A review by egklesch
Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo
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.