Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 5/5
Genre: Fantasy
Category: YA
Publisher: Orion Children's Books
Yet again I’m stuck not knowing how to start this review. I am beyond disgusted with myself that I didn’t read this mind-blowing book sooner. Megan, my partner in crime here has been bugging me to read Six of Crows since the day it came out. Six criminals taking on the most difficult heist ever know... sounds like something right up my alley! And guess what.... I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!
Leigh's writing is intriguing and very different to most books I have read before and the characters are oh so amazing! Kaz is so interesting and so closed off, there is so much you don't know about him and so much you want to learn. The other five crows are the same, I love the fact there are so many different points of view in this book, in some books I find it so difficult going from one point of view to another but Leigh wrote her characters so well that this was never an issue, each character was written so differently that it was like reading a different book with each view change! I listened to Six of Crows on Audible.com as my first ever Audio book and it was such an amazing experience. The narrators were MAGNIFICENT!
Throughout the book you get a small amount of back story on each character, but never enough to truly understand the character’s actions and I love that! Leigh leaves so much to the reader’s imagination that I felt so incredibly immersed in the world. I loved learning about their pasts and getting a small insight into why they are like they are now.
I am in a way so glad I left it so long to read Six of Crows because if I had to wait a full year for Crooked Kingdom I’d literally die, like full on implode.
Do I have time to talk about how amazing the ships are in this book… Oh my! Kaz and Inej, Nina and Matthias, and JESPER AND WYLAN. Yes I ship Jesper and Wylan… Like SOOOOO MUCH! The ships pop in out of nowhere. With Nina and Matthias I had an inkling I was going to want them together from the get go but the other two… it just happened and my heart hurts! Kaz is such a reserved character but when Inej gets hurt and taken his emotions are so raw and I just wanted to curl him up in a blanket and feed him ice cream until he felt better.
So the actual plot. So Six of Crows is set in the Gisha world where there are these beings known as Grisha who have special powers, in some of the countires these Grisha are hunted and killed. The book begins and there has been a drug (Jurda Parem) developed which enhances their abilities but it is so addictive that they Grisha who are subjected to it die. Kaz is asked to break into the biggest stronghold to break out the scientist who made Jurda Parem and have him help them rid the world of it. Kaz puts together a group of notorious criminals to complete this almost impossible heist.
“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.” ~ Leigh Bardugo
What could go wrong? Oh so so much.
As I was reading the first chapter I felt it was a bit out of place as the relevance of it doesn’t come into play until much later. But since Leigh is such a skilled writer and spreads small pieces of information throughout the whole book that only make sense at the end (I’m sure there’s some that will only make sense when we read Crooked Kingdom) it all worked out perfectly.
It did take me away to get a hold of the plot but once Kaz was given his task I was glued and I couldn’t stop reading/ listening. The detail in Leigh’s writing really makes you feel like you’re part of the crew joining them on their mission. There are so many plot twists and parts that had me gasping and holding my breath! I loved every second!
Favourite Quotes:
‘We are all someone's monster.’
‘No mourners, No Funerals’ ~ All the crows
‘The Heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true’ ~ Inej
‘There was no part of him that wasn’t broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken’ ~ Kaz (this bit made me cry so badly.)
‘She wouldn’t wish love on anyone. It was the guest you welcomed and then couldn’t be rid of’ ~ Nina
‘When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing every monstrous thing’
~Kaz
‘ “It’s not natural for women to fight.” She rolled her eyes, “It’s not natural for someone to be as stupid as he is tall, yet there you stand.” ’ ~ Matthias and Nina
‘What bound them together? Greed? Desperation? Was it just the knowledge that if one or all of them disappeared tonight, no one would come looking?’ ~ Inej
There are so many more amazing quotes but if I carried on I’d write out the whole book!
YOU MUST GO AND READ IT NOW!