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sierraclimbs'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
3.75
I read Six of Crows thinking this duology was a prequel to The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, but in Crooked Kingdom I found myself confused about characters being brought up as if I should know who they are. Upon asking a friend, they informed me those were characters from the trilogy… that’s when I googled it & discovered that it is a sequel duology, not a prequel.
I also found a lot of the story telling to be heavy handed in this book. There was an attempt to shove a bunch of backstory for characters by having them tell you a story about a memory wherein the character also had a dream in which there is a story. It really took me out of the actual plot of this book.
The overarching plot was actually interesting. But with all these backstory side quests I found myself loosing interest & not picking the book back up for long periods of time.
I do overall recommend this series. But I think you’d be just fine reading only the first in the duology.
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Blood
tinyjude's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Addiction, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
renewed_reader's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic
emisbooks'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
4.0
my biggest complaint with this book is that the plot felt very convoluted. i had no idea where the book was going a lot of the time which was frustrating and confusing. it picked up in the end though.
BIG BIG SPOILER WARNING:
the end chapters made me cry.
would recommend!!
Graphic: Mental illness, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Addiction and Murder
thenoboshow'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: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
torturedreadersdept'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: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
aino_maria23'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: Death, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Cursing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War
madalina0_0'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: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, and Death of parent
Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Slavery, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
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
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