Alina finally does something. I repeat, Alina finally does something.

HOW GOOD IS IT?

5/10

BASICALLY

After escaping from the Darkling, Alina and Mal run away from Ravka and take refuge in a distant town, only to be captured again by, well, the Darkling. With a newfound power, he takes them both on a trip to hunt for a valuable item that can decide the future of Ravka.

They work with a privateer named Sturmhond, who has secrets of his own.

SO…

Overall, the hunt for the magical creature/item is interesting, the action sequences are especially well crafted. Alina’s decision to finally take control of her life even if it means confronting the Darkling was also a joy to read.

However, compare to its prequel, Siege and Storm is much more slow-paced (actually, it’s slow compared to most books). To put it simply: important things happen in the first 1/5 of the book and the last fifty pages. The middle is mostly about Alina’s struggle between her power and her desire for freedom, Mal being ultimately annoying, Sturmhond’s charm keeping you from skipping, and politics.

SPOILER THOUGHTS

Spoilers ahead.

Let me try and recap what happens between Alina and the Darkling in this book: The Darkling gets a power upgrade, so does Alina. She takes his title and moves into his old room, hates the décor, but leaves it untouched anyway. At one point, she realizes that he uses perfume like everyone else or something like that. Every time she is depressed, about to do something important or get cozy with Mal, the Darkling pops up to remind her he still exists. Despite his villainy, Alina can’t deny the pull toward his power that she feels.

This goes on for about a whole book. No wonder when all of that tension is released in the end, the Darkling has blood gushing out of his nose and Alina shatters an entire building.

Next,

Why are we still not done with Mal?? I have trouble determining this guy’s purpose in the book. And most importantly, like I have stated in my review of Shadow and Bone, why do we need a romance between him and Alina at all?

All right, so… from Alina’s perspective, we learn that Mal can fit in everywhere, he has the heart of a soldier and he wants a purpose. So why does he still whine when he has been given all of those things in this book?

Ravka is in danger, the crown needs his help, Alina needs his help, Nikolai emphasizes on the fact that everyone needs to arm up for war, yet Mal continues to complain that the palace is terrible, that he has no life. He refuses to understand that Alina’s power is a part of her and, amid her struggles, declares that he wants the old version of her back.

So… this is not really about him wanting a purpose, it is that he only feels useful when Alina is weak and dependent on him.

Either Alina is an unreliable narrator where it concerns Mal — because he is just not as charming as she makes him out to be — or this guy just doesn’t know what he wants. And that is fine. If you need to figure out your future, go ahead and do it, Mal. But would you mind not making Alina feel like a traitor and an alien every time you decide to have it out with your feelings?

The quarrels between Mal and Alina also make little sense. Just shoved him into a chair or do whatever you have to do to get his attention, Alina, and tell him you dream about the Darkling and his silky hair every other night and that you can’t control these visions! That would have saved us all a lot of time.

Mal spends 90% of his screen time being jealous of the people who come close to Alina; his tracking skill is unclear; his passion for his job is never elaborated on.

In all honesty, I can’t blame people for shipping Alina with the Darkling. I’m sure it isn’t entirely because they want them to be together romantically, but because after chapters and chapters of Mal’s constant mood swings and middle-school behaviors, we’d just rather deal with a straight-up villain. Because at this point, Alina and her collar make more sense than her and Mal.

So if you’re going to redeem yourself, Mal, please make it quick.

Zoya, Botkin, David, Baghra, Genya, and Sergei – these are all compelling characters that I hope to see more of in the next book. Because thanks to Mal and the incomprehensibly large amount of narrative devoted to him, we don’t get much of anyone.

And Nikolai too, of course. Where would we all be without your flying ships and clever disguises? I would love to say that Nikolai is a really… good person, but I believe this should wait because there are so many layers to his character that it’s hard to predict what he will become or what he is willing to do to achieve his goal. Anyhow, this doesn’t change the fact that Nikolai is a lovely addition to this book.