The Procrastinators Book Club discussion

Welcome to the Siege and Storm Buddy Read Discussion thread! This thread officially opens on December 1st and anyone can join at any time. Please keep in mind that spoilers are allowed in this thread but only up to the group's current reading place. Do not spoil the book if you've read further than the group. Any extra days can be used to catch up!

Each day we will be reading by chapters or page numbers. Page numbers are an approximation based on the hardcover or paperback that is the default on Goodreads. The suggested Buddy Read discussion schedule is as follows:

Week of 12/01
December 1st: Before + Ch. 1-4
December 2nd: Ch. 5-8
December 3rd: Ch. 9-12
December 4th: 13-16

Week of 12/05
December 5th: 17-20
December 6th: 21-23 + After

PARTICIPANTS
~ Edith
~ Juliane

Hey guys, I would love to join if that's alright with you! I just got this on loan from the library and when I saw the buddy read I thought it's incredibly timely! :D

yes please do! I might start a little early, I'm so excited for it!

Yay!! I'm super excited too, although I try to hold myself back in case I manage to finish a couple buddy reads for the Fright Night xD

Hi, how are you two?
I'm looking forward to this read and continuing with this series.

I am curious how you both liked the first book of this trilogy? Because I have to admit that I did not enjoy "Shadow and Bone" quite as much as I had hoped and especially found some of the charaterisation (looking at Mal) rather annoying. It does not seem to be the writing of Leigh Bardugo in general as I quite enjoyed "Six of Crows".
So I can't really explain it but I'm looking forward to this second book and hoping it becomes a little better than the first :-)

Hi, hi! Doing good! Hope you're well too. It's my first time reading the series so I haven't quite gotten to Six of Crows, but that seems to be the general consensus amongst a lot of reviews I've seen! I read Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo and I loved it, so Shadow and Bone didnt quite meet up to my expectations writing wise. However I loved the storyline! I wasn't a fan of Mal either, so you're not alone there. Overall though, I'm really excited to see how the next book carries out.

I'm not part of this BR, because I've read siege and storm earlier this year, but I will participate in the next one.
Shadow and bone was a so-so fot me, but I liked the second one more. I think there is more action, and Alina changes her point of view (can we say her main objective on s&b was just survive?). Also there is a character which I fell in love with, soo...

I will be stalking you waiting for your comments

Hey all!! So I agree with your comments that S&B wasn't a mindblowing read.

Buuuut, I hadn't read an 'oldie'-style YA book in so long (meaning that the vibes reminded me of the YA books I used to read back in the day, as the ones I have read now didn't touch me nearly as much) so I really appreciated that! Mal was pretty much just a side character in the first book, and I didn't really feel the romantic points either with him or the Darkling. But I liked Alina's personality and her ability to grow.

As for Six of Crows, I read that quite back and I enjoyed it a lot, but I read it before the S&B series (I had no idea it was a sequel, ahaha) so I didn't get all the references and I couldn't get properly into the world, so this time around I need to do it correctly, ahaha!

With the order of the books in this series I had a similar issue as you Cat, I did not know the right order and figured I could just read Shadow&Bone und Six of Crows parallel to each other but that did not turn out so well timeline-wise hahaha.

By now I am so glad this Buddy read came up so I managed to continue this series because I am really enjoying this book.

Regarding Alina I agree @Bopeep she seems to really find her own agency for her powers and the future that comes with it.
I also found Alinas and Mals relationship to be more relaxed (can't find a better word ;-) as they seem to be on the same level much more and Mal did not seem to be as condescending so far.

(view spoiler)[
I was really suprised how quickly Alina and the Darkling met again, I figured Mal and Alina would be on the run for a while and maybe everybody would only meet up again at the end, but I enjoyed the direction of the story.

Also really intrigued by a lot of the action in the first few chapters taking place on ships, there is something special about the story happening in such a restrained space with no-one being able to really go anywhere.

Sturmhond and the Twins are great, fun new characters, I love them already and I look forward to where the story goes with them and all the things they are hiding.
And wow to that reveal at the end of chapter 8, I definitely did not know enough about this universe to realize what kind of person we are dealing with here and I couldn't really remember from the first book how many people there where in the Royal family. Had to continue with chapter 9 straight away afterwards :-D (hide spoiler)]

How are you doing with the book? Almost finished?
I didn't expect a reveal like that at the end of chapter 8,but after that it was getting better every time!
I still remember "the accident" after going back to the Palace... XD

Of course live (mainly work unfortunately) got in the way :-)
I am halfway through by now but it is going quite well so I will probably only be around two days behind (small victories).

I find myself really liking the character revealed in chapter 8 and at this point I actually find him to be the most interesting of the three main male protagonists. I am curious to see how far the politics as he intends them can carry him in the world of the court.

Also I really feel a bit torn everytime Genya is mentioned. I completely understand Alinas anger at the choices Genya made in the first book but my heart breaks a little for her due to the trauma she had to go through to even get to that point. I assume she will play a role in the story further on but I worry that usually stories like hers end in tragedy.

I finished and I cannot wait to start Ruin and Rising.
So did they ever repair the roof? ;-D
But seriously the ending hit me quite hard yet I think it was a great set up for the third book because there are still so many possibilities and players for the story to find a very interesting ending.

(view spoiler)[
The massacre was quite disturbing, to see everything Alina and Nikolai had worked for to be in ruins so quickly. Right now I also cannot imagine that there could be any sort of redemption or absolution in store for the Darkling in the course of book 3.

I cannot wait to find out what happened to Nikolai, one can hopefully assume he has a few more tricks up his sleeve.

Also stupid, arrogant Vassili
And poor Genya

The whole cult thing the Apparat has got going is really creepy and I agree with Alinas suspicions regarding "A dead martyr was less troubling than a living saint." That guy has nothing in mind than his own prosperity, just like most parts of the royal family and their advisors. I would not mind to be proven wrong in this but I am very doubtful. But I really want to believe that the twins are there for Alina and not the apparat, one can hope :-)
(hide spoiler)]

Yay! Then I will start Ruin and Rising ASAP!

I remember most of the characters but... Who's Vassilli? I really can't put a "face" on them lol though I think he was a guy?

Vassili (spelling might have been different in the book, whoops) is the older one of the two young royals.

(view spoiler)[He was Nikolais older brother who probably wont be a problem in book 3 I'm guessing unless the Darkling can now resurrect people killed by his shadow monsters.
Vassiliy was the idiot who tried to make a pact with Fjerda due to his own ambitions to the throne, thereby not realising that he was opening Ravkas roads to the invasion of the darklings forces and therefore being one of the main reasons for the easy invasion of the Palace at the end of book 2. (hide spoiler)]

Okay, okay, so I've been avoiding the thread like a plague because I've fallen behind so much (holiday season is kicking my butt lol), but I've at least caught up to chapter 8! I also did not expect that big reveal. I gasped when I heard it!!! (listening to audiobook to speed things up) I'm very curious to see where Sturmhound's client will lead Alina and Mal to.
@Bopeep, I'm sorry I will also probably be a bit behind on Ruin and Rising. apologies!

Oooh totally forgot about him haha Thanks for the explanation! Hopefully there would be a little summary on Ruin and Rising about all that happened before.

Soo I wanted to say if you want to delay that BR a little bit, start it on the 10th for example? I would catch up on my 5 hour trip on the 12th anyway :p

Oh my gosh, yes that would work a little better for me! I'm so sorry, I just got caught up in other things too. the weekend is coming up so I know for sure I'll finish siege and storm by then. perfect timing for it! thanks for being understanding!

Also, I love road trips simply for the reading part. good luck on it!

Okay, so I’m back and for the most part I really liked how everything played out.

(view spoiler)[ I’m not sure whether I liked Alina’s character this time around. There’s so much thrown at her in this book and it makes me question if finding the firebird would be good for her or not. My favorite character proved to be Nikolai and I found myself wishing for him and Alina get together. (When Mal and Zoya kissed, I mentally screamed!! I personally would not have taken him back after that.) On that note, Mal is the most frustrating character for me because I try to understand things from his point of view, but he does or says something stupid and the next moment I find myself not being able to stand him. He is so self absorbed and whiny to me. Other than that, the invasion was of course terrible. It reminded me a lot of the Red Wedding scene from Game of Thrones (mostly the pact made by Vasili and Fjerda that led to their downfall). (hide spoiler)]

Overall, I honestly enjoyed the first book better than this one. Yes, siege and storm was more action packed, but I liked the introduction to the grishaverse that Shadow and Bone offered. Look forward to what Ruin and Rising will bring :)

Oh! I almost forgot! @Julianne, nice job sensing Genya’s future!
(view spoiler)[ I felt so much heartache when she was revealed! T_T But on the bright side (?), it’s nice to see her and David finally united in “that” way, even though the circumstances were awful. (hide spoiler)]