Shadow and Bone: to Read it or to Watch it

The book series Shadow and Bone is about a “normal” orphan girl, Alina Starkov, who discovers an extraordinary power that she has never seen before. Not only does she surprise herself with this new power, but also her whole country; she then finds out the hard way that this power can either be the downfall of her world or it can be the salvation of her world. Netflix is known to produce many interesting series, and they have now decided to turn the Shadow and Bone books into a television show.

This is not the first time seeing a book has come to the big screen. Whether a small series or a big series there is the Divergent series, The Hunger Games series, The Vampire Diaries, Looking for Alaska, etc. The Shadow and Bone television show, however, contains the Shadow and Bone trilogy and the Six of Crows duology. Most people that read the books often like it better than the show or movie because there is more detail. Sophomore, Sarah Santiago, is one of those people. 

“I will always say that the book is better than the show or movie, just because the book has some details that would change how you see things,” Santiago said. “I believe they changed some things from the book because it would take a lot of time to go into every detail of it, and I can only imagine they had to fit a certain amount of storyline into eight episodes.”

As it is expected, production and the entertainment industry tend to drastically change the books for the television shows and movies. Fortunately for this series they didn’t stray too far from the original plot. 

“I thoroughly enjoyed the show. It portrayed the characters pretty accurately and it was exciting to watch. The show in general was true to the books, in some aspects, storylines were taken out and something from the later books was revealed, but the chemistry between the cast was shown so nicely, and I am glad they didn’t steer too far from the books,” Santiago said. 

As Santiago would choose the books over the show, junior Marwa Shehata feels that the show might even be better than the books. 

“The books were alright, but I enjoyed the show more because of the Six of Crows addition. Even if the show didn’t get everything right there were things about the show that made the characters better,” Shehata said.

When watching a series based on a book, it feels as though the characters come to life. In this series it does exactly that. The actors not only fit the description, but also do a great job showcasing the personalities of the characters. 

“There is tons of diversity in the show,” Shehata said. “We get Asian, female representation as our main character, as well as South Asian representation; we have a gay character, and we also get representation for characters with disabilities.”

The diversity in the show was seen as refreshing to say the least.  Most of the time the casting for the shows or movies change the characters to fit the actor, or even change the actor to fit the character. In the Shadow and Bone series the actors seemed to match the characters perfectly. 

“A lot of times movies have shown those kinds of traits seem like such a bad thing or do a really bad job at representing them, but I think the show did a good job defacing the stereotypes,” Shehata said. “I would definitely recommend both the show and books, but I suggest reading the books first to get the extra detail of the story that the show didn’t add.” 

Overall the show and the books would not be a waste of anyone’s time. While we are all stuck in our homes, take a chance on this series whether reading or watching it, and you will not be disappointed.