Six of Crows
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: Six of Crows #1
Genre: Fantasy, YA, heist
Release date: September 29th 2015
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Page number: 462 pages
Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price–and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.
REVIEWS
How to summarize Six of Crows in one (speak it in a very fast tone) sentence:
6 criminals (and I mean legit criminals) is hired with a crazy amount of money in a fictional-therefore-I-do-no-understands-nor-comprehends currency to do a crazy impossible plan to retrieve a man with a crazy amount of worth from a place that is crazy to break into.
I’ve heard so much about this book. Like it is everywhere . But I refused to read it for a loooong time because of how wary I was with Leigh Bardugo’s books. I did not really enjoy her Grisha Trilogy, and what really made me not want to read it ever is the fact that the Darkling didn’t end up with Alina (haha). So yeah, that’s why I had completely no interest in reading this book.
Then there’s the internet.
Does anyone else feel this way? Like, even if you have no one in your actual life who read books, so no one can physically tell you this, but you can always sense it when a book is really hyped? Is it just me who feels this way? It’s weird, like, no one actually physically told you this, but you can physically sense a book’s reputation.
Anyway, back to the review. I know this book is a heist book, but I’m still really impressed by how it portrayed this story-line. This book seriously feels like straight out of a heist movie. It literally has the classic planning scenes and everything, it’s amazing. This book is also the first heist book I’ve ever read, and I really, really loved it.
Aside from this, I love how they had actual clever thinking in this books. So many of the plans impressed me so much because of how genuinely clever they are. Especially Kaz, that guy literally went full-on mini-sherlock-holmes on everything and everyone, it’s amazing. I also ate up those scenes where they discuss specific theft and criminal techniques, and Kaz would teach them how to do better. Great job Leigh Bardugo, you actually have a criminal mind. I will make sure to keep my wallet out of your sight if I ever meet you.
This book still suffered from an inevitable side effect of multiple POVs though: I still play favorites. Inej and Kaz’s narration and ship/storyline is my favorite, and as much as I loved the rest of the crew, they all seem to side-characters to me, with Inej and Kaz being the main protagonists. Obviously, this was not the objective of the author, there were supposed to be 6 total equally important protagonists. This can also be proven through how every character has the same average number of POV opportunity. But having favorites is ultimately inevitable in multiple POVs. So it is kind of a shame. I really cared about Jesper, Nina, and even Matthias and everyone, but I truly love Kaz and Inej the most at the end.
There is also something very specific I want to eulogize about the book, and that is how Bardugo introduced the story. That was so clever or her, giving us an unimportant minor character’s perspective on an event that later on, our main character would come across. So we’ll get it then what was happening, and it kind of is a self-installed easter egg that is pretty cool. This also made me really sympathized with that particular character, because we were his head. So how he ended up really bothered me.
This book definitely redeemed my thoughts on Leigh Bardugo’s books, and it would definitely be because of this duology that I will be very excited for her future works.
You would love this book if you like:
- heist book (duh)
- heist story in a high fantasy setting
- the villain gets the girl/villain as the love interest
- LGBT character
My Rating:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Leigh Bardugo is the #1 New York Times bestselling and USA Today bestselling author of the Six of Crows Duology and the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, as well as the upcoming Wonder Woman: Warbringer (Aug 2017) and The Language of Thorns (Sept 2017).
She was born in Jerusalem, grew up in Los Angeles, and graduated from Yale University. These days, she lives and writes in Hollywood where she can occasionally be heard singing with her band.
She would be delighted if you followed her on Twitter, elated if you visited her web site, and fairly giddy if you liked her selfies on Instagram.