Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Six of Crows

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

108 reviews

sandonat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

The characters were the best part of the story. I really liked how each one felt different and had specific motivations, flaws, and strengths. I loved the banter and teasing between them. I also really appreciated the competence and cleverness of the characters. There were parts of the story that were pretty dark. The reason I didn’t rate it higher is that not everything felt clear to me. It was hard for me to picture some of the places or action because the writing was kinda hard to follow.

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meganeuridae's review against another edition

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emotional funny tense

3.75

it's really interesting to revisit something you liked when you were younger & look at it thru a more critical lens than you were capable at like, 15. overall this is honestly a pretty solid young adult fantasy adventure type book. my score might be influenced by the fact i already had a prior attachment to these characters though. but as my friends who i was book-clubbing this with can tell you i have a looooooot of critiques.

my favorite part of the story was in fact the characters. most with some notable exceptions i will talk about later are well-characterized and if they don't have a full satisfying arc they are being set up for one in the sequel; & inej ghafa might genuinely be one of my favorite characters of all time. i think you can say a lot of things about leigh bardugo and her writing but she is really good at 1. an ensemble cast of characters and the web of relationships that sprouts from that 2. a shocking twist. formula-wise it is a by-the-books mystery but it is tense & fun to read nonetheless. the prose can be corny in an overdramatic ya novel way - lots of monologues - but it doesn't detract from the enjoyment, at least not for me.

onto things i didn't enjoy; keywords here being nina and matthias. nina by herself is really fun with a lot of depth to chew on and it's nice to read a fat girl who is confident & exuberant like she is! but her relationship with matthias was just excruciating to read. the ultimate thesis to this relationship and arc of “we are all someone’s monster” – as said by matthias on the tailend of the book – absolutely does not work when one side of this equation is opressed by the other, and vice-versa. leigh bardugo writes this relationship as a microcosm of the war between ravka and fjerda; how it affects the young people (read: child soldiers) within these countries & the propaganda they are fed about the "enemy". HOWEVER, by adding the layer of "drüskelle" and "grisha" and subsequently flattening it into the larger conflict of ravka and fjerda, you end up with a shallow, infuriating and frankly pathetic look at the dynamics between opressed and opressor. why shouldn't nina hate the fjerdans? why should she respect their country, their culture? why should have to cede any ground, have anything to learn? if this was solely a narrative about two people from warring countries learning their causes are not as just as they were taught, sure, that would make sense; but because grisha are established as an in-universe marginalized group that matthias' country hunts, kills, enslaves and terrorizes - nina has absolutely 0 reason to do any of that. she shouldn't have to, frankly, but the narrative is written as if she does.

so tl;dr; i did really enjoy this book for what it is, but the nina/matthias relationship brings it down immensely. inej ghafa nation inej ghafa world

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oldemort's review against another edition

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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

4.5

This is my second time reading this book. 🙃 I only first read it a few months ago, but I’ve been missing the characters. 🥹

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH! 😍 All of the characters are so amazing and perfect and I wish they were real and that I could be friends with them. 🥰 KAZ AND INEJ ARE SO AHHHHHHHHHH! 🤩 (That was a scream) 😘 I also love the found family in this book. 🥹

The

whole ice court

plot got a bit confusing for me near the end, so I was just there for the vibes. 🙃 Which were amazing of course! 😌 I loved learning about the character’s back stories, especially Kaz’s. 🥺 There are so many plot twist and even when I think I know what’s going to happen… BAM! 💥 Plot twist. 😱

Anyway, if you couldn’t already tell, I absolutely love this book and the universe. 🥰 My rating is 4.5 ⭐️!

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mainereading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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hazeydaze24's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

5.0

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ashmeanything's review against another edition

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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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angorarabbit's review against another edition

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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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