alina

Shadow and Bone’s Alina is What a Modern Feminist Fantasy Heroine Looks Like

This Shadow and Bone article contains some spoilers. Young adult fantasy fiction is one of the most popular literary genres on shelves today, full of a seemingly endless variety of stories about faeries, demons, and the sort of complex magical systems that occasionally need a flow chart to explain. It’s also full of young women, both as central characters and primary readers, all struggling and striving to figure out who they are and how they might find their own magic in the world around them.   Yet there’s a certain kind of genre fan that loves to disparage these kinds of…
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Shadow and Bone’s Best Change From the Books is Mal & Alina’s Relationship

This Shadow and Bone article contains spoilers. Netflix’s Shadow and Bone is a sweeping fantasy epic that includes everything from an elite magical subclass (Grisha) that can manipulate the matter in surrounding elements and physical material, to a war-torn kingdom struggling to destroy a growing swath of literal darkness, and a girl whose heretofore undiscovered abilities just might be the key to changing the world. It’s also a story that’s unabashedly romantic in every sense of the word, firmly grounding its central narrative in complex human connections rather than Grisha magical castes or other more distinctly fantasy-oriented themes and tropes.…
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Alina

Alina, a young Russian woman, arrives in New York City to find her father with only a 25-year-old photo in her possession. She befriends Maria, a part-time bartender and hostess with whom she forms a strong bond. Alina is welcomed by an old model friend and is invited to move in with her and her roommate. She finds a freedom she never experienced and becomes immersed in the party scene, trying everything from sex to drugs until things go sour. With the help of Maria, Alina discovers a raucous, loving Italian family who eventually assists her in her search. Through…
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