Review by stellenelcielo - Crooked Kingdom

stellenelcielo 's review for:

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

4.0

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Okay, despite giving it four stars, I crawled through this book. It took me since July to read this, where I would lose interest every couple of chapters (usually Matthias or Nina chapters, because I found them so unbelievably boring) go read another book, and then come back to this, only to get bored again.

However, I don't hold it against the author, of all the characters I enjoyed, it was natural to find a few lacking. I sincerely have high praise for Bardugo, because I do think this is one of her best books. The weaving of the plot, the suspense, and the romance between Inej and Kaz, and that it's respectful to both of their traumas? Loved it.

Though I did feel there were some elements that weren't necessary. Like

Jasper kissing Kuwei by accident

and

Dunyasha Lazareva feeling like too specific of a character and that she came out of nowhere, but perhaps she's just a buildup for the Lantsov series.

Otherwise, I really enjoyed the other characters and their dynamics and romances, and I really enjoyed how it ended.

Mostly, I want to praise Bardugo for getting me re-interested in Ravka and the rest of the Grishaverse with this book. Ruin and Rising (from the Shadow and Bone series) had buried that interest six feet underground with its extremely unsatisfying ending, enough that I didn't even care to read the Lantsov series, but now I actually have an interest in giving it a chance. So yeah, kudos for that, this book really makes up for that atrocious ending.

Content Warnings