Tom Courtney

Be prepared, those of you who sighed at the likes of Twilight etc. Here is yet another story of a a plain Jane girl who isn’t very pretty but all the perfect men in the world seem to think she’s smart, funny and beautiful as she’s caught in a love triangle between one dark, powerful, materialistic and beautiful man and the talented, charismatic best friend she’s secretly in love with, oh and every single female who’s ever existed is also in love with but he secretly only has eyes for her. Cue rolling your own eyes. And, having read ahead, yet another triangle forms on book two except this time instead of the mysterious and beautiful Darkling we have the very fun, charismatic, likeable, intelligent and of course very attractive and popular Prince who is competing with the best friend (now boyfriend) for her hand. Oh and did I mention the unsuspecting girl is also the most powerful magician (sorry grisha) perhaps of all time? When you cut away from the familiar love triangles and the same female lead that is the centre of so much teenage fiction in books, film and tv, there’s actually a really good story there. The main character delivers a few good lines throughout the story, and there’s an impressively articulated description of a woman’s uncertainty in the world, and the supporting characters outside of the big three are a curious mix of cliche and brilliant. There are clearly some moments stolen from other franchises. If “You found me” “always” isn’t a tip of the hat to Harry Potter’s most famous romanticism then I will be amazed. The world that’s described as well is fantastic; and the powers in it truly remarkable piece of imagination, so much so that you can forgive the fact this boils down into a yet another, incredibly literal, conflict between light and darkness. The grisha trilogy is enjoyable and well worth a read, but the story will much more likely be remembered as a well written Netflix show than remarkable piece of literature.