A review by _artemis
Six of Crows, by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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
4.75
I feel like I've seen everyone absolutely rave about this series! I love the show and thought, "how different could it be?" or "Do I really want to read YA?" In fairness to SoC, I really enjoyed the first Shadow and Bone book... and really struggled with the next two books in the series. Especially the last book. I think I put a lot of that on it being YA and I've been on a kick with a handful of other series that skew more NA Fantasy and, ultimately, I enjoyed more overall. But, with the second season coming up... my mind kept drifting back to the crows and I was looking forward to jumping back into a world and magic system I genuinely think is really well done (after a couple of mediocre attempts with some other new series recently).
I know people are pretty split on it, but at least for the main Alina plot line... I think I may ultimately prefer the show. Just one girl's opinion! But I get it now re: the crows! Hard to capture all that magic in the books. I'm REALLY not usually drawn to a "quest" or jam-packed action fantasy. Even in some of my favorite series... after a while I definitely start to glaze over "big battle" or fight scenes. When they're really well done, they're excellent. Otherwise I'm usually like, "ok, ok, i get it! can we get back to the plot/emotional tension?" Not in this book. By "twist" #98 I was like "HOW DO THEY KEEP IT COMING? LEGENDS!" I couldn't get enough. Seriously, this was so smart and visual and brilliant.
And don't get me started on the romances. I'm not the kind of person who usually kicks and squeals over ~tender moments~. I'm a romance reader, don't get me wrong! But it takes a lot for me to actually swoon in real life for my fictional romances. And yet... my heart screams for all of them. There were lines that made me cry laughing. There were lines that broke my heart. The second half of this book (tho the first half is still A+) is an absolute banger. I put my phone on silent and squirreled away so I could consume this book as fast as humanly possible.
Book two is already downloaded and waiting for me... I'm just debating how responsible starting it at midnight really is.
I know people are pretty split on it, but at least for the main Alina plot line... I think I may ultimately prefer the show. Just one girl's opinion! But I get it now re: the crows! Hard to capture all that magic in the books. I'm REALLY not usually drawn to a "quest" or jam-packed action fantasy. Even in some of my favorite series... after a while I definitely start to glaze over "big battle" or fight scenes. When they're really well done, they're excellent. Otherwise I'm usually like, "ok, ok, i get it! can we get back to the plot/emotional tension?" Not in this book. By "twist" #98 I was like "HOW DO THEY KEEP IT COMING? LEGENDS!" I couldn't get enough. Seriously, this was so smart and visual and brilliant.
And don't get me started on the romances. I'm not the kind of person who usually kicks and squeals over ~tender moments~. I'm a romance reader, don't get me wrong! But it takes a lot for me to actually swoon in real life for my fictional romances. And yet... my heart screams for all of them. There were lines that made me cry laughing. There were lines that broke my heart. The second half of this book (tho the first half is still A+) is an absolute banger. I put my phone on silent and squirreled away so I could consume this book as fast as humanly possible.
Book two is already downloaded and waiting for me... I'm just debating how responsible starting it at midnight really is.