A review by tsar
Crooked Kingdom, by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“We meet fear. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us. When fear arrives, something is about to happen.”

Picking up where it's left off, Crooked Kingdom laid the foundation that guarantees a difficult victory for Kaz and his group as they attempt to fix the mistakes caused by their missed calculations in their previous heist. His overflowing confidence has cost them extreme recklessness that eventually has taken their teammate away to a secluded area by their supposed benefactor. As a result, with stakes skyrocketing to an impossible feat, the Crows gang is forced to play beyond their safe, familiar lane that they could easily predict any counterattack.

While the possibility of Jarl Brum and Pekka Rollins as tough cookies turns to be a disappointing landslide, Van Eck emerges to be a formidable foe that could almost match the energy of the Crows seamlessly. His attentiveness to playing dirty by manipulating the Crows' greatest fears proves to be a fruitful occurrence; Bardugo sets out those moments for the Crows to struggle with their near-impenetrable belief, forcing them to unlock a certain chain of events that they have buried for quite a while. And for that, despite his ultimate loss at the end, it never feels like he is an underused cheap villain for the protagonists to step stone, but a solid appreciation that we could say as a good game.

Furthermore, the grand climax rewards the readers with another sequence hoped in the sequel: a string of action-packed scenes. Bardugo does not disappoint in this element as she decides for riskier and crazier battles to be included: a mass brawl between Kaz and the Dregs, the acrobatic bomb planting by Inej and her subsequent deadly match with Dunyasha, and Nina's overwhelmingly terrifying turn from a Heartrender into a Corpsewitch.

As their personalities have been established in the first book, the sequel opts to focus on the character development and interpersonal relationships between the protagonists without dampening their already well-written characterization. Mentioned above is the fact that Bardugo uses Van Eck's emotional manipulation for the Crows to face the greatest fears, and that is exactly what they do to redeem the humanity that they have cast aside. For example, Kaz is allowed the chance to finally have proper mourning of his brother's death, Inej encounters her own grief that renders her to blame herself less, Wylan gets the advantage to learn about his family better than he's told about despite the heartbreaking truth that follows his learning, Matthias and Nina holding an eye-to-eye conversation that ultimately motivates Matthias to respect differences and uniqueness beyond his Fjerdan upbringing.

Most of all, Jesper has the fairest development out of the Crows with his wall of insecurities are slowly doubled down with the appearance of his father, concisely elaborating Jesper's troubling view as a suppressed Grisha and gambling addiction is a result of his traumatic experience that sees his mother dying from using her power and fear to become a fully trained Grisha under the Darkling's former rule.

Being a successful sequel as well as a closure to the spin-off duology, there is no doubt that Bardugo has tremendously improved her writing style that goes from a simplistic fantasy template to an elaborate, complex narration that would bring her status as a prominent writer in the genre. I was honestly quite disappointed that she plans a third novel as a follow-up in the series, yet after rereading the finale of Crooked Kingdom as well as the second book in her current Grisha spin-off series, I am more than curious about how she could bring the Crows gang and Grisha Triumvirate side-by-side in a cunning motion.



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