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A review by readingcat1832
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
5.0
UPDATE 12/14/2021: Yeah so one reread later and this is still one of my favourite books of all time.
mom, dad, i'm running away and joining a gang of traumatised gay criminal children in a fictional version of amsterdam and we're going to eat the rich
this book. holy fuck. ok. this was *chef's kiss* and honestly the best ending to the series i could have asked for. the more i think about these books the more i love them and leigh bardugo's character work and romance writing might just be unlike anything i've ever seen (except for you libba bray). wow wow wow.
these characters have worked their way into my heart so much and the topics that are delved into in this book are so fucking good. i have a couple of really *really* tiny nitpicks, which i am going to list here at the beginning of the review because i want to get it out of the way and sing praises for crooked kingdom.
i also think i liked the heist plot better from the first book because i really liked the ~vibe~ of it better than this plotline, which isn't to say the plot of crooked kingdom was bad at ALL, just a matter of personal preference! maybe because i wasn't smart enough to keep track of all the schemes in this book and the heist was just fun and easier to follow. i didn't mind too much, though, because the character work in this book more than makes up for it. all six of the crows develop so beautifully, leigh bardugo simply went above and beyond the expectations she set for all of them in the first book.
but on to GOOD THINGS because oh wow there were a lot of them. i'm being vague here because i do want to keep this review spoiler free as i can, and so much of what i like is so specific to how this book goes down. in the interest of doing that, i have compiled a vague list of things i loved in crooked kingdom which will appear in bullet points and once you have read it you will understand.
- COLM
- the dynamic between the entire crew and how it continues to play out just every moment of banter has my heart and kaz being a killjoy every time
- kuwei?! what a little shit i love him
- rotty and specht! they do so much work but i don't see anyone giving them the respect they deserve
- NINA
- matthias's development i didn't really like him in six of crows but he grew on me here and owns my heart too, congratulations boy you made it. also i've decided "someday" from hunchback of notre dame is his and nina's theme song
- every single jesper/wylan scene. every single one.
- the exploration of jesper and wylan's backstories!! we didn't get to learn that much about them in the first book considering but they were so well fleshed out here, especially jesper, speaking of which...
- jesper's development ahhhhh i love this boy
- and we got a wylan pov in crooked kingdom YES
- the bond between kaz and wylan that slowly develops, the mutual understanding and disability solidarity, kaz helping wylan overcome his internalized ableism. god. my heart can't take this much love for characters anymore.
- crashing through the ceiling
- dunyasha and the homoerotic knife fight(s) with inej
- kaz and every moment he BREATHES
- the scene with matthias on black veil, you know the one
-
-
- INEJ i don't have anything smart to say about her but she continues to have my heart what a queen
- the bathroom scene
- the way leigh bardugo deals with trauma. it was great in six of crows and i didn't expect to see as much of it in this book so it was such a pleasant surprise, but holy SHIT. also specifically how it bled into...
- kaz and inej's relationship. one day i want to get back to this and really say something intelligent about it so maybe this review is still a wip. but suffice to say that kaz and inej have got to have one of the best most profound romances i've ever read point blank. it's beautiful and profound and impossible and it dodges almost every single romance cliche/trope i can think of. it isn't that tropes are a bad thing at ALL (see: jesper and wylan) but the way bardugo just subverted almost everything we can think of when it comes to conventional portrayals of what a romantic relationship needs to look like.... i don't know. it's so so important and i'm floored that this is sitting there in a fun ya fantasy adventure.
- "we never stop fighting" fuck me and my heart ig
- is my tie straight
-
- that epilogue oh wow
mom, dad, i'm running away and joining a gang of traumatised gay criminal children in a fictional version of amsterdam and we're going to eat the rich
this book. holy fuck. ok. this was *chef's kiss* and honestly the best ending to the series i could have asked for. the more i think about these books the more i love them and leigh bardugo's character work and romance writing might just be unlike anything i've ever seen (except for you libba bray). wow wow wow.
these characters have worked their way into my heart so much and the topics that are delved into in this book are so fucking good. i have a couple of really *really* tiny nitpicks, which i am going to list here at the beginning of the review because i want to get it out of the way and sing praises for crooked kingdom.
Spoiler
the main thing is that i was disappointed with the way dunyasha was used in the end. i know she was technically a bad person and we weren't supposed to like her, but i did anyway. look, you give me a couple girls having a 100% homoerotic knife fight on a rooftop and i'm going to latch onto the homoeroticism, shoot me. i did really love the way inej beat her - not because she was a better fighter but by using her own strengths and knowledge of the city, YES. but i felt their final showdown went by just a bit too quickly for how much build-up we had. i was really upset that she died, for some reason. i don't know. i would have liked her to have somehow acknowledged inej could beat her in other ways, since she has a lot of respect for other fighters and her own principles when it comes to honour and such. it would have been a really interesting twist but i think i'm alone on this hill. but seriously this is such a minor gripe and it's outrageously personal like omg don't worry about it this book is fucking incredible.i also think i liked the heist plot better from the first book because i really liked the ~vibe~ of it better than this plotline, which isn't to say the plot of crooked kingdom was bad at ALL, just a matter of personal preference! maybe because i wasn't smart enough to keep track of all the schemes in this book and the heist was just fun and easier to follow. i didn't mind too much, though, because the character work in this book more than makes up for it. all six of the crows develop so beautifully, leigh bardugo simply went above and beyond the expectations she set for all of them in the first book.
but on to GOOD THINGS because oh wow there were a lot of them. i'm being vague here because i do want to keep this review spoiler free as i can, and so much of what i like is so specific to how this book goes down. in the interest of doing that, i have compiled a vague list of things i loved in crooked kingdom which will appear in bullet points and once you have read it you will understand.
- COLM
- the dynamic between the entire crew and how it continues to play out just every moment of banter has my heart and kaz being a killjoy every time
- kuwei?! what a little shit i love him
- rotty and specht! they do so much work but i don't see anyone giving them the respect they deserve
- NINA
- matthias's development i didn't really like him in six of crows but he grew on me here and owns my heart too, congratulations boy you made it. also i've decided "someday" from hunchback of notre dame is his and nina's theme song
- every single jesper/wylan scene. every single one.
- the exploration of jesper and wylan's backstories!! we didn't get to learn that much about them in the first book considering but they were so well fleshed out here, especially jesper, speaking of which...
- jesper's development ahhhhh i love this boy
- and we got a wylan pov in crooked kingdom YES
- the bond between kaz and wylan that slowly develops, the mutual understanding and disability solidarity, kaz helping wylan overcome his internalized ableism. god. my heart can't take this much love for characters anymore.
- crashing through the ceiling
- dunyasha and the homoerotic knife fight(s) with inej
- kaz and every moment he BREATHES
- the scene with matthias on black veil, you know the one
-
Spoiler
"what do you think forgiveness looks like, jordie"-
Spoiler
"i recommend a cane" legend.- INEJ i don't have anything smart to say about her but she continues to have my heart what a queen
- the bathroom scene
- the way leigh bardugo deals with trauma. it was great in six of crows and i didn't expect to see as much of it in this book so it was such a pleasant surprise, but holy SHIT. also specifically how it bled into...
- kaz and inej's relationship. one day i want to get back to this and really say something intelligent about it so maybe this review is still a wip. but suffice to say that kaz and inej have got to have one of the best most profound romances i've ever read point blank. it's beautiful and profound and impossible and it dodges almost every single romance cliche/trope i can think of. it isn't that tropes are a bad thing at ALL (see: jesper and wylan) but the way bardugo just subverted almost everything we can think of when it comes to conventional portrayals of what a romantic relationship needs to look like.... i don't know. it's so so important and i'm floored that this is sitting there in a fun ya fantasy adventure.
- "we never stop fighting" fuck me and my heart ig
- is my tie straight
-
Spoiler
the hand holding at the end will never fail to make my soul melt- that epilogue oh wow