egklesch's review against another edition
2.0
(2.5/5 Stars) Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom are the exact same as every other YA novel. The only thing I can applaud about this book is the creative worldbuilding, but even then, it isn't entirely original. It would be easier to go through the things I actually did enjoy about this series because there's less, but I'll go through what I didn't like instead.
All of the characters were flat and one dimensional. They existed for almost 1,000 pages and they still only have two personality traits that define them. Kaz is clever and dangerous, Inej is sneaky and wise, Nina is flirty and sassy, Matthias is racist and scandinavian, Jesper is trigger-happy and happy-go-lucky, and Wylan is naive and out of control over his own life. I was hoping the more I read that I would learn more about their personalities, but nothing ever happened. They all have their own flaws, too– Kaz is physically disabled and traumatized (although his chronic pain is very convenient, more anon), Inej is traumatized, Matthias is overly patriotic, Jesper has a gambling addiction, Nina struggles with parem addiction, Wylan, again, is Naive...I feel like if you can sum up your characters wholly in only a few words, they aren't very well developed– especially considering that plain trauma isn't character development, despite what teenagers on tiktok might tell you.
The writing in the book is very mediocre. With the amount of praise I've seen for this series, I expected something better, but there was nothing special at all. Very plain, very simple. The author has a thing for leaving the audience out of the grand scheme of things and not letting them in on the characters' thoughts until they're being put into action, too, which isn't unique, but is very annoying.
Back to Kaz's disability– I mentioned this in my review of Six of Crows as well, but as a disabled person, I was very surprised to learn that a disabled author would write a disabled character the way she did. He is only in true pain when he is allowed to be. Not once does his chronic pain stop him from doing something important, or hold him back, etc– which would absolutely happen if he were written realistically. He is constantly able to do the exact same things as his able-bodied and very athletic counterparts, and although it causes him pain, he is somehow "lucky" enough for it to not actually matter. Yes, he hurts, but a lot? No, not unless he is alone, and allowed to be vulnerable, and is not needing to do anything significant or important. He never decides for himself he is unable to do something detrimental to the plot because of how badly he is hurting, and is able to live the exact same as his able-bodied gang members, only with a dash of convenient pain on the side for the sake of being edgy and intelligent enough to "overcome" his disability.
I also had issues with Kaz and Inej's relationship. While I did like that they didn't do what most YA books do (where the two characters sprint into a relationship full speed and love-bomb each other), I didn't sense any tension or romantic feeling, with the exception of when we were told and not shown. It felt very forced for the sake of having a main couple and realistically I can't imagine either of these characters would want to actually enter a romantic relationship– so it makes sense they never went anywhere beyond one kiss and holding hands, but it still irks me knowing that every fan of this book obsesses over them when there is not "them" to obsess over. They are traumatized children bonding over things they should not.
I already expressed my distaste for them all being children in the review of Six of Crows, but I am going to repeat myself. There is no reason for them all to be seventeen years old. I am seventeen. I do not act like this. No seventeen year old has ever acted like this naturally, no matter how much trauma they may have. If the author wanted to write these characters this way so badly, she should have made them older. If they were made to be in their 20's, nothing plot-wise would change– in fact, it would make more sense than before (yes, even Wylan, because although he is childish, he is rich and sheltered, and it wouldn't be that difficult to make him 20 years old and having been kept hidden away from the real world the exact same way he was in canon). The fact that the author simultaneously tries to make them seem mature for the sake of them being believable and capable characters whilst also being young at different times for the sake of "they had to grow up so fast" "isn't it sad a young girl had to go through that?", and it often contradicts itself. If she wanted mature characters she should've made them adults. It's very unsettling that a grown woman wrote a book with this many children (who are, at times, sexualized [i.e. Nina and Matthias' night in the cabin in Fjerda]), but did not want them to act like children. Why do you need to make them kids to prove the point that they had to grow up fast? Why do they have to be so young to show how cruel this world is? Is it not just as sad for a grown woman to be kidnapped and trafficked? Or is it only sad when she is a child who was taken from her parents?
This book is mediocre. It has problems and there isn't much to praise. My guess is that the people who like this book just like it because it's the exact same as every other YA book they've mindlessly consumed and loved unconditionally.
All of the characters were flat and one dimensional. They existed for almost 1,000 pages and they still only have two personality traits that define them. Kaz is clever and dangerous, Inej is sneaky and wise, Nina is flirty and sassy, Matthias is racist and scandinavian, Jesper is trigger-happy and happy-go-lucky, and Wylan is naive and out of control over his own life. I was hoping the more I read that I would learn more about their personalities, but nothing ever happened. They all have their own flaws, too– Kaz is physically disabled and traumatized (although his chronic pain is very convenient, more anon), Inej is traumatized, Matthias is overly patriotic, Jesper has a gambling addiction, Nina struggles with parem addiction, Wylan, again, is Naive...I feel like if you can sum up your characters wholly in only a few words, they aren't very well developed– especially considering that plain trauma isn't character development, despite what teenagers on tiktok might tell you.
The writing in the book is very mediocre. With the amount of praise I've seen for this series, I expected something better, but there was nothing special at all. Very plain, very simple. The author has a thing for leaving the audience out of the grand scheme of things and not letting them in on the characters' thoughts until they're being put into action, too, which isn't unique, but is very annoying.
Back to Kaz's disability– I mentioned this in my review of Six of Crows as well, but as a disabled person, I was very surprised to learn that a disabled author would write a disabled character the way she did. He is only in true pain when he is allowed to be. Not once does his chronic pain stop him from doing something important, or hold him back, etc– which would absolutely happen if he were written realistically. He is constantly able to do the exact same things as his able-bodied and very athletic counterparts, and although it causes him pain, he is somehow "lucky" enough for it to not actually matter. Yes, he hurts, but a lot? No, not unless he is alone, and allowed to be vulnerable, and is not needing to do anything significant or important. He never decides for himself he is unable to do something detrimental to the plot because of how badly he is hurting, and is able to live the exact same as his able-bodied gang members, only with a dash of convenient pain on the side for the sake of being edgy and intelligent enough to "overcome" his disability.
I also had issues with Kaz and Inej's relationship. While I did like that they didn't do what most YA books do (where the two characters sprint into a relationship full speed and love-bomb each other), I didn't sense any tension or romantic feeling, with the exception of when we were told and not shown. It felt very forced for the sake of having a main couple and realistically I can't imagine either of these characters would want to actually enter a romantic relationship– so it makes sense they never went anywhere beyond one kiss and holding hands, but it still irks me knowing that every fan of this book obsesses over them when there is not "them" to obsess over. They are traumatized children bonding over things they should not.
I already expressed my distaste for them all being children in the review of Six of Crows, but I am going to repeat myself. There is no reason for them all to be seventeen years old. I am seventeen. I do not act like this. No seventeen year old has ever acted like this naturally, no matter how much trauma they may have. If the author wanted to write these characters this way so badly, she should have made them older. If they were made to be in their 20's, nothing plot-wise would change– in fact, it would make more sense than before (yes, even Wylan, because although he is childish, he is rich and sheltered, and it wouldn't be that difficult to make him 20 years old and having been kept hidden away from the real world the exact same way he was in canon). The fact that the author simultaneously tries to make them seem mature for the sake of them being believable and capable characters whilst also being young at different times for the sake of "they had to grow up so fast" "isn't it sad a young girl had to go through that?", and it often contradicts itself. If she wanted mature characters she should've made them adults. It's very unsettling that a grown woman wrote a book with this many children (who are, at times, sexualized [i.e. Nina and Matthias' night in the cabin in Fjerda]), but did not want them to act like children. Why do you need to make them kids to prove the point that they had to grow up fast? Why do they have to be so young to show how cruel this world is? Is it not just as sad for a grown woman to be kidnapped and trafficked? Or is it only sad when she is a child who was taken from her parents?
This book is mediocre. It has problems and there isn't much to praise. My guess is that the people who like this book just like it because it's the exact same as every other YA book they've mindlessly consumed and loved unconditionally.
natypaix's review against another edition
5.0
This book ended my sanity, I haven't cried at the end of a book since the last Harry Potter. I'm still not over it.
thereadingtrashqueen's review against another edition
4.0
4,5/5
A huge improvement from Six of Crows! Just slightly disappointed with the ending. Other than that, loved this!
A huge improvement from Six of Crows! Just slightly disappointed with the ending. Other than that, loved this!
amelia_f's review against another edition
adventurous
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? It's complicated
5.0
kimmiereadsalot's review against another edition
4.0
I’m really enjoy this series. Way more than I thought I would considering I thought Shadow and Bone was just okay (I hated Mal).
However, I really shouldn’t have listened to this one. The audio is confusing. There are too many narrators and they don’t do the same parts all the time. So you get different accents and voice levels. Jesper was one of the worst. Sometimes he was southern sounding other times…British?
I’d think a series this successful could do a true full cast narration where the same people read the same parts the whole way through.
However, I really shouldn’t have listened to this one. The audio is confusing. There are too many narrators and they don’t do the same parts all the time. So you get different accents and voice levels. Jesper was one of the worst. Sometimes he was southern sounding other times…British?
I’d think a series this successful could do a true full cast narration where the same people read the same parts the whole way through.
philatcs's review against another edition
5.0
what an epic conclusion to an incredible duology. six of crows and crooked kingdom have now become one of my favourite series’ of all time.
leigh bardugo has managed to create a heist with in depth and developed dimensional characters while also maintaining humour, romance AND action sequences. and it’s all written so well.
kaz brekker. i can’t go into detail enough about how much i love this character. kaz rietveld. the ruthless and terrifying criminal who would do anything to seek vengeance and avenge those he loves. i loved seeing him come to his breaking point in this book, and just as you think he’s finally going to fall apart - his fight with jesper and when he turned himself in - he only came out stronger. i love how he’s vulnerable around inej and how he started to become more open with his gloveless hands.
speaking of inej and kaz - leigh bardugo managed to create an incredible romance and relationship between these characters without even a kiss. all that tension and all those feelings and their ending was perfect. i couldn’t have thought of a better ending. kaz buying inej a ship and them going to sail together... AND kaz following inej after reuniting her with her parents at long last. i genuinely don’t think i could love their romance more.
inej ghafa. I FUCKING LOVE YOU! she is the baddest bitch and the ending cemented that for me. that last chapter where she promised to cut out pekka rollins’ heart cut by cut... i love her so much. i loved learning more about inej’s past and her acrobat flashbacks while fighting with danyusha. i loved how we saw how she realised she was stronger than she thought, and that she can be both a hero AND a violent badass criminal. her meeting up with parents and yelling mama and papa in the ending actually warmed my heart so much. she’s my baby!
nina zenik my love. nina went through so fucking much this book. the withdrawal of jurda parem and losing matthias. i am definitely going to read king of scars if it means i get to see her again. i feel like i didn’t get enough of her in this book compared to the last one but i enjoyed seeing this other side to her around the other grishas and how she wants to maybe go back to the army and how much power she can have over other people - and this strange new ability of raising the dead? i really loved nina’s character and a lot of the time i identified with her.
i’m so broken hearted about matthias for her sake but also mine because he came to be one of my favourites in this book.
jesper the fucking legend!!! jesper along with kaz and inej are probably my favourite characters in this duology. he’s a badass sharpshooter and i love his humour and his wit, but also his relationship with the crew, and wylan and his father. i loved seeing jesper’s relationship with his father and how much of a high regard he had for him. i also liked learning about his past with his grisha mother and how close they all were. jesper was consistently either hilarious or emotional and i loved all the chapters in his POV. he is written so well and he’s definitely a character i’ll remember.
then there’s wylan van eck. i definitely loved wylan a lot more in this book. getting to see him through jesper and inej’s eyes made me like him more than just reading his POV. his relationship with jesper and budding romance also made me like him more - we saw his humour and i liked seeing more of him and his mother, and how jesper went with them... i have this weird feeling with wylan which faded mostly when i realised him “betraying” the crew was actually a setup, but he was still possibly my least favourite of the crew.
the villains were also very well written in this book, as were all of the face offs. pekka rollins, jan van eck and danyasha were all written with weaknesses which were layered underneath and although it didn’t happen as much as in the ice court heist, i still went through the emotional turbulence of not knowing how they were going to get out of certain situations - and unfortunately matthias didn’t... still sad about this, because i thought that he’d survive.
i thought this would’ve been a four star read but the last 1/4 was so epic and emotional that i had to bump it up to a 4.5/5 out of 5.
leigh bardugo has managed to create a heist with in depth and developed dimensional characters while also maintaining humour, romance AND action sequences. and it’s all written so well.
kaz brekker. i can’t go into detail enough about how much i love this character. kaz rietveld. the ruthless and terrifying criminal who would do anything to seek vengeance and avenge those he loves. i loved seeing him come to his breaking point in this book, and just as you think he’s finally going to fall apart - his fight with jesper and when he turned himself in - he only came out stronger. i love how he’s vulnerable around inej and how he started to become more open with his gloveless hands.
speaking of inej and kaz - leigh bardugo managed to create an incredible romance and relationship between these characters without even a kiss. all that tension and all those feelings and their ending was perfect. i couldn’t have thought of a better ending. kaz buying inej a ship and them going to sail together... AND kaz following inej after reuniting her with her parents at long last. i genuinely don’t think i could love their romance more.
inej ghafa. I FUCKING LOVE YOU! she is the baddest bitch and the ending cemented that for me. that last chapter where she promised to cut out pekka rollins’ heart cut by cut... i love her so much. i loved learning more about inej’s past and her acrobat flashbacks while fighting with danyusha. i loved how we saw how she realised she was stronger than she thought, and that she can be both a hero AND a violent badass criminal. her meeting up with parents and yelling mama and papa in the ending actually warmed my heart so much. she’s my baby!
nina zenik my love. nina went through so fucking much this book. the withdrawal of jurda parem and losing matthias. i am definitely going to read king of scars if it means i get to see her again. i feel like i didn’t get enough of her in this book compared to the last one but i enjoyed seeing this other side to her around the other grishas and how she wants to maybe go back to the army and how much power she can have over other people - and this strange new ability of raising the dead? i really loved nina’s character and a lot of the time i identified with her.
i’m so broken hearted about matthias for her sake but also mine because he came to be one of my favourites in this book.
jesper the fucking legend!!! jesper along with kaz and inej are probably my favourite characters in this duology. he’s a badass sharpshooter and i love his humour and his wit, but also his relationship with the crew, and wylan and his father. i loved seeing jesper’s relationship with his father and how much of a high regard he had for him. i also liked learning about his past with his grisha mother and how close they all were. jesper was consistently either hilarious or emotional and i loved all the chapters in his POV. he is written so well and he’s definitely a character i’ll remember.
then there’s wylan van eck. i definitely loved wylan a lot more in this book. getting to see him through jesper and inej’s eyes made me like him more than just reading his POV. his relationship with jesper and budding romance also made me like him more - we saw his humour and i liked seeing more of him and his mother, and how jesper went with them... i have this weird feeling with wylan which faded mostly when i realised him “betraying” the crew was actually a setup, but he was still possibly my least favourite of the crew.
the villains were also very well written in this book, as were all of the face offs. pekka rollins, jan van eck and danyasha were all written with weaknesses which were layered underneath and although it didn’t happen as much as in the ice court heist, i still went through the emotional turbulence of not knowing how they were going to get out of certain situations - and unfortunately matthias didn’t... still sad about this, because i thought that he’d survive.
i thought this would’ve been a four star read but the last 1/4 was so epic and emotional that i had to bump it up to a 4.5/5 out of 5.
dance64's review against another edition
4.0
*Closer to a 4.75 rating*
I will come back and do a proper review when I recover a little more.
*Comes back a few hours later*
Okay, I think I'm ready now.
*WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*
So I read Six of Crows at the beginning of last year, and when I was finished I was desperate for the second book. And when I finally had the second book in my hands shortly after it had come out, I was going to sit down and knock it out. But I was wary. Whenever I love a book as deeply as I had Six of Crows, I'm always nervous that the following installments aren't going to be as good. So I stalled, read the first book for the second time in December of 2016. Then I pushed off reading the second book for a few more months. Then last week I decided to pick up Six of Crows again for the third time. And after I had finished it I was so deep in the world Bardugo had created that I decided it was time to pick up Crooked Kingdom at long last.
And I couldn't put it down.
I am relieved to say that I loved it. Maybe not as much as the first book, but I don't regret reading it. I loved the intensity, how romance wasn't really the focus point of the story like it is in so many other books. And I loved how dark it was. It wasn't your typical, "Let's all live happily ever after and live with rainbows and unicorns and eat allll the sweets and yaaaay, fluff!" No. These characters were cutthroat. They got their hands dirty. They fought and killed and fought some more. And they all had their growing points. They all faced their flaws and even if nothing was solved immediately (which I appreciated), each character acknowledged their flaws. The writing was beautiful. And even though there were some characters I may not have liked as much as others, I loved all of them. And I loved how I still kept my respect and affection for Nina and Inej, because typically female characters will fall from grace for me after a while. But not these two. Nina was still sassy in her own right, and Inej is just too precious in her violent, deadly way. So the only thing I regret is that I didn't pick it up sooner, and I will definitely be rereading it.
However. I had my issues with the book. It gets a little too close to "spoiler" territory, so just to be safe I'm going to put it all in a the spoiler tag below. If there's a huge spoiler, I'll put it in another tag with a warning. So tread with caution.
Another problem I had is a little more nit-picky, but I felt as though things weren't as consistent as they could have been. There were moments I had to take a step back and think about it, such as when Inej was teasing Jesper about his middle name as if she hadn't known it already. She's the Wraith. She knew he was Grisha. She finds out things others don't expect her to. And she didn't know his middle name? Ridiculous, I know, but it took me out of the story.
And finally, Matthias. His growth felt a little...thrown in, and it kind of took me some getting used to. But my biggest issue was (HUGE SPOILER UP AHEAD BEWARE)
So that should do it for the spoiler part of my review. All in all I did love the book and its characters, and I'm definitely sad that it's over. But while I do smell a spin-off coming and I have my bitterness about it at times, I still want them. I need them because I need my fix. While Crooked Kingdom may not be my absolute favorite, I'm glad I finally took that leap of faith.
No mourners.
No funerals.
I will come back and do a proper review when I recover a little more.
*Comes back a few hours later*
Okay, I think I'm ready now.
*WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*
So I read Six of Crows at the beginning of last year, and when I was finished I was desperate for the second book. And when I finally had the second book in my hands shortly after it had come out, I was going to sit down and knock it out. But I was wary. Whenever I love a book as deeply as I had Six of Crows, I'm always nervous that the following installments aren't going to be as good. So I stalled, read the first book for the second time in December of 2016. Then I pushed off reading the second book for a few more months. Then last week I decided to pick up Six of Crows again for the third time. And after I had finished it I was so deep in the world Bardugo had created that I decided it was time to pick up Crooked Kingdom at long last.
And I couldn't put it down.
I am relieved to say that I loved it. Maybe not as much as the first book, but I don't regret reading it. I loved the intensity, how romance wasn't really the focus point of the story like it is in so many other books. And I loved how dark it was. It wasn't your typical, "Let's all live happily ever after and live with rainbows and unicorns and eat allll the sweets and yaaaay, fluff!" No. These characters were cutthroat. They got their hands dirty. They fought and killed and fought some more. And they all had their growing points. They all faced their flaws and even if nothing was solved immediately (which I appreciated), each character acknowledged their flaws. The writing was beautiful. And even though there were some characters I may not have liked as much as others, I loved all of them. And I loved how I still kept my respect and affection for Nina and Inej, because typically female characters will fall from grace for me after a while. But not these two. Nina was still sassy in her own right, and Inej is just too precious in her violent, deadly way. So the only thing I regret is that I didn't pick it up sooner, and I will definitely be rereading it.
However. I had my issues with the book. It gets a little too close to "spoiler" territory, so just to be safe I'm going to put it all in a the spoiler tag below. If there's a huge spoiler, I'll put it in another tag with a warning. So tread with caution.
Spoiler
My biggest problem was that there was just too much going on at once. With the first book, there was other stuff that was happening, but the focus point really was breaking into the Ice Court. But this book jumped from rescuing Inej to destroying Van Eck to trying to rescue the Grisha refugees to backtracking after Rollins' betrayal to being hunted in the city to staging an auction and worrying about the Shu and Wylan finding out exactly how much of a monster is and Nina and her abilities and just. I feel as though Bardugo could have picked one idea to go with as her main plot point and been just fine. But I felt almost too overwhelmed by everything going on and I could barely keep up. And I feel as though everything went by too fast to be thoroughly explored. For example, the Shu soldiers. They were in the first chapter, and they were made into a pretty big deal for the first good chunk of the book. But then they just kind of disappeared. They would be mentioned here and there as if they were an afterthought, but they didn't really come back until very briefly closer towards the end of the book. I feel as if a lot of things happened that weren't entirely tied up, and I think this was because Bardugo might be planning other books that tie into this series and go more in depth. But that's a bit of a pet peeve I have with authors: if you're going to introduce a problem or an idea in one series, solve it in that series. Don't make a spin-off and solve those problems in that one. This being sad, however, I would definitely read a spin-off if it was in this world with these characters. Say, a Nina spin-off. Don't tell me she or Inej won't have their own stories. I will riot.Another problem I had is a little more nit-picky, but I felt as though things weren't as consistent as they could have been. There were moments I had to take a step back and think about it, such as when Inej was teasing Jesper about his middle name as if she hadn't known it already. She's the Wraith. She knew he was Grisha. She finds out things others don't expect her to. And she didn't know his middle name? Ridiculous, I know, but it took me out of the story.
And finally, Matthias. His growth felt a little...thrown in, and it kind of took me some getting used to. But my biggest issue was (HUGE SPOILER UP AHEAD BEWARE)
Spoiler
when he died. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that a character we briefly saw in a previous chapter had killed him. While I appreciated that Bardugo added a chapter where the characters actually grieved for him rather than having them be like, "Oh nooo, a friend diiiied. I'm saaaad. Moving on.", I felt as if it was kind of thrown in to throw the reader? Don't get me wrong, I cried. And it takes a lot for me to actually cry at something, which is why this is at a 4.75 rating instead of a 4.5 (huge difference, I know). I was so strong when it happened at first, but then for some reason when Wylan talked about how they were all supposed to get out together and Nina said she's imagining the lights for Matthias, I don't know. I broke a little, though I wasn't sobbing. But I feel as if she could have done it differently that would have made it far more impactful. I'm also just pissed because Jesper and Wylan were my first ship, and then Nina and Matthias were right after. I even had a little bit of guilt because at one point I thought, "Sorry, Matthias, you can't have Nina. She's mine." And look at what happened. You've broken my heart, Badugo. I don't know if I can forgive you. The ice does not forgive. THE ICE DOES NOT FORGIVE.So that should do it for the spoiler part of my review. All in all I did love the book and its characters, and I'm definitely sad that it's over. But while I do smell a spin-off coming and I have my bitterness about it at times, I still want them. I need them because I need my fix. While Crooked Kingdom may not be my absolute favorite, I'm glad I finally took that leap of faith.
No mourners.
No funerals.
kaycla14's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
fast-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
katinakara's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
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? Yes
4.25