Reviews

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

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poppyisabella's review against another edition

5.0

oh my gods that was a good book. kanej are everything to me. i love them like i love feysand. kaz brekker. that’s it. kaz is the love of my life and i will not hear anything else. the found family trope has my entire heart

livyalusk's review against another edition

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4.0

I think this duology and its ensemble of protagonists will be near to my heart forever. I am thankful I got to spend 536 more pages with these characters and am satisfied with the point at which they were left.

As it is a sequel, the stakes were raised and there was much more action. This did a lot of great things for the world building (which remains extremely well thought-out) and the characters, but this series is still much stronger in those aspects than it is in plot. In my review of the first book, I mentioned that the final showdown wasn't very strong. This book contained a lot of similar scenes with repetitive aspects that I didn't much appreciate. However, it was quite clever sometimes and I definitely didn't get bored.

One thing that really stood out to me was Jesper's development as I expected much more from him in the first book but the plot of this book really helped him grow.

There was a major character death. I had clocked on to it very early, but it was only predictable in the sense that it made a lot of sense for where their character was and where their love interest was, too. Though it was sad to part with them, I think it was well-placed.

I also really like that revenge was taken on one part, but it wasn't horrifyingly immoral (in terms of these characters anyway lol) and managed to leave an interesting takeaway.

My last comment is a small criticism. There was just so much more in this book that made me cringe, not just the silly relationship quotes or the failed banter that I mentioned in my SoC review, but so much more. It wasn't painful, but it made this book feel less satisfying. Oh and Leigh... please stop using the word 'whirled.' I am sick of it.