Six of Crows Review

My last read of July was Six of Crows by Leigh Bardguo. If you’ve read my The Grisha Trilogyreview, you’ll know that I wasn’ t the biggest fan, however, I did end the review by stating that my opinion of that trilogy did not deter me from giving Six of Crows a chance, and I’m glad that it didn’t.

Six of Crows follows a cast of ‘six dangerous outcasts’ (as stated on the cover) living in the slums of Ketterdam called ‘the Barrel’. Through debts and unfortunate circumstances, they come to know one another and form an uneasy crew and friendship on the island country of Kerch. When they are recruited by Kaz Brekker – aka Dirtyahds/the Bastard of the Barrel – to complete an ‘impossible heist’, a large prospective fortune does not seem to hold as an adequate motivation for all six.

Beware of spoilers below

Let me start off by highly praising this book, and in no way is this praise shadowed by the disappointment I felt after reading The Grisha Trilogy. It was a gripping tale of six very contrasting, complex characters driven by different motivations, and it was poignantly expressed, for me, more so than in The Grisha books.

When exploring the characters, Kaz and Inej had become fast favourites of mine – not because they were the leading lady and man of the show, but because their backstories and jounrey to the present expressed their inner strength the best. Although I found myself amused by Jesper’s many one-liners, and Wylan’s quickly adapted ability to retort, I found myself seeking laughs between other relationships. For example, Kaz and Jesper’s farcical conversation on what they’d do with the kruge once they had it had me rolling with laughter, and Matthias and Nina’s constant sniping in flashbacks had me smirking mischievously.

The character I felt most closely linked to was definitely Inej. Even though none of the characters asked for the cards they were dealt, I especially sympathised with her origin story because it is unfortunately a common one in our world – to be snatched up from your own bed and be sold into sex slavery. I appreciated the way that Inej, despite being thrown into the cuthroat slums of the Barrel still held onto her core values instilled by her parents, who clearly raised her as a pious Suli. She only resorted to murder in self-defense, and even then whispered silent prayers for her victims. Even her weapons are named after the Saints she believes in.

Kaz I seemed to appreciate for different reasons. I think what I loved most about his character was the way that he was constructed. I found myself truly sorrowful at the revelation of his backstory, and picked up his coping mechanism following the PTSD his brother’s death gave him – the leather gloves he wears to avoid direct contact, and the general revulsion she feels at touching or being touched directly. At times, his ruthlessness was disconcerting and made me question whether I truly liked him, but once dumb luck and tactfulness came together to seal the fate of his plan, it was kind of hard not envy and love his twisted genius.

I won’t go too much into detail with the other characters, mainly because I felt that their stories weren’t as developed as Kaz’s or Inej’s. We still haven’t gone back to the farmland in Novyi Zem that Jesper was raised on. We still haven’t explored Wylan’s unfortunate childhood, or Matthias’ life at the Ice Court.

What I will say, is that I loved Leigh Bardugo’s subtle exploration of dyslexia and sexual orientation (which left me guessing that Jesper was bisexual, but let me know your thoughts!). Bardugo refrained from outright labelling Wylan’s illiteracy and its cause, or Jesper and Wylan’s sexual orientation, and I loved how that left us as readers to guess, and brought diversity to the cast not only in terms of race – from Inej’ s caramel tones to Kaz’s pale pallor – but in terms of mental conditions, talents/skills (e.g. Wylan’s bomb-building and Jesper’s sharpshooting), genders, professions and backgrounds.

In terms of plot and setting, what I liked best was that we moved away from the rebuilding Ravka, and explored a new territory in the rich world of the Grisha. I’ m not quite sure which real-life country or island I’d compare Kerch to, but I have a very vivid picture of its architectural style and how they translate in daytime and night. I also liked how we got to view the Grisha from the lens of a different culture: we got to understand the witch hunter’s reasons for wanting to purge the world of the Grisha (in Fjerda), and Kerch’ s slavers’ reasons for wanting to indenture Grisha for private use.

This was a completely different story to The Grisha trilogy, and it didn’t follow that same ‘chosen one’ trope, or the ‘revolution’ trope, which we’ve seen reproduced countless times. Albeit thieving and breaking out a scientist and their ethically complex formula for empowerment isn’t an original idea, it is one that diversifies the world of the Grisha, and proves to readers that there isn’t just one way to exist in this world.

I don’t have much criticism for the book, and I confess that this is a biased claim to make due to my love for it, but I think because I was so immersed in the story and the whirlwind suspense, I couldn’t bring myself to nit-pick. With that said, one thing I will say is that I without fail find all action sequences disorienting and confusing (as they should be), but I don’t believe it worked for me in this story because I kept finding my mental image of the scenario shuffling and readjusting in a confused manner, leaving me re-reading the same paragraph until I could form a coherent understanding of the circumstances.

Moreover, I found the first couple chapters of the novel disorienting despite having read TheGrisha trilogy prior. I believe this was due to A) my time away from the world, B) looking at the world of the Grisha through a different culture’s lens, in the future.

Additionally, I wish there was a balanced exploration of all characters concerned and their backstories. At times, I felt as though Jesper’s POV chapters just felt like an omniscient third person narrator. Wheras, I could tell it was a Kaz POV chapter, just by the character being infused in the language. I wish there was just that same presence of character with the rest of the cast as well, so here’s hoping for it in Crooked Kingdom.

Overall, Six of Crows was a riveting and immersive start to a new duology, looking at the world of the Grisha from a unique lens. I gave this book an A+ and it is even contending for the first place spot on my list of 2016 favourites. A concern that most bookworms had about reading Six of Crows was whether or not they had to read The Grisha trilogy beforehand. I won’t discourage you from doing so, despite my own opinions on the trilogy, but what I will say is that there are no spoilers for Six of Crows if you don’t read The Grisha. The benefits, however, of reading the trilogy beforehand is that it gives you a clearer understanding of how the Grisha and their orders work, as well as allows you to pick out trilogy Easter eggs scattered around the book.

I hope you enjoyed this long-winded review of Six of Crow, and hope you enjoyed/enoy reading it as much as I did!

Marwa