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A review by haleythacker_
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
5.0
I remember specifically picking up this book in my local bookstore when I was in the first part of my senior year of high school back in 2021. Covid was very much still pretty bad and I was on the verge of going into a what would soon become a 2-year-consuming-reading-slump. I had just finished the Shadow and Bone trilogy and needed more and more within the Grishaverse.
I was at volleyball tournaments in Atlanta in my hotel room binge watching the show when it was first released, completely immersed with everything about it. It was a fixation that kind of helped me get through the still ongoing quarantine and what not.
The unfortunate part of this story is the fact that when I did start reading SoC, I got 60 pages in and never picked it back up again until recently. I remember it just feeling so boring to me and not peaking my interest in the slightest. It was so different from Shadow and Bone and it didn’t entice me the way that trilogy did. I knew it was going to be different but I just couldn’t get through it and put it back on my shelf.
The problem with me is I tend to buy books and then not actually read them for years at a time— I know, it’s ridiculous. Although I do that a lot, I also can’t stand to have books sit while I read every other one I own and then not read that specific book. So I ended up making a plan and forcing myself to read it just so I could see I got through it and finally finished it.
Now for the fortunate part of this story, I actually really really enjoyed Six of Crows. Like I genuinely and thoroughly loved it. And these kind of stories usually aren’t for me so it’s saying something that I actually ended up enjoying it. I wanted so bad to like it because all I ever wanted was to get to the books that included Nikolai and Zoya.
I loved the complexity of all the characters within the Dregs. Kaz’s backstory was deeply eerie and had me on the edge of my seat (and toes bc I read this while at work as well) the entire time. Inej and Kaz had my body tingling in ways I didn’t think possible… Nina and Matthias had me grinning like a fool and snorting in unladylike fashion may I add. And Jesper and Wylan! God I was always looking forward to their scenes together. The chemistry between these characters is insane like Leigh really knows how to dig a hole deep in her readers hearts. The banter was just so good, there was never a time where I didn’t have a good laugh at something someone had said.
It almost felt as if the ninja turtles meet crazed criminals completing side missions but instead of saving people they’re undergoing heists for four million kruge.
Heists and mysteries and everything of that sort of nature has never been something I’ve ever been able to get into or sit through which is why I’m so surprised that I actually ended up liking Six of Crows in the end. I remember being so interested in their plot during the show and just wanted more and it kills me that it took me this long to finally pick the book back up— but I am so glad I did.
The ICE COURT HEIST WAS SO COOL!!! It’s enough reason to read the book in the first place. The action was nonstop and had me not wanting to put the book down which is so important to me because I absolutely love feeling as if myself is somehow thrown into the world I’m reading about, it’s my favorite thing in the world.
The Crows are definitely a force to be reckoned with. I’m so excited to be able to finally move onto the next book, Crooked Kingdom and for Kaz to and in his words, “Get his girl back.”
Also, I rated this a 5/5 because it is just phenomenal. Leigh Bardugo is a masterful storyteller and everything about these books are just so big and complex and there’s never a dull moment. It’s darkly gruesome but heartbreaking in so many ways. The way she writes relationships and character development is just so undeniably beautiful but my favorite thing about her writing is the world building especially!! I think I ended up preferring the city of Ketterdam more than I did Ravka to be completely honest but it just felt so mysterious and secret and very assassin-y. (Something to which will always have me interested no matter what).
Lastly, all I have to say is,
No mourners. No funerals.
I was at volleyball tournaments in Atlanta in my hotel room binge watching the show when it was first released, completely immersed with everything about it. It was a fixation that kind of helped me get through the still ongoing quarantine and what not.
The unfortunate part of this story is the fact that when I did start reading SoC, I got 60 pages in and never picked it back up again until recently. I remember it just feeling so boring to me and not peaking my interest in the slightest. It was so different from Shadow and Bone and it didn’t entice me the way that trilogy did. I knew it was going to be different but I just couldn’t get through it and put it back on my shelf.
The problem with me is I tend to buy books and then not actually read them for years at a time— I know, it’s ridiculous. Although I do that a lot, I also can’t stand to have books sit while I read every other one I own and then not read that specific book. So I ended up making a plan and forcing myself to read it just so I could see I got through it and finally finished it.
Now for the fortunate part of this story, I actually really really enjoyed Six of Crows. Like I genuinely and thoroughly loved it. And these kind of stories usually aren’t for me so it’s saying something that I actually ended up enjoying it. I wanted so bad to like it because all I ever wanted was to get to the books that included Nikolai and Zoya.
I loved the complexity of all the characters within the Dregs. Kaz’s backstory was deeply eerie and had me on the edge of my seat (and toes bc I read this while at work as well) the entire time. Inej and Kaz had my body tingling in ways I didn’t think possible… Nina and Matthias had me grinning like a fool and snorting in unladylike fashion may I add. And Jesper and Wylan! God I was always looking forward to their scenes together. The chemistry between these characters is insane like Leigh really knows how to dig a hole deep in her readers hearts. The banter was just so good, there was never a time where I didn’t have a good laugh at something someone had said.
It almost felt as if the ninja turtles meet crazed criminals completing side missions but instead of saving people they’re undergoing heists for four million kruge.
Heists and mysteries and everything of that sort of nature has never been something I’ve ever been able to get into or sit through which is why I’m so surprised that I actually ended up liking Six of Crows in the end. I remember being so interested in their plot during the show and just wanted more and it kills me that it took me this long to finally pick the book back up— but I am so glad I did.
The ICE COURT HEIST WAS SO COOL!!! It’s enough reason to read the book in the first place. The action was nonstop and had me not wanting to put the book down which is so important to me because I absolutely love feeling as if myself is somehow thrown into the world I’m reading about, it’s my favorite thing in the world.
The Crows are definitely a force to be reckoned with. I’m so excited to be able to finally move onto the next book, Crooked Kingdom and for Kaz to and in his words, “Get his girl back.”
Also, I rated this a 5/5 because it is just phenomenal. Leigh Bardugo is a masterful storyteller and everything about these books are just so big and complex and there’s never a dull moment. It’s darkly gruesome but heartbreaking in so many ways. The way she writes relationships and character development is just so undeniably beautiful but my favorite thing about her writing is the world building especially!! I think I ended up preferring the city of Ketterdam more than I did Ravka to be completely honest but it just felt so mysterious and secret and very assassin-y. (Something to which will always have me interested no matter what).
Lastly, all I have to say is,
No mourners. No funerals.