Six of Crows Review

    Kaz Brekker, the infamous bastard of the Barrel, lives in Ketterdam. Here, you can get anything so long as you can pay the price. Kaz is approached and offered a job that would make him very wealthy, but only if he survives. The heist is deadly in all aspects of the word. Unable to do it alone, he gathers a group of five others to split the prize with in exchange for help. Can the six teenagers pull off this heist that not even the well-established crime bosses can?

    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:

    I initially purchased this book along with its sequel because they had such a loyal fandom. They were highly recommended by so many people, but the passion with which the fans spoke of them really set them apart from other books and made me want to read them. I now understand the craze over them. I have not read the Shadow and Bone trilogy yet, and I know that this duology ties in with the trilogy and that it was released after (I'm sorry I read them a bit out of order), but now I am also really excited to read the trilogy. Additionally, I am in a book club called No Mourners No Funerals, so I felt I should understand the reference.

    During the first chapter, I got a tad bit worried that I would not be able to keep up. There were a few things happening and SO MANY names being thrown around that it all started to get a bit mixed up in my head. I was very relieved when the rest of the book was not like this. Once I sorted out the original information, I was able to keep track of everything later on. There were not as many things mentioned at once which definitely made it easier.

    I felt like the basics of the plot were similar to things that most YA readers will have seen before. For example, magic powers, a group of people being persecuted against, and the main characters having to get into a place that is really difficult to get into. Those things are fairly common in YA novels. However, this book does not feel basic or like a reread of another novel. Leigh Bardugo does a great job at taking these average concepts and making them into something brand new (at least for me) and exciting. The whole heist plot line was fantastic. I never thought I would be rooting for the bad guys, but here we are. A piece of praise for the Grishaverse from Entertainment Weekly that says "The darker it gets for the good guys, the better" is so very accurate. This book certainly had me cheering on the people I most likely should not be in the best of ways.

    There were quite a few plot twists in the story that I personally did not see coming. I did not believe this book was predictable for the most part. The things I could see coming were very minor, so it was not very upsetting to know they were going to happen. I loved the major plot twist along with the smaller character ones. For instance, the Matthias and Inej twists were great.

    All of the characters, especially the core six, were very well developed and real. I understood all of them once their backstory was explained and could really sympathize with why they are the way they are. Some of these backstories were pretty difficult to read because they are just so heartbreaking and harsh. Kaz was the epitome of this. Even when I started to like him, I thought so much of what he did was very extreme. Once the backstory was revealed, it was like I saw a whole new Kaz and saw him in a completely different light. I understood the harshness and coldness he displayed with even those he cares about. While all of the characters are great as I stated before, Kaz was at a whole other level. He has so many layers, and I can safely say you will most likely love him.

    The relationships between the characters were another great aspect of the book. I definitely was hoping for a couple of the romantic relationships to fully take place and wanted to scream at the characters involved when the relationships got more complicated. That alone showed me that I grew to care about the characters. The interactions that were not romantic (yet because who knows what is going to happen next in the sequel)  were also amazing. I love the relationship between Jesper and Wylan. It had me smiling and laughing a bit; in other words, they were a nice form a comic relief in a pretty tense and fast-paced book.

    I enjoyed the descriptions of the settings, characters, etc. I found they were all very nicely done, and I could visualize fairly accurately I think what was happening in my head. This is always a very important aspect of writing to me because I love having the book play out like a movie in my head while I read. If this does not happen, I automatically like the book a lot less. That was certainly not the case here.

    All of the magic was very cool. I loved the different orders within the Grisha, and I greatly enjoyed reading the scenes with magic involved in which I got to learn more about the orders and powers. I now know that I would love to be in the order of the living and the dead, or a corporalki.

    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 Dregs tattoo art seen once you open the cover. The tattoo looks really awesome and it was nice to be able to know what it looks like so clearly whenever it was mentioned in the book.

    Overall, this book definitely deserves the loyal fandom it has. I am extremely happy that I decided to read and would highly recommend picking this one up. I think it would also be enjoyable for adults even though it is a YA book. Like I said in the beginning, I am very excited for the second book and will be adding the rest of Leigh Bardugo's books to my TBR list.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Publisher: Square Fish

# of Pages: 465

Genre: YA, Fantasy

Series: Six of Crows Duology