A review by sskalon
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If Six of Crows had been written for an adult audience, it could have rivalled Game of Thrones. 
Instead, I found myself reading a potentially fantastic story held back by underdeveloped characters, whose backstories were often limited by both their age and the intended audience. A friend recommended the book to me, and I must admit, I was hooked. But all throughout, I could not ignore the potential. 

Six criminals come together, driven by individual reasons, to do an impossible heist. The story itself is filled with plot twists, detailed planning and various perspectives. Spoilers below - I will talk about its shortcomings. 

At the forefront of the book is Kaz Brekker, a deeply traumatised criminal mastermind. I found him fascinating, both at the start and as his story unfolded. I thought he was well-written, an interesting balance of flawed and brilliant. 
However, by the end, Kaz makes uncharacteristic mistakes supposedly driven by the development of romantic feelings. To me, this felt out of place, as well as uncharacteristic for him. The real romance of this book is between Nina and Matthias, whose complex dynamic hinted at a depth that was not fully developed. Jesper was done dirty by the end of the book, and I kept expecting the last POV to be Wylan’s, possibly after something went very wrong or to tie everything together. But the story, filled with unprepared teenagers undergoing a deeply flawed plan with endless possibilities for it to fail, went perfectly - not a single one of them was lost. Unpopular opinion: Nina should have died

There’s an almost heroic attempt at making Kaz a morally grey character, but despite his efforts to build a bad reputation—and the author’s attempts to portray him as such—he doesn’t truly operate in that grey area. I understand his mysteriousness keeps people at a distance, but given their backgrounds, Inej must be blind at times when describing him. 

I loved the multiple perspectives, which allowed me to understand each of their minds and accompany them through their parts in the plan. But none of them should have been teenagers. And this book should not have been YA targeted.
I get it, Inej’s past is traumatic - but the alluding to the Menagerie, which is such a big part of her, should have been explored further.  Kaz gauging the eye of someone out with his bare hand and stuffing a handkerchief - good. Mentions of a brothel - bad.
 

To me it seemed clear the author wanted to get deeper into it, having to settle instead for subtleties. Another spoiler:  I don’t even want to further talk about the fact that almost all of the characters are minors. The choice did nothing but constrain the story on all aspects. And made it difficult to read in those moments.

Overall, as a simple reader, due to my attachment to the characters, as well as appreciation of the writing style and the interesting plot, I will rate it 4/5. YA great quality books are few and far in between, and this is one of them. But it should have been a 3. 
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