Crooked Kingdom Review

    Now that they were successful in the heist and double crossed, Kaz and the others must continue to fight. They have more enemies than one, all of whom have now entered the game. Weaker than usual, the crew is going to be severely challenged in more ways than one. The war in Ketterdam has begun.

    Keep in mind that everyone has their own opinion. This review is only my opinion, and you may have your own, different one. I would take into consideration what I say, but do not make a decision about the book solely based off of this review. Let's begin:

    If you were a fan of the first book, there is no need to worry that this one will  not live up to the expectations we now have. It was fantastic read, possibly even better than the first. 

    I enjoyed the plot of this book so much. It was even more complex and tense than the first. I loved that there were so many different stages in the crew's plan and that it was much harder to pull off. I did not think it could get much harder than being successful in a heist that even Pekka Rollins failed at, but here we are. It was explained enough that readers can understand what it happening, but there are still twists when some parts are carried out. I enjoyed seeing some of the good in our six supposed canal rats that gets exposed in parts of the plan. It felt like, while they were mostly doing everything for selfish reasons, they also knew that it would help others and that they wanted to do that also. It felt a lot like an anti-hero story, and I honestly adored that aspect.

    The characters were once again so well written. Readers get even more of their super sad backstories that truly pull at the heartstrings. I cared so much about these characters which is why one scene made me so so so sad (I am going to avoid spoilers, but it did not make me sad in that it was not a good scene). The original characters were done justice, and the new characters were introduced really nicely.

    The character interactions were also very good. Nina and Matthias provided a nice cute aspect, Kaz and Inej gave the story some more tension and intensity, and Wylan and Jesper are just amazing in so many ways, but I especially loved their comic relief. I loved seeing the comments and action among them that show how much they care about each other even though they make it appear as if they don't, especially Kaz. 

    The descriptions were done nicely- not too much or too little (and thank goodness for that because some scenes already had me physically cringing, but in a good way because of the balance).

    I really appreciated that the author included a page to lay out the three orders in the Grisha, their names, and the different powers within each order. This was really helpful for me to keep track of what powers different characters have. I also appreciated the two maps placed in the very beginning of the book. A couple more things that I loved were the cover (it's so beautiful and dark) and the artwork found as soon as you open the cover. Another thing that I loved that Leigh Bardugo included was a cast of characters. There are so many different people in these books, and it can get difficult to keep track of who is who. This really helped me to be able to do that.

    This review was shorter than normal because I loved everything about this book. It is one of those you can ask me any questions and I will more likely than not say that it was done amazingly. The duology and Leigh Bardugo in general deserve the hype they get without a doubt. I will now be keeping track of news from Bardugo and reading her other work. This book is great for both teenagers and adults even though it is labeled as YA.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Publisher: Square Fish

# of Pages: 536

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Series: Six of Crows Duology