can i just talk about leigh bardugo like,,, this QUEEN has written so many A+ books with diverse and well developed characters with BREATHTAKING lines and satisfying ends and thrill and drama and MAGIC!! the whole universe she created (herself!! how!!) is so unique and powerful with its historical narratives and wowwwww i have such a author-crush and
Okay I love Leigh, she’s a goddess and queen and one of my favorite authors and I live for her characters, and her writing style, and her book quotes, and her world building, and her plot twists, but I would not describe the endings of either of her series as even remotely satisfying lol. Nikolina 5ever - Mal is not at all satisfying, and Matthias randomly being killed by a nobody that they don’t ever find or know anything about is also not at all satisfying in my opinion. Though I am interested in your thoughts on the subject, because the endings clearly interested you enough to specifically point out 🤷
k, i also hated mal omg he was a bit dry and nikolai is my BOY but there are so many more, terribly unsatisfying endings that could have happened- like the darkling and alina AWFUL. NO GOOD. i can’t ignore faults, clearly, but writers never stop growing so even if you didn’t like tgt that much, you have to admit the world building was great and set up for my one true love, soc. and alina taking on the orphanage? unexpected, but heartwarming. honestly, i don’t think she’d ever be comfortable at a high place in society…
matthias was a hard character to place. he’s rejected his home’s belief on grisha and broken into their most secure prison. he was never the most comfortable with the criminal life either, and he couldn’t return to fjerda. and, it’s hard for me to say, but his death had to happen. there’s a lot of danger with the plots and schemes in the novel, and not everyone can escape unscathed. matthias’s death was interesting too. he’s killed by a young witch hunter, reminiscent of himself. he was seen as a traitor to his people, and although he tried to help the boy understand (character development!!), it took matthias a near death experience to understand that maybe he was raised into incorrect beliefs- not everyone is so welcome to change. it shows the lengths needed to change society in fjerda–which is where nina is headed in the nikolai book, i think?
otherwise, the other characters- inej, wylan, kaz, jesper, get conflicts resolved and relationships healed. it’s tragic that nina suffered this loss, but she’s strong, and maybe she’ll get her happy ending in the next couple books?