This review is spoiler-free!
The Tailor by Leigh Bardugo
Series: The Grisha #1.5
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Novella
Release Date: May 23rd 2013 by Holt Children’s/Macmillan
Format: eBook, 18 pages
Rating: ★★★★☆
Find it here: Goodreads
I’ll admit, I really didn’t want to like Genya. I liked her in the first book, and I felt for her in this short, but come the second book, I really didn’t want to like her anymore (for reasons I won’t disclose). I was already torn on the Darkling (between liking him and hoping he wouldn’t make it out of the story alive), I didn’t like Mal (despite the fact he was supposed to be the good guy in Alina’s life), and I had read this before books two and three, so all I wanted to do was comfortably dislike a character I was supposed to dislike because of her actions, once they had come around.
Of course, this changed that whole case for me. Thanks, Bardugo.
(Seriously, thank you. I love complex characters, even if I bitch about the internal struggle it puts me through.)
Thanks to this story, I wasn’t able to dislike Genya like I would have, had I read this short after Siege & Storm.
Poor fricken’ Genya. The things she’s had to go through and deal with, the things she’s had to say no to, and, worse so, say yes to.
It might have only been 18 pages, but it was a really good addition to the story, because it helped change what have otherwise been fairly flat feelings for a character, who herself would be represented flatter without the novella to help you see more than what you could without it.
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