Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom Review

At it's very base, Leigh Bardugo's duology reads like a D&D game, which, if you haven't ever played before, is a Grand Old Time. I highly recommend it, just like I highly recommend these books.

The novels focus on six characters:

Kaz Brekker, cane-carrying, glove-wearing, "Dirtyhands" is the brilliant-minded "Bastard of the Barrel" and ruthless gangster, running a lot of violent mischief in the streets of Ketterdam

Inej Ghafa, the Wraith, the spider, Kaz's shadow, the girl trained as an acrobat and living as a secret-searcher for a powerful boy with a few secrets of her own

Nina Zenik, a heartrender Grisha soldier, who can control other people's bodies with her hands, hunted by her past, her enemies, and the love she carries for a boy who should have killed her

Mattias Helvar, a man convicted of a crime he didn't commit, an enemy in a foreign land, and a disgraced Fjerdian soldier, haunted by his mistakes and the girl who trapped him in more ways than one

Jesper Fahey, a sharp-shooter and gambling addict with more talents (and troubles) than he's willing to admit

Wylan Van Eck, the runaway son of one of the most powerful merchants in Ketterdam, an artist and demolitions expert, struggling with a perceived defect that tore his family apart

Together, these six characters are given a task: break into the most secure prison in the world and steal a scientist who can create a drug powerful enough to incapacitate armies and control Grisha around the world. The job is dangerous, most likely impossible, and will probably result in all of their deaths, whether they kill each other or the innumerable other dangers do. But the payoff would set them all up for life, and no job is too bloody, too dangerous, for Kaz Brekker and his crew.

The plans Kaz puts together unfold as the gang acts, so that the reader is left to follow along blindly, hoping that the resulting trouble won't get anyone killed. Bold, daring, and impossibly clever, Six of Crows is a fantastic fantasy I didn't want to put down. Crooked Kingdom follows an even more twisted path, and I found myself consuming both novels in far too short a time, in love with the antics and the sheer cleverness of Kaz, Inej, Nina, Mattias, Jesper, and Wylan.

And while these characters are criminals with a vendetta, committing violent acts and breaking laws for the sole purpose of monetary compensation, they're also just a bunch of goofy teenagers. Bardugo's dialogue is hilarious, and the chemistry between the characters is palpable in every scene. Friendships rise and fall and every character grows to find something beyond themselves: a dream, a hope, an acceptance. They're hilarious and real, and ultimately a bunch of kids trying to do right by a world that has screwed all of them over.

The world they live in is never kind, never fair, and most of all, never completely happy, so be prepared for things to go wrong, cliffhangers, and genuine fear for every character at some point in both books. The ending, however, is as happy as it can be when the duology comes to a close (besides, we all know I can't handle things without a semblance of a happy ending, so if I can handle it, y'all are fine).

Bardugo's world building is phenomenal, and you don't have to have read her previous series set in the Grisha verse to understand Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. And while there was a lot I wish Bardugo had gone more into depth about, the story was more about the characters than the world.

Delightfully mischievous and deliciously twisted, I fell in love with these books and these characters, and hopefully you will too.

Keep writing, my friends!

Sam

Literary Recommendation: All The Crooked Saints by Maggie Stievater

Movie Recommendation: The Shape of Water (2018)

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