What's up Rad Readers!
So, this is the second book in the Six of Crows duology. In Six of Crows, we follow six characters who take on an impossible heist which covers the whole plot of the first book. In Crooked Kingdom we pick up right where the last ended, and together they take on a new fight.
I cannot really give a spoiler free review on this since I am too excited about how great it was, and because it is the second book in this series so nearly everything will be a spoiler for Six of Crows. So, for those of you who have not read yet, I will leave you with this:
Kaz Brekker just pulled off the impossible heist, breaking into the Ice Court, but instead of divvying up their reward, his gang is right back to fighting for their lives. They'd been double crossed, conned. It's time for revenge, but it seems like it's always been that way for Kaz. Getting Inej back to the crew is one issue, but the other is that now, they are low on resources, allies, and hope. Kaz knows that your enemy's enemy is your friend, but what happens when his own enemies realize the same thing?
The whole world seems to be centered around Ketterdam right now. Everyone is trying to get what they can out of Jurda Parem, the deadly drug used against the Grisha, and Kaz has the key to it held hostage. He knows that is his token to getting the money he deserves.
People have learned what to expect from him (or at least they think they have), that this demon "dirty hands" is capable of doing anything. Some have even found out his one weakness. The lawless, dark streets of Ketterdam are in a battle for power, revenge, and redemption, and Kaz Brekker is the one to take down. In this exciting conclusion, the stakes are far higher than 30 million kruge. This is about a grudge, this is about revenge, and this is about what will be left after.
We all know how I felt about the first book in Leigh Bardugo's incredible duology, and Crooked Kingdom certainly didn't let me down! It took all that I loved in the first book and brought it a level up. I loved the writing, the world, the characters, and what I think I loved most was the themes! It was a thrilling, high stakes, and a truly fantastical conclusion to a story that I loved so much!
If you haven't read the Six of Crows duology, know that SPOILERS ARE COMING! Read at your own risk... :)
We finally got to read through Wylan's perspective which we never got in Six of Crows. We got to see his "origin story" if you will, and honestly, I was a little annoyed with him at times. He certainly wasn't my favorite character, but he definitely wasn't meant to be. I think it was supposed to perturb the reader that he was so disgusted with Kaz and the people that surrounded him. That he wanted to get out as soon as he could. He was raised as a rich kid in a city in poverty. He benefited off of the corruption that hurt the people he now was hanging out with. He is both too conscious and not conscious enough of his privilege, but once again, I think it was all intentional. I just don't like how all of the good stuff happen to the kid who kind of deserved it the least. He finds out that his mother was alive, he has a healthy relationship, he gets to make it out of all of this virtually unharmed. I just wish some of the happiness and good fortune was distributed equally. Personally, he was the least interesting character in my opinion. Still interesting though, but in comparison to these other characters that are absolute power houses, buddy just doesn't make the cut.
Jesper and Nina are just too funny, I love that they are the ones that keep everyone as "friends" and less of just criminal coworkers. They both struggle with an "addiction" of sorts, Jesper with gambling and Nina with the jury parem she took to save everyone. I think that these are the kind of themes that are really powerful in literature like this. It isn't thrown in your face or put into too simple of terms, or even put into such complex terms that you think you should write an essay for AP Lang on it. It was just impactful and eye opening and I think that it was awesome!
So if we're going to talk about it... I guess we have to talk about it... Mattias' death. I. DIDN'T SEE. IT. COMING. Usually I can sense when a character is going to be killed off. Be it my rad reader intuitions, or the author kind of foreshadows or leaves hints, or you just get the vibes, ya know? But this one came out of left field and it came FAST. When he gets shot AND THEN THE CHAPTER JUST ENDS I was like what. is. going. on. I was like he hassss to be okay. He must! These characters get beaten up, walk on high wires, fall from buildings, get stabbed and slashed, like what's a bullet wound, right? WRONG! I was so so so very wrong. The fact that when we get to the chapter where he is talking to Nina and he's bleeding and dying but trying to make everyone happy and okay and-- oh my gosh, it was so good. Obviously I was upset that he died, but it just made sense that not all of them would be able to make it through this insanity alive, and the way that he died was also so impactful. I loved how he hit us with that fire line about how "fear is how they control you," like, yes dog... yes... hit em with it. We see him as this jerk, brainwashed from his society and upbringing. He's racist, misogynistic, ignorant, and unaware. Then we get to watch as he relearns, starts to think through a different lens when he meets the people he was always told to hate. Then, to have him die when he finally understood all the misplaced hate in not only his life, but the life of "his people,"-- ugh! It really was incredible! He served as something that is so real in the world, that lots of people likely struggle with coming to terms with, and it was all just written so beautifully. It makes me so happy that these are the messages and themes to take in from the book!
Now finally, onto my favorite characters probably ever written, Kaz and Inej.
My dawg Kaz... ohhh mannn. I think I like Kaz so much because of how cunning, tricky, and smart he is. I love smart characters because you can always just vibe with them. There is never that UGHHH WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST DO THIS kind of feeling that all of us rad readers hate so much. But yes, if a character is quick and has some tricks up their sleeve, then they are automatically my favorite. We got to see some of this in the first book, but we really see his wheelhouse in Crooked Kingdom. What I also like about him is how he is smart and relatively emotionless. He is stone cold and doesn't care about what people think about it. He has one "Achilles Heal," and I like the development we see in that. I think that this does a lot for the depth in his character but we never see this cripple him really, because that is just not who he is. He is not the type of person to have weaknesses, and when he does have a weakness, he is not the type of person to fall to them easily. He is ruthless in what he will do to exact his revenge and I have said this before on Rad Reads, but my favorite point that a character can get to is the point where they realize they have nothing to lose, the point of no return. That they might as well do their worst. It is just so exciting and dark and fascinating. I cannot physically put my book down after that! I love how he has kept this grudge for years, that he hunted down the man that ruined him once and then allowed himself to become a nightmare. I was shockedddd at what he did to Pekka. When he hit him with the quick "I buried your son," HUH? WHAT? YOU DID WHAT!? Genuinely shocked, and I loved even more when we got to see Pekka's reaction when he found out that Kaz had been bluffing. When Pekka runs to try to save him and then he turns to Inej and is like "I've never seen the kid," DAWGGGGG... INSANITY!!!! I thought immediately to what Kaz had said in the first book about how once everyone think that you are a monster you don't need to do monstrous things, they will just believe what they hear. Certainly that was the case, and smart smart smart Kaz knew this and used it to his advantage. Once again, so impressive how Leigh Bardugo wrote him. He is also so representative of her intelligence. If we think his brain can go a mile a minute, just imagine the person who wrote him! He understands that the things he has done have been evil and he doesn't want to change for the better and neither does the reader!
Inej is just the homie, straight up I want to be her. She is so incredible. She has been through so many struggles that would break anybody easily, but she is still, not only so strong, but so kind as well. It takes a lot for somebody to go through all that she went through and still believe that there is good in the world. But, at the same time she knows that the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows and will certainly not act as such. My favorite quote from the entire series came from her, when she was fight Dunyasha on the tight rope (which by the way the times she faced Dunyasha were my favorite parts in the book probs). Dunyasha is talking about how Inej isn't a worth opponent for her, that she has been training all her life and was chosen by the gods to be the most deadly assassin and Inej's shadow, and how Inej is just a normal girl who learned her skills because that is what it meant to survive. This is meant to but her down, but in reality it sends a jolt of pride through her and she hits us with this fire line, "What about the nobodies and the nothings? We learn to old our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring the magic from the ordinary. That was how you survived when you weren't chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway."
Those are the bars of literature right there. Straight. Bars.
Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. What can I say, I just really loved everything about this book. An absolute 5/5 stars on GoodReads. Cannot say enough good things about it.
Please love this book as much as I did,
- C8 ;)
P.S. the symbolism of the crow that we find out in the end... Oh. My. Gosh.