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If you’re a reader, then you know that a good book can be just as exciting and explosive as the latest Hollywood blockbuster. They’re also cheaper to make. If Michael Bay wants to blow up an entire city street, he either needs a lot of XFX artists, or millions of dollars in pyrotechnics. If you’re a writer, you can do the same thing, and you just need your keyboard.

Leigh Bardugo, the author behind the Grishaverse literary universe, sometimes finds herself getting caught up in spectacles like this when she’s writing her YA books. “I think I always set out with a popcorn movie in my head, and then somewhere we get to a really tragic indie drama. And I meet somewhere in the middle,” Leigh Bardugo says during a spotlight panel at New York Comic Con 2022.

“[Ninth House] was a beast because I had never written in our world before. It required a huge amount of research, and it ended up being a very different book than I initially thought it was going to be. And this happens with all of my books.”

“I always say I’m like the Michael Bay of YA, because I’m like, ‘I’m just going to blow shit up. It’s going to be amazing.’  With Six of Crows, I start out being like I’m going to write a romp. It’s going to be this fun heist story. And then somewhere in there Kaz is riding his brother’s bloated corpse to glory.”

I want to unravel this thread. If Bardugo is the Michael Bay of YA literature, then who is the Chris Nolan? Who is the Quentin Tarantino? And more importantly, which director is the Leigh Bardugo of cinema? Excuse me while I ponder the implications of this for a while.

Are you interested in more Leigh Bardugo? Check out our guide to learn how to read the Grishaverse in release and chronological order.