A review by jackacj
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

adventurous 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

4.25

A great continuation of Six of Crows. The characters were still amazing, I enjoyed the prose - this time, the plot also had a bigger focus. I loved the book - but I have two and a half problems with it that prevent me from 5/5. Major spoilers ahead. 
The final part of the book, "Action and Echo", felt very rushed to me. I knew Matthias was going to die and it still felt sudden, and not in a good way, but in an extremely abrupt way. We were shown the emotional consequences of this on the crows, but I still felt the book moved on too quickly, and set the death up even quicker. Ninna completely disappears a bit after Matthias's. 
The second problem is the resolution to Wylan's plotline - I actually loved how it ended up, but I hate we were only told he got back his mother and she is starting to become herself again but it's going to be a long process. Why couldn't we have had another POV chapter of Wlan's? Can you imagine how powerful that would be? Marya Henriks overall feels like a plot device, not a character, which is a pity - alas, instead of expanding on her character and writing a beautiful emotional reunion we had a chapter of Wylan taking the Van Eck mansion. The last problem is much smaller - Inej. While I love Kanej was resolved and wouldn't have it any other way, we should have seen Inej talk to her parents. The whole book builds up to I nej telling her parents what she's done - if she could justify it somehow, if what she did right. The second conflict was resolved in her fight with Dunyasha, the second? Never, apparently.

Even so, I love the book. 
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