Redheaded Reviews: The King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

The Grisha

Corporalki

Heartrendser( They can use their power to damage a person's internal organs.)

Healers

Etheralki

Squallers (Can Control the winds)

Ingerni (Can Control fire)

Tidemakers (Can control water)

Materialki

Durasts (They can manipulate glass, steel, wood, plants, stone or anything solid on a molecular level

Alkemi (They specialize in chemicals like blasting powders and poisons)

Like her other books, Bardugo tells this story through the eyes of several people: Zoya, Nina, Nikolai, and Issak. Nikolai is the King of Ravka a country that has known a lot of war and in the last war got rid of the evil Darkling, a Grisha, a person with powers, who had taken over the kingdom and caused a civil war. He was defeated by Alina the Summoner but she died in the process. Nikolai was cursed with a flying monster that he turns into by the Darkling bur when the Darkling died so did the monster, or so Nikolai thought. Recently he's been caught by his personal guard and Zoya the head of the Second Army, the Grisha Army., and a Squaller, who take him back to the castle. He's only eaten animals so far, but he's worried that he'll eat a human soon if something is not done.

Nikolai is a beloved King by his people and those he works closely with, his Triumverate, who really thinks it's time for him to get married especially since there's no successor to the throne. So they plan a grand series of parties over a week six weeks from then, inviting both their enemies and thier friends and those they are unsure of. Meanwhile, a cult has grown up to make the Darkling a saint only under the name the Starless Saint. A man named Yuri, a former priest is in charge of this group and Nikolai asks to talk to him and brings him to the palace. Yuri has information about how to separate the monster from Nikolai. Nikolai's bodyguard who is also a scholar looked into it too and they both came to the same conclusion. Nikolai would have to travel to the Fold where the Darkling was killed but also where a saint was martyred. There he will be placed on a pyre and they're not quite sure what will happen next. So before the party, the King goes on a pilgrimage visiting the sites of the recent miracles that lead in the direction of the Fold. Zoya, Nikolai, Yuri will find a huge surprise when they get to the fold and find that it isn't empty but occupied by beings that they cannot conquer and who seem to wish them no harm but have a proposition for them. Meanwhile, the twin guards are left to go back to the palace alone with no idea what happened to the other three and major parties about to take place with no King.

Nina, whose Heartrender power got corrupted when she took juda parem and barely survived the addictive qualities of one dose but made it through with the help of the man she loved Mattias, a Fjerden who normally kill the Grisha when they aren't forcing them to work as slaves, but Mattias wasn't like that. Grisha can be born in any country, but they can only be trained in Ravka who fully supports the Grisha. Nina's power now answers to the dead. She can use bones to kill and raise the dead to do her bidding. Nina is with Adjik, a Squaller, and Leoni, an Alchem, in Fjerda working undercover trying to sneak Grisha out of the country and pick up any useful information they can.

After destroying their chances of working at one dock when Nina kills the men in charge of it in order to help get the Grisha safely off on the boat, they head to a town that Nina recommends because she can hear the dead calling her there. The people complain that the factory has poured chemicals into the river water but no one does anything about it which is odd because water is sacred in Fjerda and keeping it clean is a priority. The three stay at a convent. While checking out the factory they stumble upon a group of convent girls dressed up in soldier's uniforms out riding. Nina under her fabricated disguise, where a tailor had changed her appearance a great deal so she would not be recognized and would fit in as a Fjerden, feels the need to tell the girls off and be stern as a good Fjerden woman would, but she defers to the man, Adjik who lets the girls off.

The leader of these girls is Hanne who turns out is Heartrender. So Nina convinces the head of the convent, the Wellmaster, to let her teach Hanne the Zemmini language, but in actuality, she'll be teaching her how to use her powers. Nina wanted the extra time there to bury Mattias but she also wanted to find out what is going on in the factory which is a munitions factory but something more and when she sneaks in by herself and sees what is going on and realizes what happened to all those dead girls that have been calling to her she knows she must do something which means talking Adjik and Leoni into doing something dangerous.

I kind of wish I had read the first trilogy before reading this book. I had read the Six of Crows books, her second series, so I wasn't completely lost and Bardugo is really good about filling you in on what you missed so you don't feel too lost. But now I feel as though I know too much going into the first trilogy. I adore Zoya. She is strong and doesn't feel the need to be nice to anyone. She finds it hard to trust because she trusted the Darkling and look how that turned out. But she trusts King Nikolai who is an interesting character. He cares deeply for his country and for Zoya. He's charming and funny and a real fighter and someone who can compromise to get what he wants. Nina is grieving and has a temper and tries to remember Mattias's words to show mercy in his country. It\s hard when she sees what she sees, but at the same time, the Saints are growing in belief in his country and where they are tolerance for the Grisha cannot be far behind. Bardugo is such an amazing writer and this is a fabulous book and the start of a new series that I can't wait to read the next book in when it comes out. I give it an astounding five out of five stars.

Quotes

If men were ashamed when they should be, they’d have time for anything else

=Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 32)

“It isn’t easy to leave all you love behind.” “It is when all you have smells of fish and despair

=Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 37)

How can you be so relentlessly optimistic? It isn’t healthy.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 48)

Fear is like weeds. They grow wild if left unattended.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 60)

Pray, go on. I’d like to see if an excess of irony can kill a man.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 119)

The common people have no love for him. He possessed great power and died grandly. Sometimes that is enough.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 120)

“Trust me Zoya. You may come to enjoy it.” “That’s what Tamar said about Absinthe. And it still tastes like sugar dipped in kerosene.”

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 121)

Lost faith it’s the roots of a forgotten wood, waiting to thrive once more.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 157)

It’s not exciting if nothing can go wrong.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 159)

Fear is a phoenix. You can watch it burn a thousand times and still it will return.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 175)

In Nicolai’s experience honesty was much like herbal tea something well meaning people recommended when they were out of better options.

-Leigh Bardugo (King of Scars p 201)

Nikolai had been told that hope was dangerous. Had been warned of it many times. But he never believed that. Hope was the wind that came from nowhere to fill your sails and carry you home.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 206)

The trick of acting is to believe the lie yourself, at least a little. Acting begins in the body. If you want to convince anyone of anything, you start with the way the body moves. It tells a thousand stories before you ever open your mouth.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 223)

We’re trained to understand the ordinary, to fear difference, even if that difference is divine.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 338)

“Ive never met anyone like you.” Nina knew she should lower her head, make some comment about reining in her boldness of spirit, demonstrate that she gave a damn about Fjerden ways. Instead, she sniffled and said, “Of course you haven’t. I’m spectacular.” Hanne laughed. “I would cut off a thumb for a thimbleful of your confidence.”

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 382)

“Every lover I’ve taken had aked about these scars. I make up a new story for each of them.” He found he did not want ot think of Zoya’s lovers. “And what did I do to earn the truth?” “Offered me a country and faced imminent death?” “It’s important to have standards, Naryalensky.”

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 415)

Anything worth doing always starts as a bad idea.

-Leigh Bardugo (The King of Scars p 465)