Six Reasons to Like Six of Crows

Title: Six of Crows

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Series: Six of Crows #1

Published September 29th 2015 by Henry Holt & Company

Pages: 465

Genre: Fantasy, YA, Adventure

“Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . .

A convict with a thirst for revenge

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager

A runaway with a privileged past

A spy known as the Wraith

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes

Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.” -Goodreads

My Review:

Wow!

The hype for this book was deserved. This made the whole Grishaverse from Shadow and Bone WAY more exciting and adventurous.

It had exciting plot lines and a huge adventure that ACTUALLY get finished in the book.

From binge reading the Shadow and Bone series to reading starting this duology was a huge change.

To review: Shadow and Bone lacked good development of characters and setting. It lacked a show not telling piece in the story that would have set it high on my list. It was a great story and had great characters…but it lacked depth.

But Six of Crows was a major improvement in that area. While it may have lacked in few key character and plot development moments, it was a drastic improvement from SaB.

1. Plot

The plot was really interesting. It had a beginning, middle, and end. That seems like a very basic “well duh” element of a book but in Shadow and Bone, I felt like every book just stopped in the middle of a plot line until the next book. This book had a climax and falling action. It actually wrapped up really nicely with only one major cliff hanger for the second book.

2. Kaz

Kaz Brekker is my new favorite crush. This is probably influenced by the Netflix Shadow and Bone adaptation with him being played by Freddy Carter. But, hey what can I say. I love a man who secretly harbors a crush for a girl. I love the trope of “he-would-burn-the-world-down-for-her.”

3.Inej

Inej is a badass. You know I love badass women in literature. This book has the wraith, who no matter how much the world is out to get her, she defies them…and gravity.

4. Literally all of the characters

You couldn’t help but to love all of the characters. They all spoke to me in little ways. I think out of all of them Jesper is my favorite. He was witty and fun. He is also attractive and has some history around him.

5. Setting

Setting-wise, I was able to visualize Ketterdam and the Ice Prison really well. This was helped my a fantastic map of the Ice Prison thing in this book and a map of Ketterdam in the second book. Bardugo explains the setting with better details than her last series. She shows a lot of improvement in this series.

6. Multiple POVs

With multiple POVs, we get to see more characters and their thoughts. In Shadow and Bone, we only saw people through Alina’s eyes. Now we can make our own judgements about each character without bias from someone’s thoughts.

While she may have improved her writing, I did find a few things lacking.

The six person POV was interesting, but at times it felt rushed. There were moments and situations that I would have loved to see from another POV. I think that the six person thing was to needed at times because they were mostly all together in the same room.

The romance between Jesper and Wylan was a little rushed and lack luster. It seems to get glanced over. Jesper seemingly hates Wylan and than all of the sudden he is flirting with him? Yes, between the POV’s there is a whole lot of time going on there so obviously his feelings changed. I just wish I could have seen that.

There are more positives and negatives I would love to talk about, but I am trying to avoid spoilers.

Let me know what you guys thought down below. If you haven’t already, read this book (but read Shadow and Bone first so you don’t get spoiled for somethings.

As always, thanks for reading,

A Bookie