Book Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo // deserves the hype

Title: Six of Crows

Author: Leigh Bardugo

Published: September 29, 2015

Pages: 462

Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult

Amazon / Barnes & Nobles / Goodreads

Goodreads Description: 

Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But to claim it, he’ll have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist:

Break into the notorious Ice Court
(a military stronghold that has never been breached)

Retrieve a hostage
(who could unleash magical havoc on the world)

Survive long enough to collect his reward
(and spend it)

Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done – and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable – if they don’t kill each other first.

I’m probably the last person under the sun to read this book.

Despite it seeming like everything I wanted in a book—a heist, clever thieves, angsty romance—it never felt like the appropriate time to read the book. I still can’t say that I finally read it at good time. I picked this book up after reading The Final Empire, another fantasy book that revolves around a heist and one that I love dearly. I couldn’t help but compare Six of Crows to it. That, combined with all the hype surrounding the book, was a recipe for disappointment. However, I still really enjoyed Six of Crows. 

Six of Crows was relatively easy to get into for a Fantasy book. It usually takes me a while to understand the new terminology in books of this genre, but the terminology in this book was simple enough for me to grasp quickly (even though I’m still not sure how to pronounce most of the words. Fjerd?) I also find that a lot of Fantasy books I read suffer from info-dumping, but Bardugo skirted this problem by revealing the characters’ past through flashbacks throughout the story. There were some characters that I was wary about, but the flashbacks made me repeatedly reevaluate my feelings towards the them until I loved them all. In this way, this plot-driven book was actually very character-focused.

The crew in this story consisted of a lot of personalities that I enjoyed:

Behold, my attempt at gushing about the characters in the most non-spoilery way.

• the brooding, all-knowing leader who was too wise for his own good, especially at his young age. In fact, all of the characters were so young. It’s always fun to see young hoodlums outsmart overconfident, older hoodlums. (THAT EYEBALL SCENE. THAT WAS BRUTAL.)
• the sneaky, female spy that fought with knives. Who needs guns when you’re a wraith?
• *inhales deeply* the loyal member who ran their mouth too much and provided comic relief with his banter with the innocent nerd but could get down to business and fight if need be.
• the witch and witch hunter that seemed to you like the last people on earth who should get together but YOU’RE WRONG because you don’t know anything about them yet. *exhales*

I think where this book fell short for me was its ending. The book didn’t wrap up the way I expected it to, but I’m hoping that the second book, Crooked Kingdom, will deliver the awesome ending I know this duology can pull off.

If you read books for their characters, Six of Crows is teeming with six lovable ones. It’s a heist book at its core, so I’d definitely recommend it if you’re a fan of those. This book should be approached with caution if you are unsatisfied with loose ends (or just finished reading The Final Empire).

☆☆☆☆

i really liked it

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Thanks for reading! Have you read Six of Crows? What did you think of it? If you want to discuss the details of the book in the comments, just put a spoiler warning 😊.