Shadow and Bone: How the Series Differs From the Books

The newest fantasy phenomenon has now arrived on Netflix, in the form of Shadow and Bone, the massive YA series based on Leigh Bardugo’s best-selling novels. Netflix released the first season of Shadow and Bone on Friday morning, and it’s already making waves with audiences around the world. Fans of the book series are especially excited, as showrunner Eric Heisserer and his creative team brought the world of the Grishaverse to life in way that is both faithful to the novels and brand new for TV.

Shadow and Bone isn’t a major departure from the books it’s based on, nor does it follow them to the letter. It’s a hybrid that actually bends the narratives of multiple series’ from the Grishaverse together for a singular narrative. If you’re new to the Shadow and Bone franchise because of the show, or you’re a big fan of the books and are wondering how the show will adapt the source material, there’s one major change that occurs from page to screen that you need to be aware of.

Every adaptation of a book makes small tweaks on its way to the screen, that’s just part of the nature of moving stories from one medium to another. There are loads of little changes like that in Shadow and Bone. However, there’s also one enormous change that fans of the books probably noticed in the first trailer. Netflix’s adaptation of Shadow and Bone is telling two stories from the books at the same time on TV.

Bardugo’s Grishaverse began with Shadow and Bone, which is the first installment of a trilogy. These books tell the story of Alina Starkov, who is front-and-center in the main plot of the show. After Bardugo finished the Shadow and Bone trilogy, she released a new book called Six of Crows, followed by it’s sequel, Crooked Kingdom. These two books take place two years after the events of Shadow and Bone, and follow the stories of characters who weren’t present in the original trilogy.

The Netflix series puts these two pieces together. Alina and Mal’s story is the main focal point of the series. The Crows – Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias – have their own subplots throughout the first season, intertwining with Alina’s story.

The elements in Netflix’s Shadow and Bone are pretty close to the events of the first Shadow and Bone novel. But the on-screen story of the Crows is one that isn’t present at all in Six of Crows. Their story in the Shadow and Bone TV series is an original one, a prequel to introduce the characters and set them up for an eventual adaptation of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom.

Long story short: If you go read the books after watching the Netflix series, you won’t catch up with Kaz and his band of thieves until the fourth novel in the series. Alina and Mal, however, are main characters for the first three. This is perhaps the smartest way Heisserer and Bardugo could’ve handled the adaptation, as the Crows characters are the most popular in the franchise. The show can now tell the story of Shadow and Bone while finding a way to include the fan-favorite scoundrels. It’s a win-win.

Are you going to be digging into Shadow and Bone on Netflix this weekend? Let us know in the comments!