!) thing. It’s impossible to be more specific without spoiling the ending, but for me, it just made complete sense, knowing Alina’s inner conflict and her relationship to her power and country.
In case it hasn’t been clear from the ranting and allusions to complex good v. evil decisions, Ruin and Rising really *goes there* with some heavy themes. Personally, I think it did a good job balancing a happy ending with the dark sense of desperation and harsh circumstances that led the characters there. It was a happy ending, to be sure, but it didn’t come without profound loss. I hate to belabor the point about the reviews I was reading, especially since overall this book was highly rated, but I am not sure what kind of ending some of the others would have preferred, particularly when it comes to the romance. Because any other pairing than this would not have been happy, based on Alina’s own stated feelings and experiences. So is the desire for the series to have ended up unhappily, thereby bucking the expectation for YA? I mean, fine. Bardugo could have done that. But why? What would have been satisfying, or profound, about bleakness ending in more bleakness? An unhappy ending just for the sake of an unhappy ending, just to make a point and “stand out,” is no better than a happy one for its own sake. An ending should mean something, and I rather think this one does. Again, no spoilers, but if there is anyone out there who wants to challenge me own this, I’ll happily oblige.
In total: is this a 5-star book? Well, I’ll concede that I didn’t spend as much time telling you why it is, as I did telling other people they are wrong, but in the pattern of giving the first two 4 stars when I really meant 4 and 4.5, I liked this one best of all, so 5 it is. Is it perfect? Probably not. But I loved it all the same.
Sigh. I should have posted that link I just posted on your GR to this page instead . . .
I’ll post it here, because it was a really great read and I thank you for sharing it:
http://fozmeadows.tumblr.com/post/136562705971/thejgatsbykid-okay-so-like-seeing-the-way-that
The thing that killed me about seeing the wacky shipping reviews on GR is that it’s an older community than the tumblr community. I forgive teenage girls a lot of twisted ideas that they’ve absorbed about what romance looks like: I myself was *NOT* immune to the brooding charms of “misunderstood” boys at that age! But a lot of the YA readers on GR are adult women who nonetheless romanticize abusive pairings and perpetuate that idea as an example for younger girls. It’s not completely surprising, given the type of heroes that populate adult romance and how popular so many complete assholes are, but we have to do better for young women than we are.
Seriously. To everything you just said.
Oh that is a good link. Thanks. And her experience with romance in novels is…. uncomfortably familiar. I found my head nodding in agreement a few too many times. And to be honest, her assessment makes me appreciate these books a bit more because Bardugo does play with that narrative trope and the Darkling.
A.) I adore your review rant. It needed to be said.
B.) I don’t go to GR anymore because, well, there’s an evil mafia there that tries to destroy authors they don’t like.
C.) I can’t stand it when people let their personal fantasy destroy the fantasy they’re reading. I say this as someone who is daydreaming as I’m writing and as someone who has occasionally been jealous of beings that don’t exist.
D.) Did I mention I liked your review?
Thank you!! :D
That is really excellent commentary on reactions to YA parings, and how those ships, and the desire to see them fulfilled, can take over a book to the point where the actual book doesn’t matter anymore. And as much as I love fanfic, I fear that fanfic encourages this phenomenon to an almost dangerous level. I don’t know if you remember, but people were literally threatening to burn books over Harry/Hermione v Ron/Hermione and how that panned out.
And your reaction is much more thought out then mine, I just laughed and laughed and LAUGHED at them. There were, as you say, some good points in the reviews. But the buthurt was so strong, and the misreading of the text so obvious, that I just had to laugh.
I do remember really liking how this series played out though. I had some issues with some of the politics and how that ended up working out. Especially with the alt-Russia of the books, and thus the political comparisons that are inevitable based on that. However, it’s been over a year since I read them and I honestly can’t recall much more then that. It’s a decent series though, and I do think Bardugo finished strongly.
The thing I really remember about Harry/Ron/Hermione that drove me bonkers was the weird conflation of “Hermione is too smart/good for Ron! She deserves a hero like Harry!” with “Hermione is a complete IDIOT for choosing Ron over Harry!” Like, which is it? Is she smart or dumb? Settling or not even capable of making her own choices?
And that’s kind of what’s happening here. Suddenly people are acting like Alina is a complete idiot and didn’t even deserve the Darkling, because she makes the “safe and boring” choice. Aren’t we supposed to support and love our female MCs? Personally, I don’t bother continuing with a series unless I like her or am given a reason to believe that her arc will make me like her more. So I don’t get the attitude of lionizing the male love interests at the expense of respecting the female protagonist. I know their actions are guided by the author, so you gotta take the author’s attitude and influences into account more than the fictional character, but the mental gymnastics required to shame a young woman for not “choosing” the man who literally threatened to kill everyone she loved and destroy the country so they could be together, well, that’s insane. Call me old and boring, but I’d pick the guy who made me feel comfortable, loved, and stable too. And if I were a teenage girl, reading all of this criticism about what an apparently stupid choice that was? God. I don’t even know. I liked this protagonist a lot and I clearly feel very defensive of her.
Oh yes, I remember that as well. It was pretty infuriating at the time. It’s one of the uglier manifestations of internalized misogyny, and that’s definitely present in those reviews as well. And I don’t know if it’s so much an indictment against the female character as it is an expression of the idea that women don’t really know what they want (one of my least favorite themes in stories, I die a little inside whenever I see it in a book, movie, or show) so of course they should follow what the man wants. And if they don’t they’re *insert insult of choice here*.
I liked Alina a lot as well. I think she’s a very well developed character and I get feeling defensive, particularly given some of the reactions this book gathered.