Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

186 reviews

rchulin1's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The plot was very good however the multiple POVs so many I lost count made it near impossible to feel a connection with the characters 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

mrsalexisrjones's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, War, and Classism

Minor: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

natthebrat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Really excellent young-adult book.  I'd compare it, in tone and world building level/type, to the Hunger Games trilogy.  The heist was very well executed and described--despite being quite complex, I was able to follow it the whole way, and the author manages to write an extremely intelligent/canny character as believably intelligent and canny.  That is a difficult thing to pull off!  Finally--I didn't hate any of the characters or get tired of hearing about them or tempted to stop reading the book because of them.  That happens semi-frequently, so, yay! :)

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mxine_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

One of my all time favourite books but I think i popped at LEAST 70 braincells trying to picture what the Icecourt looked like

Still an amazing book read it now. It’s got a heist, a morally grey cast of characters, and a bisexual gunslinger what more could you want?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Hate crime, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Alcoholism, Genocide, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

sskalon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If Six of Crows had been written for an adult audience, it could have rivalled Game of Thrones. 
Instead, I found myself reading a potentially fantastic story held back by underdeveloped characters, whose backstories were often limited by both their age and the intended audience. A friend recommended the book to me, and I must admit, I was hooked. But all throughout, I could not ignore the potential. 

Six criminals come together, driven by individual reasons, to do an impossible heist. The story itself is filled with plot twists, detailed planning and various perspectives. Spoilers below - I will talk about its shortcomings. 

At the forefront of the book is Kaz Brekker, a deeply traumatised criminal mastermind. I found him fascinating, both at the start and as his story unfolded. I thought he was well-written, an interesting balance of flawed and brilliant. 

However, by the end, Kaz makes uncharacteristic mistakes supposedly driven by the development of romantic feelings. To me, this felt out of place, as well as uncharacteristic for him. The real romance of this book is between Nina and Matthias, whose complex dynamic hinted at a depth that was not fully developed. Jesper was done dirty by the end of the book, and I kept expecting the last POV to be Wylan’s, possibly after something went very wrong or to tie everything together. But the story, filled with unprepared teenagers undergoing a deeply flawed plan with endless possibilities for it to fail, went perfectly - not a single one of them was lost. Unpopular opinion: Nina should have died

There’s an almost heroic attempt at making Kaz a morally grey character, but despite his efforts to build a bad reputation—and the author’s attempts to portray him as such—he doesn’t truly operate in that grey area. I understand his mysteriousness keeps people at a distance, but given their backgrounds, Inej must be blind at times when describing him. 

I loved the multiple perspectives, which allowed me to understand each of their minds and accompany them through their parts in the plan. But none of them should have been teenagers. And this book should not have been YA targeted.

I get it, Inej’s past is traumatic - but the alluding to the Menagerie, which is such a big part of her, should have been explored further.  Kaz gauging the eye of someone out with his bare hand and stuffing a handkerchief - good. Mentions of a brothel - bad.

 

To me it seemed clear the author wanted to get deeper into it, having to settle instead for subtleties. Another spoiler:  I don’t even want to further talk about the fact that almost all of the characters are minors. The choice did nothing but constrain the story on all aspects. And made it difficult to read in those moments.

Overall, as a simple reader, due to my attachment to the characters, as well as appreciation of the writing style and the interesting plot, I will rate it 4/5. YA great quality books are few and far in between, and this is one of them. But it should have been a 3. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Sexual violence and Torture

clarabooksit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Drug abuse, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Dysphoria

Minor: Slavery and Trafficking

ashmeanything's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.0

Wow, this book. I haven't taken so long to read something in quite a long time, but it was worth it. Immediately, the prose and command of the world hooked me, and the qualities I initially loved were fleshed out and present throughout the entire story. Bardugo clearly has an amazing ability to weave discrete and complex storylines together, disrupt and reset the status quo, and keep secrets from both the characters and the reader. Finishing this book was like unraveling more and more depth, making the painful and wonderful parts all stronger. The only things keeping it from a perfect rating are the sheer number of details that I had to remember and the very graphic descriptions of injury and bodily harm. Overall, though, this was excellent. I can't wait to read the next one.

Content warnings for xenophobia/racism, trafficking, child abuse, injury and medical content, violence, war, betrayal, genocide, addiction, slavery, and murder (all frequent) as well as bullying, guns, addiction, confinement, illness and child death, sexual harassment, and brief ableism and drug use.

Used for 2024 r/Fantasy Bingo (criminals, hard mode); also fits for first in a series, entitled animals, multi-POV (hard mode), character with a disability (hard mode), survival (hard mode), judge a book by its cover, and book club.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexism, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Drug use, and Classism

angorarabbit's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

TLDR: I really have enjoyed some YA Lit, this wasn’t one of those though. 

 

Context: I am aware that there is controversy regarding this author. I am not on X nor have I watched the Netflix series so there are others who can talk about that with more knowledge than I have. My rating of the book does not reflect these controversies. 

 

Written in 3rd person with the pov changing from chapter to chapter. Chapters are titled with the pov so it is easy to keep track of whose head you’re in. We come to know the characters by their actions and the flashbacks we are privy to. Unfortunately there are no chapters for Wylan. (We find out why in the next to last chapter.) The action is clear and exciting. Ketterdam and the Ice Court are well described including sounds, colours and odours. So what’s my problem? 

 

Ketterdam is basically Amsterdam sometime is a hazy past. The words are Dutch or bastardised Dutch, the port, the rich merchants all of that was basically no work at all to imagine. The Ice Palace is a little better, but is still mainly a rip off from the many fantasy novels before it. At best this is lazy world building. 

 

The crew is diverse as far as their ethnic backgrounds, but what is ethnicity in the context of a fantasy novel? Is Inej coded Roma because she is a talented acrobat as well as a cat burglar, assassin, and a former forced sex worker? Or is she simply given a certain colouring so that the novel ticks the diverse box? And talking of former sex workers, given the criminality of the Barrel, why is it only female characters who were involved in sex work? The lqbtqaa+ diversity is only hinted at. 

 

And then this whole Grisha thing. A deus ex machina supremo. In a jam?, get the character who isn’t doing much to be a hidden Grisha. Need healing?, presto your Heartrender can mend too. No wonder everybody and their maiden aunts are enslaving them. Question is why are they so bad at defending themselves when they can stop a heart before you even see them? 

 

It was the ending that really burnt my toast though. A novel needs a beginning, middle and end. I expect the first book in a duology to leave open endings but I need some sense of completion too. Six of Crows ended with all cliffhanger and no satisfaction. And the truth is I really don’t care enough about this band of teenage thugs to read another 500+ pages to see how they finally get themselves out of the jams they keep putting themselves into.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent

While there is no sexual content there are frequent references to sex work and sex workers. Graphic gambling and gambling addition.

nonotyoshi's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Religious bigotry

uselesspirateraven's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Trafficking, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Vomit, and Alcohol