Alina Starkov grew up in an orphanage in Keramzin with her best friend Mal. She joined the First Army as a cartographer’s assistant, an unremarkable position in an unremarkable life. She was thin, sickly, and forgettable. Then her regiment tried to cross the Shadow Fold, a barrier of impenetrable darkness that split the nation of Ravka in half, and everything changed.
When volcra attacked their sandskiff inside the Fold, Alina produced a burst of light that drove them back. She was a Sun Summoner, the rarest type of Grisha. The Darkling, commander of the Second Army and the most powerful Grisha alive, brought her to the Little Palace to train. He told her she was the key to destroying the Fold and reuniting Ravka.
Bardugo built Alina’s arc around the tension between power and identity. Alina starts as someone who doesn’t want to be noticed. She ends as someone who has to choose what kind of power she’s willing to wield and what she’s willing to sacrifice. Her relationship with the Darkling is central to the trilogy. He offers her belonging and purpose, but his methods are monstrous. The question of whether he can be redeemed drives much of the plot.
Alina’s story concludes in Ruin and Rising. The later Grishaverse books take place in her world but follow different characters.
Reading Order
See the complete Shadow and Bone reading order for all books featuring Alina Starkov.