Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jesus Christ, this book is entertaining!
I didn’t know Netflix had adapted Six of Crows into a series until I was halfway through the book. I knew there was a show called Shadow & Bone on TV somewhere, but I wasn’t interested in seeing it, and I’m still not. Given this book’s title, Six of Crows instead of Shadow & Bone, how could I know those characters’ appearance in that production?
This series has seven books, all connected in The Grishaverse.
Were prior books essential to liking Six of Crows?
Hell no! It made sense without it, and I still enjoyed it.
A few years ago, I tried reading Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House, and I wasn’t into it. I had to stop reading because it felt like a chore. Whatever greatness may have come in the unread chapters stayed ungreat. But I knew Bardugo had talent, so I made a point of reading something else in her bibliography.
And here we are, Six of Crows, and I made the right choice.
Imagine, for a moment, something like a Dickensian/X-Men/Heist Film, and you've got yourself Six of Crows.
The prose does not draw attention to itself. There is no fluff or dandelion language. The characters talk quite a bit, which takes up most of the book's space. While there is no original voice here, they are fascinating to listen to and each backstory and the way they see the world singular way is deep.
The best one, if I had to pick, would be Kaz Brekker. He’s a man barely out of boyhood who has seen too much, felt great pain, and has the respect of the people he gathers for a very dangerous mission.
The task will make him and those he’s chosen to follow him rich and able to live better lives. Kaz can love, although he sees it as a weakness. He secretly loves Inej Ghafa, another member of his gang called The Dregs, whom he bought out of slavery, and who is a member of The Crows.
Another character, Nina Zenik, is a Grisha, meaning she can alter matter at the molecular level and perhaps the atomic. She is a lovely woman in appearance, smart and witty. She and everyone with her gifts are persecuted by the Drüskelle. And what better way to create tension, sexual or otherwise, than having her fall in love with one:
The hunk's name is Matthias Helvar. He is icy, surly, and at the start of the novel wants to kill Nina for having him put in prison.
So…a lot is world-building, and it’s handled through these people, because they, after all, live in this world. It’s a world that breathes, and much of it is cold, because where Kaz, Nina, Matthias, and others go is called The Ice Court. It's the stronghold for The Drüskelle’s forces, and there, The Crows need to escape with a scientist who has developed a drug able to amplify a Grisha’s power.
Six of Crows was a very good, very commercial, and very fun book. I’ll be reading more in this series and then whatever works Leigh Bardugo’s works on next.
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