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tiana_king's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
5.0
Somehow this book is even better than the first without a daring heist being the center. I laughed, cried, and hung onto my seat for dear life. A great end to the series though I hope more will come.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, Grief, and Classism
Moderate: Drug use, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and Trafficking
Minor: War
marmarta's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked it. Leigh Bardugo gets better with every book. The plot is brisk, the heists wild, the justice brutal - all I want from this sort of fantasy novel.
stephen_arvidson's review against another edition
5.0
Six of Crows fans will be stoked to return to the mean streets of Ketterdam, where greed and power are the engine that drive its unsavory residents. The second in a planned duology, Crooked Kingdom picks up not long after the events of Crows, with Kaz Brekker and his crew reeling from a nasty blindside by their merchant benefactor Jan Van Eck. Inej has been taken captive as leverage against Kaz. Battered and bruised, the raggedy band aligns once more to retrieve their precious Wraith and secure their freedom. To achieve victory they’ll need to orchestrate an ingenious reprisal to discredit one of Kerch’s most powerful businessmen. However, complications arise when news of jurda parem’s existence reaches other nations and powerful forces descend on Ketterdam in hopes of seizing Kuwei Yul-Bo, the drug’s sole surviving architect. With so much to gain and only their lives to lose, the team must up their level of cunning in order to survive.
Darker and grittier than the Grisha series, Crooked Kingdom is rife with tension and surprise revelations. The intensity and intricacy of the plot is heightened by the rotating perspectives that allow author Leigh Bardugo to conceal secrets and twists until just the right moment. Crooked Kingdom foregoes the impossible heist plot of the first book in favor of a revenge-fueled scheme that ultimately becomes a heroic effort to stave off a cataclysmic shift in global economics. Scores are settled. Family histories are unearthed. Relationships deepen. What’s even better, the novel is packed with cameos that Grisha Trilogy fans will appreciate, including—spoiler alert!—the much beloved Nikolai Strumhond with his unique brand of debonair and arrogant swagger.
It’s a safe bet that many of Bardugo’s readers adore her books for their shipper qualities. And yet, there’s far more happening in these pages than raucous adventure and burgeoning romance. Bardugo piles on layer upon layer of character depth, creating a fantastic bond between novel and reader. Every scene is highlighted by the snarking banter between a charismatic cast that is ceaselessly trying to figure out how to relate to one another. Although never quite convincing as teenagers, this multicultural melting pot of grifters and thieves will steal everything you own, including your heart. Bardugo never lets us forget that they are misbegotten youths, and as such they share yearnings for happiness, beauty, meaning, and all that is endemic to the human condition.
With characters so likeable and beautifully developed, there’s a fan favorite here for everyone. But one player, Inej Ghafa, stands out amongst the rest. A sterling example of resolute purpose and badassery, her acrobatic prowess and assassin-like precision enable her to slip past any line of defense. Inej is easily the strongest of Brekker’s bunch and when factoring in her backstory as an indentured sex slave, even more so. Inej doesn’t let the horrors and humiliations of her past define her. Her resiliency is admirable and her quiet camaraderie with Jesper tugs at the heartstrings. Following her psychological torture at the hands of Van Eck, readers would’ve loved to see her give the Dickensian villain his just desserts. Inej doesn’t quite make good on her promise—at least not in the way readers would hope—but therein lies the beauty of her character: her unfailing adherence to her saints even in the darkest of times.
By all outward appearances, the gimlet-eyed Kaz rules the roost with his deadly crow’s-head cane and fierce personality to match. Impeccably unpredictable, Kaz has contingency plans for contingency plans, and a curveball thrown in for safe measure. Despite his characteristic limp and debilitating PTSD, Kaz has managed to survive the criminal underworld by fashioning a fearsome persona out of his disabilities. With all the intensity of his character Kaz has wound his life around one thing: retribution. So consumed with avenging his brother’s death that he deprives himself of any semblance of happiness, and the cost of revenge could spell the loss of everyone around him. In spite of Kaz’s ruthless self-sufficiency and the vengeful factors driving him, Bardugo leavens the permafrost with glimmers of humanity, none more evident than through Kaz’s interactions with Inej. Complicated by mistrust and trauma, Kaz and Inej’s relationship proves so achingly compelling and nuanced in intimate moments as to make even the hardest of readers moist-eyed. Bardugo negotiates the yawning chasms of tragedy and shows us, in all her books, the journey of heroes.
Bardugo’ fresh, diverse world-building draws on myriad cultural and sexual identities. So varied and life-like are this team of young misfits—Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias, Wylan, and Kuwei—that they make for an unputdownable story. Bardugo deftly handles the rich character constellations and racial dynamics of these multi-hued leads that are clearly intended to represent marginalized and oppressed groups. Not only are the debauched alleys of Ketterdam fraught with crime and corruption, but the social and racial injustices pervading these characters’ lives are what really propel the story forward. Take Kaz and Wylan, for instance, whose perceived disabilities—Kaz’s limp, Wylan’s inability to read—actually prove vital to their success against venal merchants and coldblooded mercenaries. Each character is incredibly complex and the story is all the more compelling by that fact. When Bardugo slows the narrative enough to allow her characters to bond, it is quite a ride to see their contrasting personalities mesh together. From Jesper’s and Wylan’s homoerotic flirtation, to the cultural clash between Nina and Mathias, to the interracial romance between the pale-faced Kaz and brown-skinned Inej; Bardugo challenges readers to reconsider notions of race, gender, and sexuality. Her use of diverse representation deepens the potential of this universe she has conceived, ergo allowing the opportunity for a greater understanding of our own world. And what literature teaches us of our own reality can encourage us to positively reshape the narrative of the world around us.
As a fateful reckoning befalls one of these flawed and uniquely damaged characters, the others find themselves on a healing path as the story reaches its poignant conclusion, and there’s at least some indication that hope of redemption isn’t merely a desperate delusion. Leigh Bardugo delivers in every conceivable way: a well-realized world with a sympathetic cast of characters pitted in complex action and political intrigue. Lush, multi-threaded, and brimming with dialogue that runs the gamut from heart-wrenching to raucously funny, this Saintsforsaken book guts you with all the feels and leaves you yearning for a follow-up.
Darker and grittier than the Grisha series, Crooked Kingdom is rife with tension and surprise revelations. The intensity and intricacy of the plot is heightened by the rotating perspectives that allow author Leigh Bardugo to conceal secrets and twists until just the right moment. Crooked Kingdom foregoes the impossible heist plot of the first book in favor of a revenge-fueled scheme that ultimately becomes a heroic effort to stave off a cataclysmic shift in global economics. Scores are settled. Family histories are unearthed. Relationships deepen. What’s even better, the novel is packed with cameos that Grisha Trilogy fans will appreciate, including—spoiler alert!—the much beloved Nikolai Strumhond with his unique brand of debonair and arrogant swagger.
It’s a safe bet that many of Bardugo’s readers adore her books for their shipper qualities. And yet, there’s far more happening in these pages than raucous adventure and burgeoning romance. Bardugo piles on layer upon layer of character depth, creating a fantastic bond between novel and reader. Every scene is highlighted by the snarking banter between a charismatic cast that is ceaselessly trying to figure out how to relate to one another. Although never quite convincing as teenagers, this multicultural melting pot of grifters and thieves will steal everything you own, including your heart. Bardugo never lets us forget that they are misbegotten youths, and as such they share yearnings for happiness, beauty, meaning, and all that is endemic to the human condition.
With characters so likeable and beautifully developed, there’s a fan favorite here for everyone. But one player, Inej Ghafa, stands out amongst the rest. A sterling example of resolute purpose and badassery, her acrobatic prowess and assassin-like precision enable her to slip past any line of defense. Inej is easily the strongest of Brekker’s bunch and when factoring in her backstory as an indentured sex slave, even more so. Inej doesn’t let the horrors and humiliations of her past define her. Her resiliency is admirable and her quiet camaraderie with Jesper tugs at the heartstrings. Following her psychological torture at the hands of Van Eck, readers would’ve loved to see her give the Dickensian villain his just desserts. Inej doesn’t quite make good on her promise—at least not in the way readers would hope—but therein lies the beauty of her character: her unfailing adherence to her saints even in the darkest of times.
By all outward appearances, the gimlet-eyed Kaz rules the roost with his deadly crow’s-head cane and fierce personality to match. Impeccably unpredictable, Kaz has contingency plans for contingency plans, and a curveball thrown in for safe measure. Despite his characteristic limp and debilitating PTSD, Kaz has managed to survive the criminal underworld by fashioning a fearsome persona out of his disabilities. With all the intensity of his character Kaz has wound his life around one thing: retribution. So consumed with avenging his brother’s death that he deprives himself of any semblance of happiness, and the cost of revenge could spell the loss of everyone around him. In spite of Kaz’s ruthless self-sufficiency and the vengeful factors driving him, Bardugo leavens the permafrost with glimmers of humanity, none more evident than through Kaz’s interactions with Inej. Complicated by mistrust and trauma, Kaz and Inej’s relationship proves so achingly compelling and nuanced in intimate moments as to make even the hardest of readers moist-eyed. Bardugo negotiates the yawning chasms of tragedy and shows us, in all her books, the journey of heroes.
Bardugo’ fresh, diverse world-building draws on myriad cultural and sexual identities. So varied and life-like are this team of young misfits—Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias, Wylan, and Kuwei—that they make for an unputdownable story. Bardugo deftly handles the rich character constellations and racial dynamics of these multi-hued leads that are clearly intended to represent marginalized and oppressed groups. Not only are the debauched alleys of Ketterdam fraught with crime and corruption, but the social and racial injustices pervading these characters’ lives are what really propel the story forward. Take Kaz and Wylan, for instance, whose perceived disabilities—Kaz’s limp, Wylan’s inability to read—actually prove vital to their success against venal merchants and coldblooded mercenaries. Each character is incredibly complex and the story is all the more compelling by that fact. When Bardugo slows the narrative enough to allow her characters to bond, it is quite a ride to see their contrasting personalities mesh together. From Jesper’s and Wylan’s homoerotic flirtation, to the cultural clash between Nina and Mathias, to the interracial romance between the pale-faced Kaz and brown-skinned Inej; Bardugo challenges readers to reconsider notions of race, gender, and sexuality. Her use of diverse representation deepens the potential of this universe she has conceived, ergo allowing the opportunity for a greater understanding of our own world. And what literature teaches us of our own reality can encourage us to positively reshape the narrative of the world around us.
As a fateful reckoning befalls one of these flawed and uniquely damaged characters, the others find themselves on a healing path as the story reaches its poignant conclusion, and there’s at least some indication that hope of redemption isn’t merely a desperate delusion. Leigh Bardugo delivers in every conceivable way: a well-realized world with a sympathetic cast of characters pitted in complex action and political intrigue. Lush, multi-threaded, and brimming with dialogue that runs the gamut from heart-wrenching to raucously funny, this Saintsforsaken book guts you with all the feels and leaves you yearning for a follow-up.
moon_11's review against another edition
5.0
As no words can begin to describe the brilliant penmanship of Bardugo, I'll suffice to say- I have never read a better book, never undertaken a more thrilling journey, never been more satisfied with a conclusion than I was with this book. Thank you, Leigh
No mourners,
No funerals.
No mourners,
No funerals.
joujou_darrigood's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
4.75
mariebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
emmabreads's review against another edition
5.0
my favorite characters are wylan jesper inej kaz nina and matthias and also inej and jesper
5 stars obviously.
5 stars obviously.
chaicedony's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
“Crows remember human faces. They remember the people who feed them, who are kind to them. And the people who wrong them too.”
yadaran's review against another edition
5.0
Continues the compelling story to a natural, satisfying point; wraps up character arcs, and then... Ends. Miraculous stuff.
katyonik's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
4.75