Reviews with content warning for Violence - Six of Crows

This!! book!! I love this book!! The highlight of this book for me was just the world-building. I'm glad I read the Shadow and Bone trilogy first to get an understanding of the world and magic system, but this book adds an element of international and inter-ethnic tensions between the Ravkans, Kerch, Fjerdans, Shu which was just amazing. Bardugo just writes so well, I loved how we weaved between the different characters and the past and the present but did so in a way that was very comprehensible. I was rarely lost while reading this book, which is such a feat because the plot was complex! The characters were amazing, the romance was soooo subtle which I loved, just all in all a fantastic read.

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lolsous's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense 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

Very fun book! It's a great heist story, with twists and turns that balance well on believable and unexpected. I found the story gripping from the beginning and very hard to put down when the action of the heist unfolded.

Even though there are many pov characters they all feel developed, with agency and a distinct personality. It's refreshing to see not one but two angsty love stories between a more optimistic girl and morally ambiguous/troubled boy, let the girl chose herself first and not extinct herself for the boy.

The world building is overall great, and what drew me to the book to begin with. The world feels somehow cosy, even though most we see of the world is harsh. It's very atmospheric and has vibes. The magic system is lovely and fits perfectly into the world. The world is heavily influenced by European and Asian culture and history, so much that the significant deviations really confused me for a long while. I could not understand how Pekka (clearly Finnish) is not from Fjerda, that Fjedans don't drink coffee but tea, and that it's a very sexist society. It took a while to understand that Fjerda is not the Nordic countries fearing magic but a what-if on Scandinavia turned Nazis. It makes Fjerda absurdly evil, but obviously it's not extremely unrealistic. It could easily have gone wrong, but Matthias and his relationship with Nina are beautifully written. I was sceptical in the beginning but I ended up loving Nina and Matthias together.

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asmallgremlin's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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? Yes

4.75

I was introduced to the Grisha world through the Shadow and Bone TV series on Netflix (RIP season 3) and though I did not particularly like the main storyline with Alina I adored the Crows, and I decided to read the duology to properly learn who these characters are.

This book is highly entertaining and a brilliant read. It’s medium paced but because it’s so exciting it becomes a real page turner - I read most of it in a day! The central plot involves an ‘impossible heist’ to quote the front cover - and the way this heist was pulled off was truly exciting and twisty-turny. I love the setting of Ketterdam - it reads very Victorian-esque steampunky city with gambling bars, criminal gangs and the constant threat of destitution.

The characters were so fun and I loved all of them - I don’t really have a favourite, they were all equally interesting and brilliantly written. You also get a sense of how close these characters are to each other, they know each other so well and they all have interesting and varied relationships. I particularly enjoyed Kaz and Inej’s painfully slow slow burn and Nina and Matthias’s story of forgiving each other and being on each other’s sides (I also greatly enjoyed the ‘not just girls’ scene between Wylan and Jesper).

This was such a fun book and I am looking forward to starting Book 2 soon!

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amiradeara's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious tense 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

This book is one of my favourite books of all time. I’ve read this at like 5 times and I always notice something new. It will always be special to me. Highly recommend.

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