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4.6 AVERAGE
4.6 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
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
adventurous
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
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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:
Complicated
I absolutely LOVED this book! It had me on the edge of my seat all the time, with unexpected plot twists and all the tension.
I've read somewhere that Bardugo is considered the Queen of secondary characters and that her main characters are not well described. I couldn't disagree more. Her characters are perfect — she makes them feel like they are part of your family, so you feel for them and suffer with them in every adventure.
I loved the banter, the relationships, the scheming. Absolute perfection.
The ending left me frustrated. A hand squeeze? 😭😭😭 I was expecting more. 🙃
I've read somewhere that Bardugo is considered the Queen of secondary characters and that her main characters are not well described. I couldn't disagree more. Her characters are perfect — she makes them feel like they are part of your family, so you feel for them and suffer with them in every adventure.
I loved the banter, the relationships, the scheming. Absolute perfection.
The ending left me frustrated. A hand squeeze? 😭😭😭 I was expecting more. 🙃
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
So I love this duology. I loved Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, at the very least, lives up to the hype. Bardugo succeeds again in giving us a group of unconventional and, in Kaz's case at least, unlikeable characters who grow and change over the course of the novel. Kaz is easily Bardugo's triumph in that regard - amoral, caustic, and removed, he still remains sympathetic and I still wanted to support him.
I also liked that since we got a lot of character development in the first book with Matthias/Inej/Kaz, we shift focus a little in this book to the development of Jesper/Wylan/Nina. Especially Wylan, who didn't even get a POV in the first book - he grew and changed a lot in this book and it was nice that Bardugo kept it even in who got the spotlight.
SPOILERS!
My only disappointment with the book was Matthias' death - not that he was the one to die (out of all of them, he felt the most likely to die) but the way that it was handled? It happens very late in the book, after all of the real action is over with and he's killed by a random nobody. I get that it's supposed to show that these are everyday characters who can get killed by random acts of violence, but it felt very... off-the-wall for me. Maybe especially because we don't get to see Nina's POV again after he's dead, so it feels like they all pause for two seconds to feel bad and then move on with their lives? And I guess I'm also a little disappointed that my plus-sized girl's love life had to end with a tragedy... But it's mostly just that Matthias' death didn't really feel like it added much to the books' overall point and was mostly there to show 'hey, these kids can die too! oh no!' which isn't... a good reason for a character to die, in my opinion.
Anyway - that didn't ruin the book for me in the way that it would've if it would've been any of the other ensemble characters had died, so I still wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone. A final note that it might help to read The Grisha Trilogy BEFORE you read this series (if you haven't read either yet, or even just if you haven't read this sequel yet) because you get spoiled for a pretty big plot twist in TGT in this book.
I also liked that since we got a lot of character development in the first book with Matthias/Inej/Kaz, we shift focus a little in this book to the development of Jesper/Wylan/Nina. Especially Wylan, who didn't even get a POV in the first book - he grew and changed a lot in this book and it was nice that Bardugo kept it even in who got the spotlight.
SPOILERS!
My only disappointment with the book was Matthias' death - not that he was the one to die (out of all of them, he felt the most likely to die) but the way that it was handled? It happens very late in the book, after all of the real action is over with and he's killed by a random nobody. I get that it's supposed to show that these are everyday characters who can get killed by random acts of violence, but it felt very... off-the-wall for me. Maybe especially because we don't get to see Nina's POV again after he's dead, so it feels like they all pause for two seconds to feel bad and then move on with their lives? And I guess I'm also a little disappointed that my plus-sized girl's love life had to end with a tragedy... But it's mostly just that Matthias' death didn't really feel like it added much to the books' overall point and was mostly there to show 'hey, these kids can die too! oh no!' which isn't... a good reason for a character to die, in my opinion.
Anyway - that didn't ruin the book for me in the way that it would've if it would've been any of the other ensemble characters had died, so I still wholeheartedly recommend this series to anyone. A final note that it might help to read The Grisha Trilogy BEFORE you read this series (if you haven't read either yet, or even just if you haven't read this sequel yet) because you get spoiled for a pretty big plot twist in TGT in this book.
OH. MY. GOSH. That was the best duology EVER. Idc what anyone ever says I will always wish to be Inej. Or Nina, or Kaz, or literally anyone in this book. That was the most amazing reading experience in the history of reading, and if you try to say otherwise to my face I will materialize your words and shove them up your butt and out your throat to show u how much I agree. No one will ever change my mind.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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