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A review by meganeuridae
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
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
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Violence
Moderate: Sexual violence