That Time I Read The Grishaverse Books Out of Order

In the Star Wars fandom there is this thing called Machete Order. It was created by software developer and Star Wars fan Rod Hilton in 2011 as an alternative to watching the films in chronological or release order. In Machete Order, you watch a New Hope and then the 2000’s movies are watched as a flashback between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I’ve been thinking about Machete Order because that is sort of the way I read Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha books and I kind of think it’s a really effective way to read them.

Here is my Machete Order of the Grishaverse:

I think Shadow and Bone should be read first because it breaks down the Grisha orders, how they exist in the world at large and how their power works more so than the other books. Now, I personally still find some of Bardugo’s magic, er science system, confusing but I think it can be even more confusing if you go straight into Six of Crows.

Much like in the Star Wars Machete Order some of the twists and reveals get moved to earlier in the series and yes, you will get spoilers. Most of the spoilers are about who survives in the Grisha series but I actually like the idea of knowing where they end up and then flashing back to how they got there. I’m thinking particularly about *mild spoiler* Zoya. When I first read Shadow and Bone I wrote Zoya off as a basic mean girl who existed to show Alina wasn’t “like the other girls”. But when I re-read Shadow and Bone after knowing her role in the Six of Crows series, it made her character arc more apparent and I understood why she was there.

I’m not going to review the entire Grisha series but I do want to talk about it a little bit. I think there are a lot of critiques and nitpicks that could be made, but on a surface level, I’ve really come around to the series. I enjoyed binging it all at once and just living in that world. It’s a classic hero’s journey but with a female character who not only gets to be strong but also vulnerable. I see how such a rabid fan base has developed, although you can keep all that Darkling fan service. My biggest issue with the series is he got way too much redemption for my taste.

I am so nervous about the upcoming Netflix series. They are smashing the books together and I’m not sure how they are going to do it. At this point I have it in my head the television shows plot won’t follow either of the books but take elements to create something new?