A review by dance64
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
4.0
*Closer to a 4.75 rating*
I will come back and do a proper review when I recover a little more.
*Comes back a few hours later*
Okay, I think I'm ready now.
*WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*
So I read Six of Crows at the beginning of last year, and when I was finished I was desperate for the second book. And when I finally had the second book in my hands shortly after it had come out, I was going to sit down and knock it out. But I was wary. Whenever I love a book as deeply as I had Six of Crows, I'm always nervous that the following installments aren't going to be as good. So I stalled, read the first book for the second time in December of 2016. Then I pushed off reading the second book for a few more months. Then last week I decided to pick up Six of Crows again for the third time. And after I had finished it I was so deep in the world Bardugo had created that I decided it was time to pick up Crooked Kingdom at long last.
And I couldn't put it down.
I am relieved to say that I loved it. Maybe not as much as the first book, but I don't regret reading it. I loved the intensity, how romance wasn't really the focus point of the story like it is in so many other books. And I loved how dark it was. It wasn't your typical, "Let's all live happily ever after and live with rainbows and unicorns and eat allll the sweets and yaaaay, fluff!" No. These characters were cutthroat. They got their hands dirty. They fought and killed and fought some more. And they all had their growing points. They all faced their flaws and even if nothing was solved immediately (which I appreciated), each character acknowledged their flaws. The writing was beautiful. And even though there were some characters I may not have liked as much as others, I loved all of them. And I loved how I still kept my respect and affection for Nina and Inej, because typically female characters will fall from grace for me after a while. But not these two. Nina was still sassy in her own right, and Inej is just too precious in her violent, deadly way. So the only thing I regret is that I didn't pick it up sooner, and I will definitely be rereading it.
However. I had my issues with the book. It gets a little too close to "spoiler" territory, so just to be safe I'm going to put it all in a the spoiler tag below. If there's a huge spoiler, I'll put it in another tag with a warning. So tread with caution.
Another problem I had is a little more nit-picky, but I felt as though things weren't as consistent as they could have been. There were moments I had to take a step back and think about it, such as when Inej was teasing Jesper about his middle name as if she hadn't known it already. She's the Wraith. She knew he was Grisha. She finds out things others don't expect her to. And she didn't know his middle name? Ridiculous, I know, but it took me out of the story.
And finally, Matthias. His growth felt a little...thrown in, and it kind of took me some getting used to. But my biggest issue was (HUGE SPOILER UP AHEAD BEWARE)
So that should do it for the spoiler part of my review. All in all I did love the book and its characters, and I'm definitely sad that it's over. But while I do smell a spin-off coming and I have my bitterness about it at times, I still want them. I need them because I need my fix. While Crooked Kingdom may not be my absolute favorite, I'm glad I finally took that leap of faith.
No mourners.
No funerals.
I will come back and do a proper review when I recover a little more.
*Comes back a few hours later*
Okay, I think I'm ready now.
*WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS*
So I read Six of Crows at the beginning of last year, and when I was finished I was desperate for the second book. And when I finally had the second book in my hands shortly after it had come out, I was going to sit down and knock it out. But I was wary. Whenever I love a book as deeply as I had Six of Crows, I'm always nervous that the following installments aren't going to be as good. So I stalled, read the first book for the second time in December of 2016. Then I pushed off reading the second book for a few more months. Then last week I decided to pick up Six of Crows again for the third time. And after I had finished it I was so deep in the world Bardugo had created that I decided it was time to pick up Crooked Kingdom at long last.
And I couldn't put it down.
I am relieved to say that I loved it. Maybe not as much as the first book, but I don't regret reading it. I loved the intensity, how romance wasn't really the focus point of the story like it is in so many other books. And I loved how dark it was. It wasn't your typical, "Let's all live happily ever after and live with rainbows and unicorns and eat allll the sweets and yaaaay, fluff!" No. These characters were cutthroat. They got their hands dirty. They fought and killed and fought some more. And they all had their growing points. They all faced their flaws and even if nothing was solved immediately (which I appreciated), each character acknowledged their flaws. The writing was beautiful. And even though there were some characters I may not have liked as much as others, I loved all of them. And I loved how I still kept my respect and affection for Nina and Inej, because typically female characters will fall from grace for me after a while. But not these two. Nina was still sassy in her own right, and Inej is just too precious in her violent, deadly way. So the only thing I regret is that I didn't pick it up sooner, and I will definitely be rereading it.
However. I had my issues with the book. It gets a little too close to "spoiler" territory, so just to be safe I'm going to put it all in a the spoiler tag below. If there's a huge spoiler, I'll put it in another tag with a warning. So tread with caution.
Spoiler
My biggest problem was that there was just too much going on at once. With the first book, there was other stuff that was happening, but the focus point really was breaking into the Ice Court. But this book jumped from rescuing Inej to destroying Van Eck to trying to rescue the Grisha refugees to backtracking after Rollins' betrayal to being hunted in the city to staging an auction and worrying about the Shu and Wylan finding out exactly how much of a monster is and Nina and her abilities and just. I feel as though Bardugo could have picked one idea to go with as her main plot point and been just fine. But I felt almost too overwhelmed by everything going on and I could barely keep up. And I feel as though everything went by too fast to be thoroughly explored. For example, the Shu soldiers. They were in the first chapter, and they were made into a pretty big deal for the first good chunk of the book. But then they just kind of disappeared. They would be mentioned here and there as if they were an afterthought, but they didn't really come back until very briefly closer towards the end of the book. I feel as if a lot of things happened that weren't entirely tied up, and I think this was because Bardugo might be planning other books that tie into this series and go more in depth. But that's a bit of a pet peeve I have with authors: if you're going to introduce a problem or an idea in one series, solve it in that series. Don't make a spin-off and solve those problems in that one. This being sad, however, I would definitely read a spin-off if it was in this world with these characters. Say, a Nina spin-off. Don't tell me she or Inej won't have their own stories. I will riot.Another problem I had is a little more nit-picky, but I felt as though things weren't as consistent as they could have been. There were moments I had to take a step back and think about it, such as when Inej was teasing Jesper about his middle name as if she hadn't known it already. She's the Wraith. She knew he was Grisha. She finds out things others don't expect her to. And she didn't know his middle name? Ridiculous, I know, but it took me out of the story.
And finally, Matthias. His growth felt a little...thrown in, and it kind of took me some getting used to. But my biggest issue was (HUGE SPOILER UP AHEAD BEWARE)
Spoiler
when he died. I had a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that a character we briefly saw in a previous chapter had killed him. While I appreciated that Bardugo added a chapter where the characters actually grieved for him rather than having them be like, "Oh nooo, a friend diiiied. I'm saaaad. Moving on.", I felt as if it was kind of thrown in to throw the reader? Don't get me wrong, I cried. And it takes a lot for me to actually cry at something, which is why this is at a 4.75 rating instead of a 4.5 (huge difference, I know). I was so strong when it happened at first, but then for some reason when Wylan talked about how they were all supposed to get out together and Nina said she's imagining the lights for Matthias, I don't know. I broke a little, though I wasn't sobbing. But I feel as if she could have done it differently that would have made it far more impactful. I'm also just pissed because Jesper and Wylan were my first ship, and then Nina and Matthias were right after. I even had a little bit of guilt because at one point I thought, "Sorry, Matthias, you can't have Nina. She's mine." And look at what happened. You've broken my heart, Badugo. I don't know if I can forgive you. The ice does not forgive. THE ICE DOES NOT FORGIVE.So that should do it for the spoiler part of my review. All in all I did love the book and its characters, and I'm definitely sad that it's over. But while I do smell a spin-off coming and I have my bitterness about it at times, I still want them. I need them because I need my fix. While Crooked Kingdom may not be my absolute favorite, I'm glad I finally took that leap of faith.
No mourners.
No funerals.