Review: Six of Crows

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Six of Crows #1
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Release Date: September 29th, 2015
Source: Book Expo America
Date Read: 11/16/15 to 11/21/15
465 pages

Rating: ✰✰✰✰✰

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can't pull it off alone...

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.

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I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Quotes taken from ARC may or may not be in the published edition.

SIX OF CROWS. SIX OF CROWS. YES I FINALLY READ IT. And yes REVIEW WILL BE LONG. Longer than my usual at least.

I have to admit, I don't know why I waited so long to read this. At first, I was going to wait until I finish The Grisha series, but that ended up not happening, so I just said "Ah screw it I'm reading this". Yes, I was a little intimidating by the length and the million perspectives, and the first chapter was a little weird, but this book was perfection. And it has been a while since I have said that.

Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Matthias, and Nina. Oh what to say about them. Character development? Yes. Massive shipping between characters? Yes. Love for each and every one? Yes. Let's be honest, I thought six characters was going to be WAAAAAY too much for my poor brain, but no. NOPE. I didn't even hate one perspective. That is how well done this is. Plus, I initially thought Wylan was just being thrown in there for no good reason. I thought he was going to be useless, but he ended up being a lovable, adorable, USEFUL, squish. Yes, I will call him a squish with no regrets.

Oh, and the setting of it all. I am just going to say one word. MISTBORN. I mean, for days, Holly has been telling me "Val, you gotta read Six of Crows," and then she mentioned heists and team members, and I was like "Wait, like MISTBORN?". And then while reading I kept on mentioning Mistborn, because you can totally compare this to Mistborn! One team, one impossible heist, some can use powers, others can't. I'm not saying that this is a bad thing, since Bardugo's writing is much different from Sanderson's, but the resemblance is definitely there. Though I can say without doubt that all the characters in Six of Crows had much different personalities than the ones in Mistborn.

"Fine. But if Pekka Rollins kills us all, I'm going to get Wylan's ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost."

Brekker's lips quirked. "I'll just hire Matthias' ghost to kick your ghost's ass."

"My ghost won't associate with your ghost," Matthias said primly, and then wondered if the sea air was rotting his brain.

And the plot itself was ingenious, with twists and turns and explanations for when things could have gone horribly wrong. This team was tested time and time again, and each time I thought "Well damn here is where everything goes to shit." Guess who was proven wrong almost every time? Yeah me. If I can say one thing with certain, Leigh Bardugo knows how to write a masterful, thought out heist. (She could probably rob a bank at this point. And get away with it)

Though, I also found it incredibly convenient that when shit went down, it was miraculously solved. This doesn't lower my love for this book at all though, but it is something that Shannon @ It Starts At Midnight and I talked about. I am just surprised there weren't more setbacks. [Spoilers] I can't believe I am saying this, but I felt like someone had to go. Death was needed here [End Spoilers]

Print from RedBubble (evieseo) that Shannon had bought

To sum it all up, and I'm sure you've heard everyone say this, but you should read this book. However, NOTE. Although I was told that you did not need to read The Grisha Trilogy to read Six of Crows, there were spoilers for Ruin & Rising in the book. In other words, I would suggest that if you are planning to read The Grisha series, read that first! Or at least if you just read Shadow and Bone and are planning to continue the series, you should finish the series first. Even though the spoilers had nothing to do with the characters in The Grisha series, I still let out a "oh" while I was reading Six of Crows.

But if you don't care at all, then YES. GO FOR THIS. You will fall head over heels for all the characters.