Ruin and Rising

Choose one of the female characters who fights in a physical way over the course of the book, either with magic or weapons (i.e., Zoya, Nadia, Tamar). Contrast the portrayal with that of a male character who fights in a similar way. What differences are there? What similarities? What does Bardugo seem to be saying about gender and aggression/violence?

Compare Ruin and Rising with historical events in Russia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. What similarities are there? What differences? Why might Bardugo have chosen not to follow historical events and characters in some ways?

Discuss Bardugo’s use of the various landscapes and settings in the novel (for example, the White Cathedral, Dva Stolba, the Spinning Wheel, the Fold, and/or Tomikyana). Choose one or two locations and analyze why Bardugo might have set different parts of the narrative there. (Use direct quotes from the text to support your thinking.)

Compare Bardugo’s use of the firebird in Ruin and Rising with either her use of the stag amplifier in Shadow and Bone and/or the sea whip in Siege and Storm. What similarities are there? What differences?

What argument does Bardugo make in terms of political power? What is different about Nikolai as a ruler as opposed to the Darkling? Does Bardugo critically examine inherited monarchies?

Discuss the topics of class, inequality, and hierarchy as you see them portrayed in Ruin and Rising. Do any of the plot events challenge traditional Ravkan hierarchies?

How would the book have been different if Alina had kept her power while also transferring it to the soldiers? Why might Bardugo have chosen to have Alina lose her power?

Look up Joseph’s Campbell’s theory of the Hero’s Journey. In what ways does Alina’s narrative in Ruin and Rising align with the Hero’s Journey? In what ways is it different? What about if you consider the entire trilogy’s storyline?

Is there any symbolism in the choice of a firebird as the supposed amplifier in this book? If so, what? (If not, how does Mal’s identity as the actual amplifier affect the symbolism?)