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cellardoor28 's review for:
Six of Crows
by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
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
I purchased the Shadow and Bone trilogy and Six of Crows duology all the way back in 2021. Having seen the trailer for a new fantasy series based on books, I was excited to read them all and see how they bring the characters to life. I gulped down Shadow and Bone in one sitting and moved on to Siege and Storm immediately… and it’s still sat at 65% on my kindle.
I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was that made me put it down and never pick it up again. The Netflix adaptation was good but the Grisha story never gripped me. The standouts in the show were the Crows.
As a writer, I use Pinterest all the time and have a staggering amount of boards full of designs and inspirations for characters in my books. I’ve no shame in admitting I finally read Six of Crows because I kept seeing character art, quotes and stills from the series across my Pinterest.
The book is phenomenal. The mastery with which Bardugo writes 6 very distinct voices is something I wish to one day hone. Every character feels like a real person telling me about the impossible heist they went on with their friends, all the shenanigans that happened along the way and the chilling consequences of the choices one has to make when things go wrong. I’d recommend this book to everyone who likes interesting stories. This is a masterclass in crafting third person multi-POV.
Addendum: it could just be me but having read Shadow and Bone and 2/3 of Siege and Storm, I was very confused by the Netflix series. Until I read Six of Crows now (2025), both seasons of the show confused me a lot when comparing them to the books I had in my head. Now that I’ve read it, I have only 1 question remaining that won’t ever get answered, probably - Why on Earth did they blend the two book series together? Six of Crows on its own would have been an absolutely fantastic tv show. And with the cast they picked for all the characters from the Crow books? Absolutely brilliant.
Now excuse me, while I dive into Crooked Kingdom.
I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was that made me put it down and never pick it up again. The Netflix adaptation was good but the Grisha story never gripped me. The standouts in the show were the Crows.
As a writer, I use Pinterest all the time and have a staggering amount of boards full of designs and inspirations for characters in my books. I’ve no shame in admitting I finally read Six of Crows because I kept seeing character art, quotes and stills from the series across my Pinterest.
The book is phenomenal. The mastery with which Bardugo writes 6 very distinct voices is something I wish to one day hone. Every character feels like a real person telling me about the impossible heist they went on with their friends, all the shenanigans that happened along the way and the chilling consequences of the choices one has to make when things go wrong. I’d recommend this book to everyone who likes interesting stories. This is a masterclass in crafting third person multi-POV.
Addendum: it could just be me but having read Shadow and Bone and 2/3 of Siege and Storm, I was very confused by the Netflix series. Until I read Six of Crows now (2025), both seasons of the show confused me a lot when comparing them to the books I had in my head. Now that I’ve read it, I have only 1 question remaining that won’t ever get answered, probably - Why on Earth did they blend the two book series together? Six of Crows on its own would have been an absolutely fantastic tv show. And with the cast they picked for all the characters from the Crow books? Absolutely brilliant.
Now excuse me, while I dive into Crooked Kingdom.