Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Šešetas varnų

This was so fun to read! Being back in the Grishaverse was a blast, with a new set of characters that are each so intriguing but a as crew absolutely unstoppable. I loved the little hints at characters we've met in the "Shadow & Bone" Trilogy. The story kept me on the edge of my seat, questioning at every turn whether they'll make it or not. I cannot wait to continue with "Crooked Kingdom" to see hiw the Crows' story continues.

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bessadams's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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natyourusual_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Once you reach the actual heist happening and the first major problem in the Ice Palace, it becomes a fun read. Unfortunately, that takes over 280 pages which is roughly 2/3 of the whole book. I should not have to slog through that much for it to get good. Plus, certain characters got hyper-speed development at the end despite having enough page time to get better slowly. Other characters got so little page time of substance that I barely knew who they were until the end. It just felt a little sloppy imo. All of the characters should have been aged up as well. I hated being reminded that they’re literal children because that did not make any sense for their character arcs/backgrounds and took me out of the story. Explanation of my biggest gripe in the spoiler section (and it has some pretty big spoilers):

Okay so I have one major gripe with this book and it’s the Nina/Matthias romance. He is a former witch hunter and she’s Grisha. The horrendous things we see from him and his ilk throughout the story are absolutely disgusting. He’s essentially former gestapo yet we’re supposed to be rooting for him to get with someone he was going to torture and murder on several occasions. Even after they’re into each other and they see the burnt corpses of her people, he has the audacity to say to her “have you ever considered that you were never meant to exist?” Like, I get that he “grows” and realizes that maybe everything he was taught was propaganda and wrong, but he also pulls the “killing Hitler means you’re as bad as him” argument when he stops Nina from killing his genocidal mentor. I just think a lot of that arc was not good and I hated it. Them being friends and him growing and then helping her stop more of her people being murdered by helping her end (read: kill) the main cause of that violence would have been a better arc. No romance, though, ever. I cannot stand this type of romance. </spoiler

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ghoststations's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A wild ride from start to finish. Leant a little heavily on the changing points of view to give the reader the element of surprise/suspence towards the end, but was still thoroughly enjoyable though all of those moments. Characters that I loved/loved to hate, worldbuilding that blended nicely into the story. Relationships (friendships, romance, rivalries, etc) that all felt real and were compelling. Can't wait to read the sequel!

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icedlemonade's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This book is amazing!! It’s a little hard to understand what’s going on at some points but the plot twists and character development are great!!

I FEEL SO BAD FOR WYLAN HIS DAD IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH

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david_slack110507's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

About a year or so ago, I began reading the Shadow and Bone trilogy as a means to enter Leigh Bardugo's world of the Grishaverse, admittedly, the main reason why I had started to read that trilogy was to start reading this duology, the Six of Crows duology, as it had been so widely critically acclaimed, recommended, and well received that they were put on my radar but I decided I would read the Shadow and Bone trilogy books first, as while not necessary to read these books, I'm glad I did as not only did it allow me to appreciate the little nods and mentions to the aforementioned trilogy spread throughout this book, but it also meant that I wasn't going into this book blind when it came to the lore and the Grisha systems of the world. I also found that it allowed me to appreciate the overall upward shift in quality because while eventually, I did really enjoy the Shadow and Bone books, this one was just another level.

One of the main enticements of this book for me was the characters and I'm glad to say that the characters, at least our main group of 6, all were incredibly well-written and developed. I think their connections as a group as well as intergroup connections with one another were so well done. I loved them all - Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Nina, and Matthias - and I found that I was never once bored when it shifted to either one of their perspectives which I'm really glad this book did as everyone had a unique character background which explained why they were doing what they were doing as well as having unique perspectives on the heist that lay ahead of them.

Speaking of the heist, I found that the heist as the plot was actually really strong, and it helped move the book along at a brisk but nice pace allowing for moments to breathe before the next one arrived. I found the pre-planning and the constant shift in plan when something unaccounted for happened or when something wrong took place was extremely enjoyable and it was really good to see these characters constantly face change during their heist on the Ice Court and adapt the best that they could.

I also really liked seeing the world beyond Ravka and the Grisha's perspective as that was something that, now looking back on it, was missing from the Shadow and Bone books so it was interesting to see what the Fjerdans/Fjerda thinks of Grisha and vice versa as well as seeing the story set in a place of less elegance and extravagance than Ravka with East Stave and the 'Barrel'. It also built upon Grisha magic with the introduction of Jurda Parem, a drug that allows Grisha to do unimaginable things that break the previous limits of their power; I do wish we had gotten to see more of it but I also think that what we saw did demonstrate well enough why it was so dangerous to the world and why it was imperative that this not fall into the wrong hands.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this even if it did take me a lot longer than I wanted to but I found it to be a huge step up from the Shadow and Bone books and the next book is rated even better so I can't even imagine how good of a treat that'll be which I'm hoping to get around to relatively soon as I try and finish up the other books I have on the go. I'm interested in seeing whether or not the next book, Crooked Kingdom, will resolve the cliffhanger off screen (or off the page in this instance, with explanations in the form of exposition spread throughout to explain it) or whether it will start the book and wrap it up relatively quickly to then go onto the actual plot of that book but I guess only time will tell.

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axel_p's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was a bit dissapointed. I thought this book was spething completely else.

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