"Six of Crows" Book Review (5/5)

Technically, "Six of Crows" is a part of book club. However, due to my friends' schedules and the upcoming holidays, we decided to take a few weeks to read the book before reconvening each week to discuss assigned chapters. I've decided to just write a normal review of the book, as I did with "The Glittering Court" and "Throne of Glass".

Summary

Six people. One heist. One opportunity. An impenetrable fortress in a frozen tundra. Can six vastly different teenagers work together to pull off the biggest heist in history? Or will their differences, and pasts, lead to their doom?

Positive Aspects of the Book

• Plot: One of the most interesting and well-thought out plots in the YA genre that has been written in a long time. While the plot does focus on relationships and emotions, it's not just mundane, repetitive plot points, especially with the thieves/heist storyline being the main focus. The plot also focuses on the characters' emotional journeys and how they grow as individuals (and some as couples/partners). Overall, the plot comes off as well-written and organic. The dialogue flows well and the personalities of the characters stay constant.

• Pacing: As a book that is 479 pages in length, the pacing was a good mix of fast and slow. Traveling parts were fast and told through character development instead of focusing on what was physically happening. The story slowed down as the characters arrived in one of the two major locations (Ketterdam or Djerholm). However, the slow pacing didn't feel slow. The story instead focused on the important aspects of the plot and character development, while taking place over a short period of time for most of the book. This method helped create a weird combination of fast and slow pacing that really made the book flow with ease. Also, flashbacks were used to also expand the plot, and were done so sparingly and quickly. Flashbacks are a tricky maneuver for some authors, but Bardugo's use is efficient and not derivative.

• Characters and Their Development: The largest, and most well-written, part of the book was the characters and how they develop as people. Each character is unique in who they are, their background, and their values. Kaz is the leader of the group with a fear of touch and a difficult, mysterious past. Inej is a skilled acrobat that was taken from her family and forced into a life at a brothel before meeting Kaz. Jesper is a farm boy that came to the city for school but got swept up into gangs and gambling. Nina, a Grisha, committed a horrible act against Matthias to save herself. Matthias, a witch-hunter (he hunts Grisha), wants revenge on Nina for her betrayal. And finally, Wylan is an aristocratic son, who joined the gang to go against his father. All six are unique and different, and in some ways, broken. Their time together helps heal wounds that they've let fester too long.

• Character Dynamics: The relationships between the six main characters are the focal point of the story and what keeps the characters going. The entire plot focuses on the characters' relationships with each other as they work towards completing this historical heist in Fjerda. We see the relationship Kaz and Inej evolve and grow, as they both figure out what they want to do with their own futures. At the same, Nina and Matthias come together and finally hash out their major issues that started before the events of "Six of Crows". Jesper and Wylan also start to bond together, but it isn't as pronounced as the other two. As a group, the teens learn to rely on each other and trust one another, which is vital character development for some of them (Kaz and Matthias). The dynamics also made the dialogue fun and enaging, due to the wittiness that bounces off each of them as they interact.

• World Building: With the "Grishaverse" series sticking mainly to Ravka (Bardugo's fantastical version of Russia), "Six of Crows" focuses on two primary locations: Ketterdam and Djerholm. Ketterdam is a fantasy-version of Amersterdam with its weaving canals and focus on trade. Meanwhile, Djerholm, the capitol of the northern Fjerda, which is based on Scandinavia. The story also mentions vast other lands and cultures that weren't very much present in Grishaverse. Bardugo uses this to build-up the world outside of the secluded Ravka. Not only are the settings amazing, but Bardugo gives parts of each country's culture to help set the scene.

Aspects that Need Improvement

• The only improvement needed (which was a consensus amongst my friends) was that some of the terminology and backstory wasn't explained very well, especially if you didn't read Bardugo's Grishaverse series. Having read the first book of that series (wasn't a big fan of it), I even had to look up some of the terms online. However, I don't see this as a major point of contention because Bardugo still explains the terms through a little bit of show-and-tell.

Conclusion

"Six of Crows" is one of the best YA novels that has been released in recent years. It doesn't follow a lot of the clichés that have dominated the industry. The story itself is solid and well thought-out, while the characters were diverse and novel. "Crooked Kingdom" is going to be an intriguing follow-up, as well as the upcoming Netflix series "Shadow and Bone", which is combining this series and the "Grishaverse" series together.