And so, here we are. About 4 weeks later since I said I was going to embark on a reading marathon after the internet blew up with excitement about the Shadow and Bone trailer. Did I think I was going to make it? I mean yeah probably, but did I doubt it at times? For sure. Yet, here we are and I am done, *queue celebration song*.
Good job me.
So I will direct you to my instagram where I have written in more detail about my reading venture of Shadow and Bone, but my feelings about the whole trilogy is lukewarm at best I would say. I liked some things, was disappointed by some more and found the second one to be a massive snooze fest.
This though, my god, these two books changed me. Lol, okay they didn't, but goddamnit if I didn't have tears pouring down my cheeks the other day when I finished Crooked Kingdom.
I did find Six of Crows, which is the first book, to be a little slow. I am not going to lie. I took to the world immediately though, I love Ketterdam (Amsterdam really) as the setting for the murky, dirty and unsafe streets, the darkness of the barrel and just the overall tone which is completely different to Shadow and Bone. Shadow and Bone has all that chosen one nonsense, which I find to be a little bit tiresome at times, while this one is about a bunch of kids trying to survive a harsh world instead, no one is 'special' (I mean they are all great), and they do what they need to survive.
But yes, I didn't love Six of Crows until we got to Nina's point of view, or really until we got on the ship to Fjerda, then shit kicked off and the pages started to fill with anticipation and excitement, some worry to and some eyerolling on my end for sure. But yes, after the first 50-70 pages or so, it gets real. My most controversial opinion after reading this one though, and I will use the word was hehe, was that I wasn't a fan of Mr. Kaz Brekker, the internet's favourite problematic criminal. There was something there of course, but to me he just came off as a dick and a bully who was at times unnecessarily cruel and harsh to his crew of people all with their own set of issues and trauma. While they had all managed to form somewhat healthy relationships between one another though, he was cold and distant. And he has his reasons, I get that, but it still bugged the hell out of me, especially when he was a dick towards Nina or Jesper, the two who were my absolute faves of course.
I gave Six of Crows 4 stars and I think it suffers at times because the chapters are crammed with dialogue and plot, it actually made me forgot whose povs we were in at times because it's so outwardly focused on what is going on rather than internally. Jesper suffers from this, Kaz suffers too in my opinion and their relationship annoyed me so much in this book. Inej too a little bit as well actually and I didn't come to fully appreciate her beautiful, serene and wise take of the world and her life until Crooked Kingdom. All my previous opinions of this changed in the second one where there is a lot more time spent on character development, growth and how the dynamic between them to expand even more. It's why I fell head over heels into the second one and why I won't forget it anytime soon. There is some exceptional moments in this that completely wrecked me, like I can't put into words what they did to me, but UGH how???? How am I meant to recover?
I shall stay free of spoilers I think, I might talk about them when the show comes out and the comparisons ultimately and unwillingly will commence. But I love this bunch of queers criminals, it's a book that says eat the rich and it ticked all my emotional boxes. It's a testament to Leigh's writing and evolvement too that these are so good and that she has created such complex and rich characters all across the board that I cared about ALL of them. Yes you heard that right, all of them. That rarely happens.
Thank you Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias and Wylan for letting me inhabit your world. I will miss you all.
No mourners, no funerals.
Six Of Crows: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Crooked Kingdom: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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