riverlasol's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
OH MY GOD. I have no way to actually say this other than I am wrecked. I’ve never sobbed over a book…until today. I’ve cried but never SOBBED like I did for this ending. I took my time with this duology despite how addictive it is (mostly cuz school ugh) but that also meant I really got the sit with these characters and at this point, they just mean so much to me. I loved how sharp this book was, how witty and clever, the moments of levity were perfectly placed and the moments of sadness, of human desperation, of human love, they were all so powerful. I know this is a popular book and that it isn’t perfect (i.e. some of the ways disability was repped, but it’s hard to get that perfect and from what I know of disability theory it does a pretty good job) but it really is one of my favorite things I have read and it was a little life changing. So yeah I’d recommend…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Violence
Moderate: Ableism and Mental illness
Minor: Slavery, Sexual harassment, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Kidnapping, Trafficking, War, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Torture, and Drug abuse
dkaps's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Kidnapping, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Ableism, and Addiction
Minor: Death of parent, Drug abuse, War, Drug use, Alcohol, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Injury/injury detail, Physical abuse, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Racism, Slavery, and Torture
shalladin's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Addiction and War
goldenslug's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
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
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, War, Violence, Trafficking, and Religious bigotry
aryaa_05's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Blood, Trafficking, War, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Drug use, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, and Gun violence
deerlybeloved's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
5.0
If I could rate it any higher, I would.
Crooked Kingdom is a phenomenal sequel to Six of Crows, leaving the reader antsy and waiting, on the edge of their seat with every new twist and turn. Every revealed detail, paid off foreshadowing, character interaction, and planned event leaves you in a new bout of stunned silence as you listen, tense and wanting to know more.
Each character is unique, and fleshed out, meaning every chapter (each written from a different perspective) leaves you excited to learn more about that individual, and has its own personal bit of characterized flair that makes you excited to turn the page and learn who the next point-of-view is fore-- Matthias, Inej, Wylan? You just have to find out, sleep be damned.
So much weaves together to form a plot where just as one issue is resolved, you remember that ah, that's right, three chapters earlier that other plot point was introduced, and all of a sudden it's coming back-- You can't believe you forgot, but how could you not when the fate of the world was being handled first?!
The end will break your heart, as much as it heals it, giving you as many tears as it does grins as you flip through the ending chapters and realize just how much has been lost...and how much is being rebuilt.
Crooked Kingdom is a phenomenal sequel to Six of Crows, leaving the reader antsy and waiting, on the edge of their seat with every new twist and turn. Every revealed detail, paid off foreshadowing, character interaction, and planned event leaves you in a new bout of stunned silence as you listen, tense and wanting to know more.
Each character is unique, and fleshed out, meaning every chapter (each written from a different perspective) leaves you excited to learn more about that individual, and has its own personal bit of characterized flair that makes you excited to turn the page and learn who the next point-of-view is fore-- Matthias, Inej, Wylan? You just have to find out, sleep be damned.
So much weaves together to form a plot where just as one issue is resolved, you remember that ah, that's right, three chapters earlier that other plot point was introduced, and all of a sudden it's coming back-- You can't believe you forgot, but how could you not when the fate of the world was being handled first?!
The end will break your heart, as much as it heals it, giving you as many tears as it does grins as you flip through the ending chapters and realize just how much has been lost...and how much is being rebuilt.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Injury/injury detail, Gun violence, Confinement, Chronic illness, Torture, Religious bigotry, Drug abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Drug use, Xenophobia, Violence, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, Grief, Blood, Addiction, and Child abuse
Moderate: Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Murder, Hate crime, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Injury/injury detail, Rape, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Ableism, and Forced institutionalization
Inej, one of the main characters, has a backstory HEAVILY rooted in discussion of pedophilia, child trafficking, sex trafficking, slavery, sexual slavery, rape, sexual abuse, kidnapping, and so much more. While handled with beautiful tact and insight, the depictions of flashbacks and Inej's feelings of these things can comfort survivors of similar things as much as it destroys us. Go with caution. As well, religious bigotry, ableism, trauma, emotional neglect, horrid things happening to children, war, racial fetishization, and so much more is dealt with in tactful ways, but ever presently used as reminders that the world is as imperfect and dark as it is beautiful.aj_igoe's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
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? It's complicated
4.5
I love this book. I loved the first book (six of crows). The only reason I’m giving it a 4.5 instead of a 5.0 it’s because there’s a death that I feel is just for shock value and wasn’t necessary.
Other than that this book was wonderful in the character development was wonderful. There’s a lot of dark themes about this book and I really enjoyed seeing the parallels to modern day capitalism
Other than that this book was wonderful in the character development was wonderful. There’s a lot of dark themes about this book and I really enjoyed seeing the parallels to modern day capitalism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Physical abuse, Classism, and War
Moderate: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Torture, Pregnancy, Gun violence, Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Slavery, Drug use, and Sexual content
mary_do12's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
5.0
„I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together —knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do, we never stop fighting.“
This book quite literally clenched my soul, wrenched it, and threw it out of the window. I don’t have any words to describe how amazingly this is written, not to mention the brilliantly created plot line. Leigh Bardugo, you have all my respect and admiration. And the way you not only created an incredible story, but brought this incredible sense of humor in it, is simply unbelievable.
As someone whose native language is not english, this was hard to read at times. I usually don’t have problems with english books, in fact, they’re all I read, but the vocabulary in this series was just a little different. This is something that I discovered in the Shadow and Bone series too, but I think that‘s a sign of the greatness of the writing. There is so much happening in these books, it’s hard to comprehend for me sometimes. And I think I’m not smart enough (or at least I wasn’t putting enough effort in) to fully understand every move they were scheming. Goodness, how could I, these people are brilliant. The world Bardugo managed to create is undoubtedly one of the greatest ever and I can’t get around being so grateful for being able to spend some time with these amazing characters.
We don’t even have to talk about
Kaz, he’s simply a genius. Much more than that, he’s a character you cannot help but sympathizing with, despite his questionable actions. Just like the other characters, he is neither fully good nor fully bad but I think that makes him even more lovable. Seeing more vulnerable parts of him, especially in this book, shifts the readers perspective a bit and helps to see what is behind that clever boy that managed to not only change but almost reign certain parts of his world at such a young age. Seeing his trauma and how he had to deal with it makes me admire him even more.
Inej. My beloved Inej. The amount of strength she has is out of this world. Her character is one of the best written ones I’ve ever read about. The way she described fear holds so much power, dang it, she holds so much power. I love that she was the first one directly involved in their plans and the way she was so close to Kaz from the beginning. Now some may say Kaz never trusted anyone fully and yes, even she didn’t know all about him, especially in the beginning. I feel like both of them were still loners, even when they got closer. But considering that Kaz was always really cautious about who he trusted, the fact that he himself said that he trusted her speaks so much more. The way they cared about each other even as independent thieves and fighters melts my heart. Also, the scene where he helped her with her bandages was just- AEKGDJABABSB
Sorry. Had to let that out. Those two human beings have my whole heart.
Nina is straight up a badass. She was from the very beginning and not only I admit that I wish to be like her, the others did too. I love when they talked about something they were not super good at and said they wished to be as good as another character. I love how in her relationship with Matthias, she was being the more dominant one at times and I love her bravery and how she stuck with her values even when he had different ones. Her rescuing him even though he was really freaking mad at her shows just how much she stands by her promises and beliefs. I mean, do we even have to talk about their relationship? The banter, the anger, yes, maybe the toxicity, but DANG they did that shit so well.
Matthias. Oh goodness, Matthias. I like how they author gave everyone different opinions and values, I like that Inej and and Matthias believed in a god and that even though the others didn’t agree with them, they still respected their beliefs. I have to admit, Matthias had questionable values to me at the start but I love that because it makes me develop a kind of respect for him and not reducing him to his opinions.
Jesper. I feel like he has similarities with Kenji from Shatter Me and I don’t know why. I mean, they don’t have the same sense of humor or whatever. Maybe it’s his connection to Kaz. Him being the only one who had contact to his loving father made him different from the others. I like that he thought he was kind of spoiled because of that, even when it’s definitely not true. He went through so much, too. I like his flaws, the fact that he tried to hide his gift and made it seem like he was fine to the others. He was stronger than he thought.
Wylan. Wylan was just the innocent little guy that somehow got caught up in a dangerous heist and wasn’t able to get out of it after. I like that he was kind of an outsider in the group because he really didn‘t like doing bad stuff but I also like that he changed and somehow became a little bit more morally grey. Still, his innocence stuck with him and made him different. My view on him really changed during this book as I saw more of what his father had done to him. That poor guy.
Summed up, this book was perfection. No arguments. Go read it. Right now.
This book quite literally clenched my soul, wrenched it, and threw it out of the window. I don’t have any words to describe how amazingly this is written, not to mention the brilliantly created plot line. Leigh Bardugo, you have all my respect and admiration. And the way you not only created an incredible story, but brought this incredible sense of humor in it, is simply unbelievable.
As someone whose native language is not english, this was hard to read at times. I usually don’t have problems with english books, in fact, they’re all I read, but the vocabulary in this series was just a little different. This is something that I discovered in the Shadow and Bone series too, but I think that‘s a sign of the greatness of the writing. There is so much happening in these books, it’s hard to comprehend for me sometimes. And I think I’m not smart enough (or at least I wasn’t putting enough effort in) to fully understand every move they were scheming. Goodness, how could I, these people are brilliant. The world Bardugo managed to create is undoubtedly one of the greatest ever and I can’t get around being so grateful for being able to spend some time with these amazing characters.
We don’t even have to talk about
Kaz, he’s simply a genius. Much more than that, he’s a character you cannot help but sympathizing with, despite his questionable actions. Just like the other characters, he is neither fully good nor fully bad but I think that makes him even more lovable. Seeing more vulnerable parts of him, especially in this book, shifts the readers perspective a bit and helps to see what is behind that clever boy that managed to not only change but almost reign certain parts of his world at such a young age. Seeing his trauma and how he had to deal with it makes me admire him even more.
Inej. My beloved Inej. The amount of strength she has is out of this world. Her character is one of the best written ones I’ve ever read about. The way she described fear holds so much power, dang it, she holds so much power. I love that she was the first one directly involved in their plans and the way she was so close to Kaz from the beginning. Now some may say Kaz never trusted anyone fully and yes, even she didn’t know all about him, especially in the beginning. I feel like both of them were still loners, even when they got closer. But considering that Kaz was always really cautious about who he trusted, the fact that he himself said that he trusted her speaks so much more. The way they cared about each other even as independent thieves and fighters melts my heart. Also, the scene where he helped her with her bandages was just- AEKGDJABABSB
Sorry. Had to let that out. Those two human beings have my whole heart.
Nina is straight up a badass. She was from the very beginning and not only I admit that I wish to be like her, the others did too. I love when they talked about something they were not super good at and said they wished to be as good as another character. I love how in her relationship with Matthias, she was being the more dominant one at times and I love her bravery and how she stuck with her values even when he had different ones. Her rescuing him even though he was really freaking mad at her shows just how much she stands by her promises and beliefs. I mean, do we even have to talk about their relationship? The banter, the anger, yes, maybe the toxicity, but DANG they did that shit so well.
Matthias. Oh goodness, Matthias. I like how they author gave everyone different opinions and values, I like that Inej and and Matthias believed in a god and that even though the others didn’t agree with them, they still respected their beliefs. I have to admit, Matthias had questionable values to me at the start but I love that because it makes me develop a kind of respect for him and not reducing him to his opinions.
Spoiler
I really didn’t expect him to die at all, and it broke my heart. He had so much character development and all that for nothing? And the fact that him maturing, changing his opinions and moving away from things that he realized were wrong cost him his life in the end? Heartbreaking. He could’ve died at any point in the missions but it had to be at the very end, by someone he once was, too. And what all that did to Nina? I don’t even wanna imagine. Goodness, they’re all so strong.Jesper. I feel like he has similarities with Kenji from Shatter Me and I don’t know why. I mean, they don’t have the same sense of humor or whatever. Maybe it’s his connection to Kaz. Him being the only one who had contact to his loving father made him different from the others. I like that he thought he was kind of spoiled because of that, even when it’s definitely not true. He went through so much, too. I like his flaws, the fact that he tried to hide his gift and made it seem like he was fine to the others. He was stronger than he thought.
Wylan. Wylan was just the innocent little guy that somehow got caught up in a dangerous heist and wasn’t able to get out of it after. I like that he was kind of an outsider in the group because he really didn‘t like doing bad stuff but I also like that he changed and somehow became a little bit more morally grey. Still, his innocence stuck with him and made him different. My view on him really changed during this book as I saw more of what his father had done to him. That poor guy.
Summed up, this book was perfection. No arguments. Go read it. Right now.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Addiction, Murder, Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Death, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Torture, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Abandonment, Injury/injury detail, Grief, and Child death
Minor: Vomit, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and War
deadgirlwalking23's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, War, Blood, Injury/injury detail, and Death
Moderate: Gun violence, Cursing, Grief, Medical content, Addiction, Drug use, and Pregnancy
Minor: Torture, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual assault
jonsnowsmanbun's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
„I don’t hold a grudge. I cradle it. I coddle it. I feed it fine cuts of meat and send it to the best schools. I nurture my grudges, Rollins.“
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, and Death
Minor: Ableism and War