The hype surrounding Six of Crows had me expecting a lot, especially since it’s going to be a Netflix show.
Maybe my expectations were set too high, but in all honestly, Six of Crows did not do it for me. At one point, it was going into my DNF pile, but the middle finally picked up, and I stuck with it through the heist.
The characters:
You move through the story in the third person omniscient POV of five different characters Kax, Inej, Nina, Mattias, and Jesper. There’s one other main character named Wylan.
This is a huge feat for a writer to make me, the reader, become emotionally invested in six different characters. I became somewhat, but not really, invested in two of those characters, and the other four I had little to no interest in. Their personalities, backgrounds, and their general being just fell flat for me.
Since there were so many characters, I can’t help but wonder if that’s where the character-building fell short. The first half of the book was character-focused, and the plot didn’t pick up until halfway through, but six characters to build in just over 450 pages? I don’t know.
Two of the characters seemed like an afterthought to me. Just to add a line suggesting bisexuality and check off a diversity box.
Also, I think age was a disconnect with the characters in this book for me too. They’re teenagers, and while that’s fine, I picture them older based on their personalities, and every time I’m reminded of their age, the story is less believable. If they were 5-10 years older, I think it would have worked for me.
TL;DR: If you don’t love all the characters, you’ll find yourself disconnected from the pages every other chapter while longing to return to the POV of a character you enjoy.
I hope that Leigh Bardugo writes more adult books in the future. I have a feeling I’d really love them! If you’ve read my review of Ninth House, you’ll know just how much I’ve enjoyed her work!
The World:
I thought I was one of those who didn’t need a great amount of worldbuilding to enjoy a story, but Six of Crows made me crave more imagery. That said, Six of Crows is hugely character-driven and lacks world-building.
I’m an extremely visual person, and when I read a book with exceptional world-building, it’s like a movie is playing in my head. This book gave me a couple of slides of images, and it wasn’t spectacular. I was so close to seeing, but I was always left needing a few more paragraphs or sentences about the physical world surrounding the characters in between the dialogue.
Just when the imagery came to mind, it was ripped away by dialogue or a character’s thoughts.
It could have been so beautiful.
What kept me reading?
Mostly, forbidden love. A romance. That’s what kept me going. There were an excessive amount of romances in this book.
The Grisha.
The magic.
The conflict with Druskelle.
Their heist.
All things considered, this was a fun read. It reminded me of my WoW playing days: kind of cheesy, great lore, and lots of dialogue.
Based on that summary, I may enjoy The Shadow and Bone Trilogy since the Grisha bit is what kept me interested in Six of Crows, but I’m not sure. What do you think?
Will I read Crooked Kingdom?
The next book seems to revolve around one of the characters that I wasn’t emotionally invested in, so I’m left with no real pull to read the next book.
That said, I’m not 100% opposed to reading it, and perhaps one day, if I’m in the mood to read another heist with some young crooks and thieves, I will pick up Crooked Kingdom.
Who would I recommend this book to?
Young adults, maybe 17-22ish, and those who love lots of dialogue with not much world-building.
