Celebrate Shadow and Bone‘s 10 year anniversary by reading the annotated first chapter
Leigh Bardugo’s celebrated and wildly popular Shadow and Bone series turns 10! And to mark the occasion Nerdist.com has a link to download a PDF of the annotated first chapter of that book. Even though I’ve never read Bardugo’s book or the series I would love for something like this to show up for some of my favorite books. Where’s the annotated first chapter of Fight Club, huh?
I didn’t dig too deep into the Shadow and Bone annotated edition but enjoyed the tidbits that I did stop and read where Bardugo would point to a sentence and explain the inspiration behind it. It’s fun to see where she points out potential plot holes of characters that-if the series was finished-would react differently had she had known exactly where they were going. Reading the annotated version really gives you insight and not just as a reader, but as a writer. I write comics, but it’s still writing, and it’s fun to see where Bardugo points out spots that she might change if she could go back. It’s something I worry about often as I write graphic novels. It’s an every expanding road to write something, and then constantly reference yourself later on to make sure you’re not destroying the very world you’ve built.
Here’s a link to the Nerdist.com article where you can read their write up and also download a PDF file of that prolific first chapter. Meanwhile I’ll be blaming her for every fantasy novel to exist from 10 years ago on whose titles include the words Shadow, Bone, Storm, Kingdom, Wolves, Bone, Crows, Court, Thorn and Owls. Sheesh.