A review by tisawizard
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

5.0

I totally understand why so many people love this duology and these characters, because wow. Perhaps the best found family story outside of the Maas-verse. Once again, sad as hell, but a lot of humor in here, too. To me, this story (like many YA fantasy books I've read) is a heartbreaking account of how children are used and abused by adults who should know better, and who are forced to grow up and handle things far beyond their years. This is the reason YA in general is difficult for me to read, because I just want to hug them all and tell them it's going to be ok. 💔 Speaking of, favorite quotes:

1. "Nina felt a sudden lump in her throat. Matthias had lost his family to war. Nina had been taken from her family to train when she was just a little girl. Wylan had been as good as evicted from his father’s house. Kuwei had lost his father and his country. And Kaz? She didn’t want to know what dark alley Kaz had crawled out of. But Jesper had somewhere to go, someone to take care of him, somebody to say, It’s going to be all right. She had a vision of golden fields beneath a cloudless sky, a clapboard house protected from the wind by a line of red oaks. Someplace safe. Nina wished Colm Fahey could march over to Jan Van Eck’s office and tell him to give Inej back or get a mouth full of knuckles. She wished someone in this city would help them, that they weren’t so alone. She wished Jesper’s father could take them all with him. She’d never been to Novyi Zem, but the longing for those golden fields felt just like homesickness. Silly , she told herself, childish . Kaz was right—if they wanted justice, they would have to take it for themselves. That didn’t ease the starved-heart pang in her chest."

(😭😭😭)

2.“'That’s where you’re wrong', Kaz said. 'I don’t hold a grudge, I cradle it, I coddle it. I feed it fine cuts of meat and send it to the best schools. I nurture my grudges, Rollins.'”

(Real gemini behavior, king.)

3. "I would have come for you. And if I couldn't walk, I'd crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we'd fight our way out together-knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that's what we do. We never stop fighting."

(Kaz you devilish but lovable bastard of a romantic! 😭)