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5 STARS! This review will contain no spoilers for Crooked Kingdom, but if you have not read the first book there will be spoilers for Six of Crows!
SYNOPSIS:
Picking up where Six of Crows left off. Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Nina, and Mathias had successfully rescued the key to jurda parem from the Ice Court. However, when they returned to Ketterda, Van Eck crossed Kaz and stole his girl. Kaz and the crew are now the most deadly and wanted outcasts in their own city. Hunted by a wealthy merchant who stole one of their own, they first set off to get Inej abck and hope to turn the tides in their favor. Kaz plans to get his wraith back, get their money, and ruin all Van Eck has ever created and stood for in the process.
*I read this book using the Audible, which had multiple narrators. Most of them were good and I'd recommend it if you don't mind multiple voice actors reading form each POV.*
INITIAL THOUGHTS:
HOW MANY TIMES DO YOU HAVE TO GET BEAT DOWN BEFORE YOU LOSE ALL HOPE?! Infinite apparently because Kaz never once gave up.
*scheming face*
This book ripped me to shreds and then put me back together over and over and over again. I didn’t know it was possible for me to love characters as much as I love this gang of crows. Kaz is the cleverest, smoothest, most ruthless mastermind of a devil I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. Inej, with her Suli proverbs and loyalty to her Saints, is now one of my favorite female badass characters. Wylan and Jesper are so freakin’ CUTE, not just together, but one their own. Jesper alone is drop dead hilarious. Wylan is so sweet and innocent and vulnerable. Nina and Matthias overcame so many obstacles together. My gods, the character growth in this book was astounding supplemented by the multiple POV’s. If that doesn’t impress you enough, the plot is unbelievable. The writing catches you, it sucks you in. You can’t stop reading or at least you never want to put this book down. It’s back to back plot twist and turns and surprises. I pray for the hearts of anyone who picks up this masterpiece. This book has so much diversity, family, action, heartbreak, death, magic, and romance! I was speechless after finishing. I have SO MUCH more to say, but I’ll put it all in my full review. Leigh Bardugo is officially an auto-buy-author for me! If you read this series, I’m sure you’ll feel the same.
PLOT:
DIVERSITY
a cripple, an acrobat, a suli, a zemeni, a ravkan, a grisha, a fjerdan, a druskella, a bisexual, a homosexual, a prude, an ex-prostitute, a rich kid, a poor kid, an illiterate, a criminal.
There's even more examples of diversity in this book that I just can't list them all. I appreciate this diversity so much. The only other series comparable to this level of diversity may be Magnus Chase by Rick Riordan. I LIVE for this. It just makes the whole duology feel and read more well-rounded.
Leigh Bardugo isn't afraid to shroud her main characters with weaknesses, but does an excellent job in showing that those weaknesses that may be completely debilitating to some people, aren't for these crows. These weaknesses/disabilities/phobias are what make these characters strong because they are able to overcome them to the point where those weaknesses can be viewed as strengths.
TRICKERY
Oh I don't know how my heart to take all the twists and turns and flips and dives that this book had. Kaz is one devilish mastermind capable of throwing anything and everything you never thought of right in your face. Leigh just kept surprising me at every turn of the book. I kept thinking to myself, "okay, this is it, this is the time they are going to best these thugs." And then BAM! Something else goes wrong and they have to start from scratch all over again. And even if the entire plan goes right, something completely unrelated will barge in on wings and stir things up for fun. What a rollercoaster man. I can't think of another book that has so many plots twists and surprises.
THE SUBPLOTS/ROMANCE
This book is loaded with information, but absolutely NOT info-dumpy at all. We get flashbacks, we get narrated back stories, we get dialogue-type back stories. Then, we also get subplots related to the present like the different romances, the familial ties that needed fixing, the friendships that needed healing. I LOVE all the love in this book. The romances are not only diverse like I mentioned above, but they are also so different in the ways they love each other. Kaz and Inej, so injured by their past experiences that physical touching is made difficult for them, but they trudge through it. Nina and Matthias, two sides of the same coin. Both bred to be warriors, both bred to kill the other, and yet they worked out their differences and found understanding with the other's culture. Wylan and Jesper! My inner boy-romance loving self was so happy for this union. Total opposites, one light-colored merchling with one dark-colored sharp-shooting gambler. They are so good for each other I can't imagine another couple more perfect fit right now.
BATTLES
Pistols, bombs, knives. Everything was fast-paced. There was basically no time for your heart to rest especially when they had to split up into group. I was so anxious every time a new plan would commence because it was almost guaranteed that something would go wrong.
THE ENDING
That ending was absolutely perfectI Some say it was disappointing, but I found that the loose ends that were left untied were done perfectly so. Like it made sense to me to leave those parts to the imagination. Everything else was tied up so well that even the little things I didn't expect to happen, happened! The little last bit with Inej and Kaz together was my absolute favorite. There’s also this slight sadness about the end of CK that I’ve been craving in book endings to happen. I can’t say exactly what it was, but I’m very satisfied with who it happened to and that it happened at all. Because I mean it was necessary. (Yes, I know this all sounds pretty cryptic, but if you read it you may understand what I’m talking about.) I could not be happier with the end of this story.
CHARACTERS:
We learn so much more background stories in this book about ALL these characters. I lived for the flashbacks in this book because we got to delve deeper into the stories of what what made these kids who they are.
KAZ - I've always envied the villains in the story who can wreak as much havoc as they want to execute their plans and felt bad for the heroes who had to tread carefully to avoid causing harm to others in order to protect the innocent. The great thing about this book is Kaz is not the villain, but Kaz is not the hero. He is devious, cunning, clever, meticulously smart, dark, brooding, and ruthless! In Ketterdam, no one is quite innocent, so Kaz needn't spend all his time worrying about the citizens. Also with being an anti-hero, you don't really need to care about the citizens anyway and for once the "good side" could do whatever it took to win. Kaz is a monster. But he also has his vulnerabilities. In SoC we learn of his skin-to-skin contact phobia as well as his true feelings for Inej. He has to fight his own internal battle because of that. And he was willing to. He was willing to try just for her. That just shows that Kaz can be a monster, but he can also be very sweet and thoughtful. He did so much for Inej in this book that I just wasn't expecting it all. So many good deeds from a crow at the bottom of the barrel.
INEJ - "When fear arrives, something is about to happen."
"I am a dangerous girl."
Inej is the root of this gang. She is the medium that keeps these people balanced. She is 100% her own person and is not afraid of what people think of her. She has her Gods, her Saints, and she will worship them regardless of how many people tell her they won't listen. She shouts her Suli proverbs and is proud of it. She comes from a family of acrobats and knows that her skill sets are due to that and she loves them so much. The Wraith isn't afraid of fear. She welcomes it because it means something is about to happen. I'm sure she realizes that each obstacle thrown at her has only made her stronger mentally and physically. She has been knocked down a hundred times and will always pick herself back up. Inej is probably one of my favorite female characters ever because anyone can learn something from her originality, poise, strength, and growth in this duology.
JESPER - "Has anyone noticed this whole city is looking for us, mad at us, or wants to kill us?"
"So?" said Kaz.
"Well, usually it's just half the city."
Jes is so freakin' funny I cannot with how much his comedic banter in this book makes me LAUGH. Like really laugh. I love him so much. And I love him with Wylan so much. And my gods I just want to bundle them up and keep them safe forever. Jesper faced his demons in this book. He may not have been able to fully defeat them, who really can? But he faced them, accepted them, and is doing his darnest to make things right.
WYLAN - is a sweetiepie. Wylan was still a bit of a mystery after SoC, but not anymore. We learn so much about him and his past. His backstory may have been the most upsetting of all. To know fully how much of a cruel and unloving father you have and yet, still hope he has a good side. I don't know how Wylan was able to cope, but he did and he did amazingly in this book. He is grown. He is mature. He is out of shell. He knows his strength and he knows his weakness and he won't let them get the best of him. I have all the hopes he and Jesper get married like asap.
NINA - charming, witty, courageous, and strong. She beat the parem, she adjusted to the changes it caused her, she survived her love interest hatred of her, she's just had so much bad stuff thrown her way and she never let the odd take an inch.
MATTHIAS - he has become a whole new person and yet not so. He had tried so hard to stay true to his Fjerdan culture while accepting the lot he was given to be a criminal with the crew of crows. Him and Nina were absolutely adorable. He was so stoic in the face of Nina seduction and yet... Well, spoilers. I just how much he changed and grew. I enjoyed his contrast to Kaz in this series.
OVERALL:
I NEED MORE LEIGH BARDUGO. I appreciate the quality of this series so much. It was such a huge improvement from the Grisha trilogy. Leigh's writing has grown immensely. Her plotting is absolutely flawless to me in the Six of Crows duology. WHAT AN ADVENTURE. I now believe Leigh Bardugo is one of my auto-buy-authors. PLEASE READ THIS SERIES!