Scan barcode
david_slack110507's review against another edition
- 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 absolutely love the Crows and their dynamics with one another. It expanded on them even more from Six of Crows, particularly with the relationships of Kaz and Inej, Jesper and Wylan, Jesper and Kaz, Nina and Inej etc. It was so fun seeing all of the characters continue to flourish and to expand upon their already established relationships as well as build new ones and it was one of the main things that kept me coming back even with my reading slump in full force. I liked the endings we got for our Crows as they felt both satisfying and open-ended enough to allow for a sequel or for them to show up in other stories like Nina in the King of Scars duology.
The plot, while I don't think I loved it as much as the Ice Court heist, was still very interesting and was not what I expected going off of the ending of Six of Crows and where this book started off as the plot twists felt cleverly planned out and implemented without feeling like they were done to simply progress the story lazily. The last part of the book - Part 6: Action & Echo - was extremely interesting and one of my favourite parts of the boom because the chaos flowed very nicely to make it an unpredictable, fun, and memorable reading experience. Matthias' death was unexpected and while it wasn't extremely emotional for me as Matthias is one of my lesser favourite Crows (though I do still really like him as a character), it was still effectively done and I'm interested in seeing how this will affect Nina's story going into King of Scars.
Overall, I really liked this book and while I do feel like reading this through a reading slump affected my opinion on the book, though to no fault of the book, I think it was very successful and met my expectations on how to end this duology yet left it in an interesting place to open up into another book to make it a trilogy, which I would not be totally against. I'm most likely going to continue on with my Grishaverse binge and read Nikolai's duology with Zoya and Nina, King of Scars, next as well as hopefully soon rewatch season 1 of Shadow and Bone as well as finally watch season 2 for the first time as I've been waiting until I finished this book as I have been unsure whether or not they included elements of this and Six of Crows into season 2 or not.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Vomit, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism
_ami_'s review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Death, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic
entityj's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Gun violence, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, and Pandemic/Epidemic
cnannery19's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
bubblegum_or_books's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, and Grief
Minor: Slavery and Pregnancy
little_white's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Addiction and Chronic illness
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
themoodreader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Minor: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
axel_p's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
toastyghosty13's review against another edition
- 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
2.0
I especially lost it during this book when
I also found the follow up plot from Six of Crows to be pretty boring in comparison. The Ocean's 11 type plot from Six of Crows was enjoyable enough and I did not dislike it. I originally gave it a 3.5/5 and have since changed it to 3, since I clearly desperately wanted to like it after loving each of the unique and interesting characters we were introduced to. I wholeheartedly feel the same about the mainline Grisha series following Alina Starkov, where
This has taken a tangent away from reviewing only Crooked Kingdom to ranting about my frustrations with Leigh Bardugo's imbalance in writing quality and character development. The main Grisha line is bleh but quick enough that you can read it all in under a week. The Crow's duology is much longer despite only being 2 books so I recommend reading the main Grisha line to see if you like it first. This way, you won't be stuck in an internal battle having to convince yourself to finish a book after starting it 2 months ago because you are already 55% of the way through. I started reading the Grishaverse books because I watched the first 6 episodes of the tv show on Netflix, and this is an exception to the rule of books being better than the cinematic adaptation. Ben Barnes is a great actor, and he's hot, so you're better off there. You also get the main Grisha line with the Crows duology all in one show, and the other actors for the Crows characters are superb and really bring the characters to life in new plotlines that are not even part of the books.
TLDR; skip all the Grisha books, just watch the show.
Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, and Blood
Minor: Pregnancy
jp1920's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Abandonment