I am late in the game when it comes to reading this series, but as I’m usually late when it comes to most things (trends, family gatherings, tv shows) it feels adequate. This is a review not just for Six of Crows, but also the sequel, Crooked Kingdom, and so this review will be focusing on the duology as a whole. What can I say about Leigh Bardugo’s writing? I have read a few other novels of hers since this series, and I have to say, she is gifted writer (I will admit I never read her debut novel, however her later stuff has been a phenomenally fun time). Dare I say, her writing style is one of my favorites in the genre. Is it ground breaking? No, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s action packed, well thought out and the perfect selection to suck you in for a bit of escapism. Fantasy worlds with magic elements are a dime a dozen, but finding one as well thought out and captivating as this series is like finding a needle in a haystack. Do you know how many promising fantasy series I had to slog through before finding this gem? (It was four.)
What can I say that hasn’t already been said about this series? I absolutely LOVED it, with a capital L-O-V-E. The world building was fun, the romance was the perfect amount of yearning and side-story based so as not to detract from the main plot, and the characters (for the most part) felt fully fleshed out and interesting to follow (more on that later).
Before I get into spoiler content, one last note on the non-spoiler side: I have a confession to make. I hate multiple POVs, especially when it’s more than two. I won’t name names, but a specific series really soured the concept for me. It felt like some POVs were given more attention than others, and the story felt all over the place because nearly every character was somewhere else (for five POVs!) making it feel like a collection of disjointed stories wrapped in one book. I remember thinking, ‘the problem must be all the POVs the writer is trying to shove through. It just can’t be done with this many characters.’ Well, this series made me eat my words. Why? Because one, all the characters have fleshed out backstories that weave throughout one and other and two (the arguably more important part), the characters are moving through the story with each other, giving us a well rounded main storyline but adding personality and different understandings based on who’s eyes we are viewing from. It’s dynamic, it’s fun, and damn it makes me want to try my hand at a multiple POV storyline now.
Spoiler Alert
I want to talk more in detail about two aspects of the story that would lie heavily in the spoilers territory: the characters and the plot. I had already briefly mentioned this, but it merits reiterating: I love the characters. Am I basic and have Inej and Kaz as my favorites? Yes. But does that take away from the others? Not really. While the main plot is always present (the heist into the prison in the first book, on the run from the crooked law in the second), the personal stories are woven within, revealing more about each character that fleshes them out into fun characters to watch change and grow.
Now while I loved the mutliple POVs and storylines to follow, it is inevitable that a few will be less compelling than others. For me that was Jesper. I want to preface my criticism with noting that I do not think he’s a badly written character by any means, just that when taking into account backstories and other character growths, he lies a little flat in comparison. I would say his shortcomings are most egregious in book one. When going through all the harrowing backstories of the others and the reveal that Wylan’s father detests him, Jesper’s whole personality of being a gambling loving jokster just didn’t have a chance when compared to stories like Kaz having to literally float back to the mainland on his brother’s dead corpse after being mistaken for dead during a plague and being sent to the island where they burned the bodies. They did give him a bit more of a backstory in the second book with the inclusion of his father and more on how he fell in with the dregs, which helped. The crazy thing is, like I’ve said, he’s not a bad character. He’s fun, he has flaws, and I love the way he interacts with the others. But Leigh just wrote the other character stories so well, in a sea of amazing characters a good character can seem lacking.
Now compare that to Kaz. I LOVED the character of Kaz. Yes, yes, he’s a fan favorite. But I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a part of the crowd! I know it’s gauche to bucket characters into Hogwarts houses (a little Buzzfeed cliche, I’d say), but I couldn’t help and think: this guy is a Slytherin through and through. And not true J.K Rawling written Slytherin (who are, safe to say, a bunch of crybaby cowards), but the bad boy Slytherins from fan-fictions. Kaz is conniving, cunning, vindictive, and has the most gut retching backstory of the lot. When the true reason for his haphephobia was revealed I was gobsmacked. Dead mom, dead dad, now dead brother–dude has had the works done to him growing up. I also loved the fact that his limp and cane are somewhat of an afterthought. He fucked up a job, got hurt, now has a limp and a cane. It’s literally described in I believe one or two sentences, and it really shows that it’s not something consequential enough to define him. But the backstory with how him and his brother were swindled and his years of planning for pure revenge on the guy who did it? It’s just… Perfection. I love it, I love it, I love it. And then Inej, poor, amazing Inej who he took for his personal gain and then fell in love with… I want them to be happy, and the ending suggests they are on the road to both healing, but I don’t know if Kaz would ever be content with just happiness. And that is what makes him so compelling to read about.
I am so grateful that Leigh had an ending and stuck to it. Too many people pad out a series, but she had the foresight to keep it compressed to two. Could it have been a trilogy? Probably. There was the possibility to dive deeper into the war Van Eck was looking to start with his jurda parem, but the elaborate play at the end of Crooked Kingdom put a stop to him as a player in the political landscape. Plus, while it deals with heavy topics, the Six of Crows duology is at it’s heart a fun read. If they went the war route, I fear it would have crossed into darker territory like the Poppy War series (which I also loved, but for different reasons), which could have turned off initial readers, and so I’m happy with the direction and note Leigh Bardugo decided to end on. It was the kind that made me want to kick my toes, not put the book down and look at the sky for thirty minutes contemplating life. Sometimes, we just need a good toe kicking book to clean the palette and make us enjoy life again.
End of Spoiler Alert
This series started strong and ended even stronger. If you like a story with any of the following themes, I highly suggest you give this read a try:
- Heists
- Multiple POVS
- Romance subplots (three options for some variety!)
- Tragic backstories
- A fantasy world not set in medieval times
- Found family/friendship vibes
Book rating: 5/5 for that bathroom scene in book two alone (if you know, you know).