HOW TO READ THE GRISHAVERSE!!!!! // don't get gatekept!

did you watch shadow and bone on netflix and realize there's seven books i need to read them do you have a loved one that really wants you to watch the show but won't let you until you read the books do you just subscribe to katie can't read you're not interested at all well if you're any of those things this video is for you hi welcome back to katie can't read i'm katie i can read i have my jenny david earrings and my six of crows no mourners no funeral socks on today because i am going to give you my guide to the grishaverse i am a self-proclaimed grishaverse aficionado and i i am a i am a keeper of the gate of this netflix show i will be keeping that gate i will be gatekeeping so if you [Music] don't click off because of that this is to help you avoid the tolls at the gate so if you really want to watch this series but you don't you don't know where to start you just found out they're based on books and you would love to get into them i'm here to help you i want to help you and this is a very good time so essentially the grisha verse is a seven book series that takes place in this industrial um fantasy universe that's loosely based on like an 1800s rav or russia ravka's the name of the country katie you are so deep anyway um it's a world created by leigh bardugo there are seven books three series within those seven books and there are two companion standalone short story collections i guess and i'm going to tell you all of them i'm going to tell you what they're about i'm going to tell you why you should read them why you shouldn't read them why you need to read them in the order that i recommend and why you can break the order and which one you can't break the order for i got you i got you baby boo i'm i'm here for you i'm here for you so without further ado let's jump into it and talk about the shadow and bone trilogy the first series in the grishaverse by publication date is of course the shadow and bone trilogy um disclaimer i don't have all three books with me right now but i'll put them on a little screen here so the shadow bone trilogy is a three book series that consists of shadow and bone siege and storm and ruin and rising in that order shadow and bone follows alina starkov and her discovery of realizing she has cosmic powers and how she gets whisked away to learn about them and then goes through a whole lot in three books this is a really exciting why a fantasy and it's really easy to read i feel like out of all of these books these are the easiest to read they are very lighthearted um quick reads fast paced and they're just they're just fun um i will put out this warning though that they are not um high literature they're not like art i feel like what's so good about the grishaverse is they grow up with you so if you read this when it first came out the books get darker and more complicated and the writing gets stronger as you grow with them so keep that in mind um this is a very fun trilogy in my opinion i really like them a lot of people feel about them but i love them i think they're a good time i think the characters are fantastic and i think the overall overall plot is just really really fun and some of the plot twists that happen throughout still get me they're still exciting to me um yeah i recommend this series a lot i know when a lot of people do these lists they say you can leave them out i actually think you should never leave these out i think they are very important but we will get to that when i talk about order uh the second series based on publication date is the six of crows duology um so six of crows is two books it's six of crows first and crooked kingdom second um it is look at all those tabs it is about um kaz brecker and his team as they get get offered a huge sum of money to commit a big crime and it is be gay do crime the book this is kind of like the universal everyone really enjoy well not everyone i know people who don't like these but i feel like in general people who are grishavers fans this is the book that they latch on to this is the book everyone loves i see this in people's top 10 favorite books of all time all the time these are pretty much masterpieces in my opinion they have dark moments character development um humor heart love some killer romance three iconic ships like iconic ships and of course a found family aspect that is considered one of the greatest found families of all time by a lot of people not me though um i have a video about that anyway this series is a really good time it's very very very character driven though um i always feel like shadow and bone is a plot driven series so if you really like plot you will love shadow and bone but if you really love character you will love six of crows um i love these characters and i love this story so i highly recommend six of crows it's a five star duology to me i i love it the final series in this universe is the one that was just most recently wrapped up and that is the king of scars duology which is king of scars first and rule of wolves second um to me this is a four star series because i felt like king of scars drags but i loved rule of wolves i thought rule of love was epic and it caused me a lot of pain and it still causes me pain but i did really enjoy it however this one is anyway so this is the i almost consider these new adult books just because of how politically driven it all is and the characters are now old so these all these follow characters we already know and love that we have met in both the shadow and bone trilogy and the six of crows duology specifically it follows nikolai who i'm sure everyone's heard about even if you don't know this series nikolai is a main character in the latter half of the shadow and bone trilogy and then he gets his own world his own little story to figure out the fallout of the end of ruin and rising he is he's left with a lot to unpack and a lot to deal with and that's what these are about these books are they're very very fun they're they're really complicated and they sort of break the world in a way that you don't anticipate and it's kind of really fun to see how she built this world that was had really rigid rules essentially for five books and then she she broke them and changed them and now the world is different and it's in a good way i don't mean that in a way that doesn't make sense it all makes sense and it's very very very fun um i actually love the found family in this more then i love the found family in six of crows but you know what you guys can just attack me it's fine i accept it um uh yeah but we'll talk about why you need to read these later if you like world building and the end care and you like the characters that you've already been established i don't recommend this if you don't like the characters that have already been given to you if you don't like any of them you won't like these but i think that if you already like the characters that you've been given in the last five books you will love these and finally there are two um like standalone independent short story collections the first one based on publication date being the language of thorns so the language of thorns actually does not tie into much at all this is a series of fairy tales and folklore that would be told in the countries so these are the stories that mal and elena and kaz and all these characters grew up hearing well probably not kaz but like these characters grew up with these fairy tales and some of them get referenced not referenced enough that you're like lost you kind of you know what they're talking about when they say the le the story of the two clever fox like oh okay that's essentially an aesop's fable in our world that's kind of what this is these are the aesop's fables of of the grishaverse um it's not required reading at all in my opinion i actually still have not read it yet i just own it and we're gonna do something fun with it in a few weeks but it is a fun collection of short stories with beautiful beautiful art in them um and they have at least one story for each of the major countries that we visit in the grishaverse so there are there's a zemeni one there are three rovkin ones there's a kirch one and a feared in one and it is just it's it's a good it's a good time if you want more if you just want to know things that are important you don't need to read this at all and then the last one i don't have with me but i have it at home is the lives of saints this one came out three months ago maybe the lives of saints is a collection of stories of the saints that are mentioned in the in the series um i don't recommend reading this as groundwork though there are some spoilers for the shadow and bone trilogy laced into it um but it essentially takes you through the major saints of ravka it's essentially ravka's like bible you know they she essentially published ravka's bible this one is also i know a replica of a prop that will be used in the show so it's a little bit more of a collector's item than it is a reading material but it has beautiful stunning art that i wish i could show you but it's far away um it has beautiful stunning art for each of the saints and if you do like the idea of all of the saints and where they came from how they got their sainthood then i recommend this but if it's not something that you're like i need to know this it's not it's not necessary but it is very pretty and it's very fun and it's good to have on your little shelf before we get into order i would just like to say that the two standalones language of thorns and lives of saints do not fit into the order at all you can read them at any point i don't recommend reading them first first because that's insane but i do think you can read them in between any series you can split up six of crows and read them in between like you can do whatever you want with them they are definitely just independent collections of stories so don't stress out about like reading order with those two if you've never done this before so essentially there are two paths you can take in the grisha verse i'm gonna tell you which one i think is better but there are two paths you can choose the first path of course being starting with shadow and bone siege and storm ruin and rising six of crows crooked kingdom king of scars and finally rule of wolves which is the epic finale of all of it however um if you're if you're me um i actually started with six of crows um i don't recommend this order you can do it you can do it but i don't recommend it and i'll tell you why after i tell you what the order is the second order that you can follow is six of crows crooked kingdom shadow and bone siege and storm ruin and rising king of scars and rule of wolves so what order do i personally prefer i prefer going shadow and bone trilogy first six of crows duology second and king of scars last um you absolutely can start with six of crows if you think you'll like it better but so much world building is set up in shadow and bone that i think it is essential that you get that world building before you dive in especially if you're not a seasoned fantasy reader i feel like for people who are very into fantasy six of crows is not that hard to understand but if you are not a seasoned fantasy reader it is not a good starting place shadow and bone is very straightforward it is told in a first person perspective so things are much easier to understand and it's the first introduction to the world we ever get as readers so it's all the building blocks six of crows however assumes that a fair amount of people that are reading it already know the world so you're essentially dropped in and expected to run with it um and like that is very fun but it's you know the other thing that you need to note too is all three of these series do stand alone you don't you don't need to like if you really like the six of crows duology you don't have to read shadow and bone and you don't have to read king of scars they're all just continuations of a greater story there is like an it's not an overarching plot at all there are three distinct plots that are connected because the characters come back that's really the reason it's connected the other reason i think you should read shadow and bone first is in six of crows there are cameos that we get there are cameos there are call backs and there are so many things especially because nina herself is a grisha and so after you get attached to all of the grisha that live at the little palace in the shadow and bone trilogy nina does reference them and she references her past and so that makes it all just a little bit richer and it also as you know the world building and you have spent so much time in ravka in shadow and bone specifically then you get to see another country and how they view ravka and all these things so if you already have that connection with ravka then it all makes the political aspects so much more interesting and it just i feel like shadow and bonus or trilogy lays so much groundwork that is essential to the later two series that you have to have i also need to say this now king of scars is not your first grisha verse book it should not be there are huge spoilers for the rest of the series and i just it doesn't it does it's not a good place to start it's a very very fun series but it is built upon the fallout of the last two series everything that happens in king of scars happens because of the end of ruin and rising and the end of crooked kingdom there are so many things that are introduced in those two books that are explored then so you you can like they stand alone but so much of it is built into the last five books that you shouldn't especially because the characters are all all characters we've already met there are very few new main characters so i am very much team shadow and bones six of crows king of scars but you can read them in any order arguably um but i think for the greatest reading experience you should go shadow and bone trilogy six of crows duology king of scars duology and then put those short story collections wherever you want if by the end you're like i need more grishavers then you can read them if you just want more groundwork then yeah but i don't think you need it i've i've read all of it and i don't think you need lives of saints or language of thorns to understand anything thank you so much for watching i'm sorry if you're like a big reader that follows my channel and you're just like i can't believe kate just made a video that i already knew everything in this is not for you this is for me um i hope everyone i hope shadow and bone goes well for all of us um as i've said a few times this is before this the show has even debuted and i'm a little nervous i'm a little nervous as you can tell i am very attached to these books i own all of the collector's editions um i love this series i love this universe and i'm very excited to see it come to life if you've watched the show by the time this goes up i will have watched most if not all of the episodes so let's talk about it in the comments let's talk about it keep it spoiler free though like let's keep everything spoiler free down below um but by this time by the time this goes up i will have watched all the episodes so i am a safe person to talk to or rant too if it goes horribly um we don't know i love the grocery verse i hope this helps you and i will see you in the next chapter bye

Channel: katie can't read

Views: 2,741

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: books, reading, booktube, reader, grishaverse, shadowandbone, sixofcrows

Id: V78lBBXq7mc

Length: 17min 1sec (1021 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 23 2021