@epic_reads he's a 10 but...Thorn Season edition with Kiera Azar (and a little cameo from @adamsilvera ♬ original sound - Epic Reads

Dreamscapes and Thorn Realms

In Aṣa’s Dreamer Girl, the insistence on holding fast to imagination and hope mirrors Kiera Azar’s reflections on how Shadow & Bone shaped her debut Thorn Season. Just as Aṣa’s dreamer girl resists cynicism by envisioning love and change, Azar embraces the fantastical influence of Leigh Bardugo’s world to craft her own narrative of resilience and transformation. Both works celebrate the act of dreaming as defiance—whether through song or story—reminding us that to imagine beyond limits is to plant the seeds of new worlds.

🎶 🌌 🌿 🧩 🔮 ✨ 📖 🏰 🕯️ 🗡️ 🌲 🎭 🕊️ 📚 🌟 🪄 🔊 Dreamer Girl - Aṣa

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Author Kiera Azar’s debut novel Thorn Season emerges from the fertile ground of fantasy influences, most notably Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow & Bone.

In exploring how Azar shaped her own world, we see the interplay of inspiration, transformation, and originality.

🌌 The Spark of Grishaverse

Azar has openly acknowledged that Bardugo’s Shadow & Bone provided a blueprint for how expansive fantasy can be. The Grishaverse’s layered politics, magic systems, and emotional depth encouraged her to imagine a similarly immersive realm, where power struggles and personal destinies intertwine.

🌿 Building Thorn Season’s World

While Shadow & Bone lit the spark, Azar’s Thorn Season grows its own roots. She crafted landscapes that feel both lush and perilous, weaving thorny forests and hidden sanctuaries into a setting that reflects resilience and fragility. This balance of danger and beauty mirrors her thematic focus on survival and transformation.

🧩 Characters in Conflict

Azar’s characters echo Bardugo’s influence in their complexity. Rather than archetypal heroes or villains, they embody contradictions—ambition tempered by vulnerability, loyalty tested by betrayal. This multidimensional approach allows readers to see themselves in the struggles of Thorn Season’s protagonists, much like Bardugo’s fans connect deeply with Alina Starkov or the Darkling.

🔮 Dreaming Beyond Influence

Ultimately, Thorn Season is not a shadow of Bardugo’s work but a testament to how influence can evolve into originality. Azar channels the energy of Shadow & Bone into her own narrative voice, proving that inspiration is a springboard, not a cage. Her debut invites readers to dream beyond familiar worlds and embrace new mythologies.

#GrishaverseSpark 🌌 #ThornSeasonWorld 🌿 #ComplexCharacters 🧩 #BeyondInfluence 🔮 #FantasyIntroduction ✨