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A review by zealous
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
5.0
Book #1 of 20 for 2018
Six of Crows was an interesting read, considering that I haven't read the original Grisha trilogy and as such only had the pre-book descriptions of the orders of Grisha and the map of the world to introduce it to me.
Despite that, I didn't find it hard to understand what was going on pretty much immediately, and by the end I didn't feel like there were any gaps in my knowledge that adversely affected how much I enjoyed it. Kudos to Leigh Bardugo for that! I will be reading Shadow and Bone in the near future and I'm quite excited for it after this.
Now what I thought, as spoiler-free as I can manage:
Pros:
+ It was very interesting to read a YA novel where for once, romance subplots didn't end up hijacking the entire narrative by the end. There is romance there, and there are certainly some conflicted feelings, but for the most part it remains in the background, secondary to the action.
+ Genuinely quite stressful to read in the sense that things go wrong frequently enough for you to think the cast might genuinely not make it out alive.
+ Changing character perspective is handled well. Moving from one chapter to the next doesn't feel awkward, or just done for the sake of it. It flows despite having so many characters to keep track of and I honestly found it difficult to put down.
+ Every character has their demons, which are refreshingly not all presented as "oh woe is me, I had a bad childhood" with no other consequence beside a convenient backstory. No, their pasts have an actual tangible effect, with no real black/white, good/bad dichotomy. It is slowly revealed how they came to be who they are today, and as such each of them feels complex and fleshed out properly.
Cons:
- The ending was predictable, and yet somehow our protagonist, who is incredibly street-smart and has accounted for far more unpredictable situations, is blindsided by it. I found it to be a bit weak and unbelievable.
- There were some parts, particularly in the Ice Court, where I was struggling to visualise what was actually going on and where exactly the characters were. There are very clear descriptions of what is happening, but not always of the world around them.
Thing(s) I wasn't sure about:
- The one main character we don't ever get into the head of is Wylan. I found that a bit strange, because he ends up being the only one we find out about exclusively via a third person perspective. I can't really list this as a con seeing as it might be a deliberate choice that will be explained later.
Overall I very much enjoyed this, and thought it was a nice change of pace from the YA that I usually read!
Six of Crows was an interesting read, considering that I haven't read the original Grisha trilogy and as such only had the pre-book descriptions of the orders of Grisha and the map of the world to introduce it to me.
Despite that, I didn't find it hard to understand what was going on pretty much immediately, and by the end I didn't feel like there were any gaps in my knowledge that adversely affected how much I enjoyed it. Kudos to Leigh Bardugo for that! I will be reading Shadow and Bone in the near future and I'm quite excited for it after this.
Now what I thought, as spoiler-free as I can manage:
Pros:
+ It was very interesting to read a YA novel where for once, romance subplots didn't end up hijacking the entire narrative by the end. There is romance there, and there are certainly some conflicted feelings, but for the most part it remains in the background, secondary to the action.
+ Genuinely quite stressful to read in the sense that things go wrong frequently enough for you to think the cast might genuinely not make it out alive.
+ Changing character perspective is handled well. Moving from one chapter to the next doesn't feel awkward, or just done for the sake of it. It flows despite having so many characters to keep track of and I honestly found it difficult to put down.
+ Every character has their demons, which are refreshingly not all presented as "oh woe is me, I had a bad childhood" with no other consequence beside a convenient backstory. No, their pasts have an actual tangible effect, with no real black/white, good/bad dichotomy. It is slowly revealed how they came to be who they are today, and as such each of them feels complex and fleshed out properly.
Cons:
- The ending was predictable, and yet somehow our protagonist, who is incredibly street-smart and has accounted for far more unpredictable situations, is blindsided by it. I found it to be a bit weak and unbelievable.
- There were some parts, particularly in the Ice Court, where I was struggling to visualise what was actually going on and where exactly the characters were. There are very clear descriptions of what is happening, but not always of the world around them.
Thing(s) I wasn't sure about:
- The one main character we don't ever get into the head of is Wylan. I found that a bit strange, because he ends up being the only one we find out about exclusively via a third person perspective. I can't really list this as a con seeing as it might be a deliberate choice that will be explained later.
Overall I very much enjoyed this, and thought it was a nice change of pace from the YA that I usually read!