Reviews

This book was seriously a hot mess. It was jam-packed with a ridiculous amount of plot points and POVs. There was way too much going on.

I complained about this when reading King of Scars, and I will complain about it again. If someone is a first time reader, they will never be able to understand what the hell happens in this book because the backstory is so minimal. The truth is, there is so much that happened to these characters in the OG Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows that it would be hard to give a backstory but I think this is a VERY necessary thing since this duology is a whole new duology. For Six of Crows, you don't need to know anything about the Grisha trilogy to start it, and vice versa. This series is heavily dependent on knowing what happened in the past trilogies. It is crazy that a requirement to get full understanding of this series requires reading 5 books previous to this duology. It's not an easy reading experience, that's for sure. (Especially since there are SO many characters!!)

The POVs were a little too much. Zoya, Nikolai, and Nina were doable, but also including Mayu and the Darkling? That is so many and I felt like there was just way too many things happening at once. Also, why the hell is the Darkling still on my page? Screw the stupid guy, he is so damn annoying and I am so sick of hearing about the Ultimate Boogeyman. His chapters, though sparse, were so boring and I could not believe that I had to be tormented with his stupid presence again. Get a new villain, please!!!! Same with the Apparat. Finally that guy is done for. Who knows, maybe he will be brought back in for the next book, the inevitable Six of Crows book 3 that was alluded to at the end of this book. I must say, I am excited to hear this possibility of a SOC#3, but annoyed to hear about the fact that it would center around...helping the Darkling. Why can't Leigh just let him die? So sick of hearing about him.

I do want to talk about one of the many random sidequests that happen in the middle of this book. Ah, the 2-3-chapter Six of Crows mini-heist. Fan service at its most obvious! Truthfully it felt like it did literally nothing for the story and could have been kept out because the titanium bombs were such a small piece of the final battle that the whole thing, if deleted from the book, would make so little difference in the story/plot. I think a big piece of it was that it was part of the setup of a SOC#3 and so it served its purpose, in that sense? Whatever, it was a little funny though but it was sad without Inej and Nina adding to the hijinks.

Zoya and Nikolai's chapters were fine, I never was really interested in them fo rthe whole series. I'm just neutral because they didn't pull me in - their romance and their own personal struggles felt stilted, and the personal problems were solved so quickly (epiphanies galore).

Nina was my favorite POV by far, same as book 1. However, I didn't really like the way her arc played out. Her and Hanne were done sooo dirty. Of course, it is unfinished on purpose (Leigh has to set up SOC#3, of course!!) but just the way it ended was so...depressing, but it was presented as pretty optimistic/happy. As soon as Nina met with the new Wellmother and she revealed herself as a Grisha who's been undercover for 13 years, I immediately knew that Nina was going to continue staying undercover forever to be with Hanne and that makes me so sad. Why couldn't she and Hanne just run away together and be happy? No, she has to forever wear a fake face and fake name, never being herself again, all for love?? Love does not solve everything and it made me extremely sad because it's like she lost herself and has nobody but her love interest. I liked her and Hanne together and they are cute, but Hanne is also trapped. Leigh makes it seem like Hanne is just going to LOVE pretending being the Prince of Fjerda FOREVER!! What the hell? Hanne's whole arc was that she felt trapped by Fjerda's societal expectations of women and wanted to be free, out riding in the wilderness and not in the court of Fjerda. What happened to "she runs with the wolves?" Now both Nina and Hanne are trapped in a place they don't want to be, but they are both...happy?? Just for being together? They can just LEAVE and be happy together somewhere they aren't trapped. So ridiculous. Hopefully Nina and Hanne can be together, happy, and away from the stupid court of Fjerda after the events of SOC#3, and who knows when that will be written (or if it will EVER be written).

Also, I did see how Alina's losing her powers was written as "I lost my powers because of my greed" oh hell no, don't be out here trying to re-write history and act like the large backlash about the ending of Ruin and Rising was unfounded.

This series is fine, it's definitely just meh. Better than the Grisha trilogy, but worse than Six of Crows. My brain feels frazzled because there was just TOO MUCH in this book.

siddhiraman's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

Leigh Bardugo has done it once again. You can’t help but root for these characters !!

ravenslanding's review against another edition

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5.0

To borrow from the A Team, "I love it when a plan comes together. "
There were about a thousand plates in the air for this story, and not one was dropped.
And if I say more it will spoil it