Grishaverse Books in Order

The Grishaverse is Leigh Bardugo's Russian-flavored fantasy world, built across three series and a shelf of companions: the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, and the King of Scars duology, with the Netflix adaptation running 2021-2023 and folding both casts together. The order question is real - the series share one map and increasingly share characters - and the answer is clean: publication order is the spoiler-safe order, because Six of Crows assumes the trilogy's outcome and King of Scars spoils both. This page maps all three series plus the story collections, including the 2026 companion (2012–present).

Where to start

Shadow and Bone (2012), always. Six of Crows (2015) once the trilogy is done.

Does the reading order matter?

Three series, one strict line: Shadow and Bone (2012), Siege and Storm (2013), Ruin and Rising (2014) - the Grisha trilogy, Alina and the Darkling. Then Six of Crows (2015) and Crooked Kingdom (2016), the Ketterdam heist duology, set two years after the trilogy and starring a new cast that later crosses over. Then King of Scars (2019) and Rule of Wolves (2021), the Nikolai duology, which needs both earlier series and pays both off - read it third or not at all. The companions sit anywhere after their series: Folktales from Ravka (2015) and The Language of Thorns (2017) are the fairy-tale shelf, The Lives of Saints (2020) is the illustrated mythology, Demon in the Wood (2022) is the Darkling's graphic-novel prequel, and A Darker Shore (2026) is the letters-from-Ketterdam companion, the newest book in the universe. Chronology quirk worth knowing: the Crows duology is set before King of Scars but was written first - publication order and in-world order agree here, which almost never happens

Which one is the best?

Six of Crows (2015), the fan favorite; Shadow and Bone (2012), the door; Rule of Wolves (2021), the convergence.

Covered in depth here

An 8-question quiz, reading time, club questions and verified quotes for Six of Crows.

Related guides

Readers finishing this shelf usually want the map next door: Percy Jackson books in order, The Mortal Instruments books in order, Fourth Wing books in order. Every guide follows the same format — the shelf, the entry point, the honest answer about order.

Make it a project

Pick a session size and let the days accumulate — at the pace our reading speed test measures, most shelves above clear in a few weeks of half-hours. Every guide on the books in order shelf follows this same format, and when a book lands, its 8-question quiz is waiting on the original book quiz.