Book Review: Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

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BOOK review

Started on: 7 June 2021
Finished on: 21 June 2021

 

Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

 

Title: Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)

Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co

Pages: 465 pages / 479 pages (e-book)
Year of Publication: 2015
Price: Rp 184,000 (https://www.periplus.com/)

Rating: 5/5

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"Six people, but a thousand ways this insane plan could go wrong."

In Ketterdam, anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. However, he won't be able to pull it off by himself. His crew consists of six dangerous outcasts: a convict with 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 skill to survive the slums, and a thief with a gift for unlikely escapes. This group of people might be the only thing that stands between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.

"If jurda parem is unleashed on the world, war is inevitable. Our trade lines will be destroyed, and our markets will collapse. Kerch will not survive it. Our hopes rest with you, Mister Brekker. If you fail, all the world will suffer for it."

"Every act of violence was deliberate, and every favour came with enough strings attached to stage a puppet show. Kaz always had his reasons."

Before I start writing my review, let me just say that I read this book immediately after finishing the Grisha / Shadow and Bone trilogy and watched the first season of the Shadow and Bone TV series. Thus, I am very familiar with the Grishaverse and also got a glimpse of some characters in this book from the TV series. I just feel like starting my review this way because even though Six of Crows is a completely different story from Shadow and Bone, I think reading the previous series first definitely helped me ease into the story and the setting smoothly without any confusion.😊

First, I'd like to express how much I love this book and the thrilling experience that it has given me. I had such a wonderful time reading that I almost don't want this book to end, but at the same time curious to see how it's going to end 🤣. Although I know there's still a sequel waiting for me, the deadly heist in the Ice Court ends in this book. Six of Crows is written in third-person POV from multiple perspectives of the characters: Kaz, Inej, Nina, Matthias, and Jesper. It's great to have all of their perspectives because there are times when they are separated and are doing different kind of missions. The plot itself is full of unexpected twists and turns that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. I'm not going to spoil too much of what happen throughout the story, because I think it's better to go into it without knowing much and just enjoy the ride. To put it simply, every single page keeps building tension and suspense—making me eager to immediately flip to the next page. Definitely a page-turner!

"No mourners. No funerals. Among them, it passed for 'good luck."

"A gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse."

The plot of the story is great; but for me, the best part of this book would be the characters. I already fell in love with them when I first saw them in the TV series, but the book version of these characters are so much better! Let's talk about my favorite character first, Kaz Brekker. I fell in love with Kaz's character right from the beginning; he seems quite mysterious at first, and the author slowly reveal his character and his past little by little throughout this book. Why is he so driven by revenge? What happened to his leg? When did he become such a vicious human being? I had so many questions in my mind about Kaz and I'm glad Leigh Bardugo provided the answers that I need. His character is smart, savage, and brutal at times. However, when I discovered his past and what he had to go through when he was very young, I was able to understand his need to do evil things just to survive. I ended up admiring his brilliant schemes (I am especially excited when he puts on his 'scheming face' 😏) and how he managed to outsmart his enemies. One thing that really surprises me about Kaz (and the rest of the crew) is their age. They're surprisingly very young—merely teenagers under the age of 20. I expected them to be much older but I guess a rough life certainly made them mature a lot faster.

 

My next favorite will be the Matthias Helvar and Nina Zenik combo. Out of the two, I would choose Nina as my second favorite character in this book because she's so witty and charming. But as a couple, they have this adorable love-and-hate relationship that makes me ship them so hard! 😆 I kind of spoiled myself about their story by watching the TV adaptation and apparently it's not so different from the book. Not going to spoil the details here because the author reveals their history little by little throughout the book—which would definitely made me curious if I didn't know about it earlier. Their relationship also adds another layer of conflict to the story because I had to keep guessing whether Matthias will ruin the mission by pursuing his personal revenge or not. It makes everything a bit more complicated and it surely made me anxious about the final outcome.

The rest of the characters include: Inej Ghafa, Jesper Fahey, and Wylan Van Eck. I won't talk about their characters too much in this review because I'm afraid it will end up being to lengthy 🤣. We got a glimpse of Inej's past and how she ended up working with Kaz and also the shocking story of Wylan's relationship with his father. However, I'm still curious about Jesper's background story which haven't been revealed much in this book. In conclusion, I love how each of the main characters have different personality from one another and the chemistry between the characters is just wonderful. Their interactions made me laugh at times and even made me swoon at the romance. As I was reading this book, somehow I've grown attached to this crew and I think it would be difficult to say goodbye to them when the series ends 😥.

"When everyone knows you're a monster, you needn't waste time doing every monstrous thing."

"Men mock the gods until they need them, Kaz."

Overall, reading this book almost felt like watching an action-packed movie that you can't take your eyes off of; it was such fun and thrilling ride. I think Leigh Bardugo did such a great job crafting a plot that grips my attention from start to finish. I fell in love deeper and deeper with the characters and was continuously rooting for them to succeed. Am really looking forward to see how the story is going to unfold in the second book, Crooked Kingdom; I have a really high expectation because some people say that it's even better than the first one 😆. Hopefully no one dies in the sequel *fingers crossed*

 

"If the old plan had been daring, it had at least been built on stealth. The new plan was audacious, maybe even mad."

"How did you survive the Barrel? When they took everything from you, you found a way to make something from nothing."

by.stefaniesugia♥ .