Reviews with content warning for Sexual harassment - Das Lied der Krähen

This book started out a bit slow with a lot of unnecessary POV from a couple characters who aren’t actually important at all. Once you get past this confusingly lengthy prologue, the story finally picks up. But sadly that’s around halfway through the book. From there, it’s a fun romp and very enjoyable read. I do love the Grishaverse, and the world-building and prose are excellent. However, there were some major issues with characters and pacing that kept throwing me out of the story.

First, the ages of the main characters are nonsensical given their absurdly high skill levels. Until their ages were mentioned (about 60% of the way into the book) I was picturing them all in their late 20s. At that age, they were believable. At 16-18? I was baffled and thrown right out of the story. They somehow all became the best of their specialties and internationally infamous in like 2-4 years?? That’s ridiculous. For the most part they don’t act like teenagers and aren’t treated like teenagers. As far as I can tell the only reason for making them so young was to meet YA expectations. Only in the very last chapter do we see a character viewing them and treating them as they were probably meant to be seen - scrappy and over-ambitious kids who keep escaping disaster by the skin of their teeth due to hidden reservoirs of talent not yet developed. If they had acted and been treated that way the entire book, it would’ve been a lot more believable. And interesting. Unfortunately, they were all made a bit OP, which resulted in their near escapes being a lot less exciting and nail-boring than they could have been.

Second, I found the MANY and constantly changing POVs to be disorientating. Right when I finally got into a character’s head, the chapter and POV would change. It made me not want to keep reading even when I was invested in the story. There were even several whole chapters from the PoV of side characters, which was both confusing and unnecessary. Though I did enjoy Pekka’s chapter. But the ones at the beginning were boring and spent too much time getting me interested in a romance that got annihilated a few pages later. Frankly if the entire book alternated between Kaz and Nina it would’ve been a lot better. They were the only two whose thoughts I cared about.

Those issues aside, the world is wonderful, the plot is fun, and the writing style is very smooth and easy to read. The first third of the book is 2 stars, the latter two-thirds is 4, so I’ll average it out to 3.5 stars overall. Despite my qualms, I will definitely read the next book as well!

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babsi_222's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Oh my god I finally read this book and I love that so much I gave it 4.75 stars because of the very confusing world building. After a while, I started figuring out how everything works or at least that it doesn’t matter that much and I don’t have to remember every single name, but in the beginning was quite something.
I am in love with every main character, especially Inej and well every crow and I love the little romance going on. If you know you know, I never like Matthias, though, I never did. Nina can do so much better!!
I love the ice court heist!! It was so interesting and funny, but I have no idea how to imagine that and that’s why started watching the show Shadow and bone. But I’m honestly so disappointed because first of all I didn’t like the shadow and bone triology, and the show is mainly about that, and I only love the the crows. Also, the show was not like any of the books and that make me really mad. I just wanna watch the heist not some other random mission. Anyways I need to read a different genre now, but I’ll come back for Crooked kingdom!

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onefineelephant's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

10/10. All of the characters are so unique and compelling. I liked this book ten times better than Shadow and Bone. I am usually not into heist books or mystery novels but heist + fantasy + found family + a little bit of heartwrenching romance? Definitely my jam. I love that the book has alternating point of views between the characters but still in third person. Also, the book was able to surprise me at every turn which is not my experience with most books.

I only have two critiques: I wish all the characters were just a few years older. To me, especially the romances would be more compelling but the characters would also be more developed. Also, I think that the beginning of the book was a bit muddled and seemed to have too much all at once for introducing a new setting/social scene. Even though I read Shadow and Bone, I was still confused and disoriented about introducing how everything works in Ketterdam, especially since the characters are already established there instead of learning along with the reader.

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kiwigon's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Six of crows has easily become my favorite book of all time. The story was absolutely wonderful and I feel so attached to the characters even after reading. Im excited to pick up and read Crooked Kingdom! An easy 5 stars

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corin_134340's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

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fronk10's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A fantastic heist book with twists and turns to keep the reader engaged. All the characters are so well written and help keep the book exciting. Very excited for the next one!

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ghostlyprince's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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