Six of Crows (2015)
Written By: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Pages: 480 (Hardcover)
Series: Six of Crows Book 1
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co
Why I Chose It: A friend I really trust to know what he’s talking about had some truly spectacular things to say about Six of Crows and its sequel. I trust him so much and he was so effusive with his praise that I bumped this one to the top of Mount To-Read.
The premise:
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.
Spoiler Free!
Discussion: Leigh Bardugo’s books are some of those that I keep meaning to read but something always gets in the way. I’ve wanted to read her Grisha trilogy for while just based on cover design and genre, but I’ve been burned by so many young adult fantasies recently that I hesitated. Believe me, I’ll be correcting that mistake just as soon as it’s physically possible, because, wow.
While Six of Crows did start a little slow for me – I wasn’t actually in it for the excitement of the heist right away – I loved the grimy, vivid world Bardugo created right off the bat. Especially the city with its merchant rulers, its fog, and its canals. I want to go wandering around Ketterdam. I want to eat the food and watch the Grisha work, and explore the Barrel (with Kaz’s protection, of course). When a city ceases to be a setting and becomes a character, that’s the kind of magic available in our world, and Bardugo is a master wizard.
After the world got its claws in me but before the thrill of the heist took hold, the thing that kept me turning pages was the characters. This book is about my favorite kind of people. The broken ones. Physically, emotionally, realistically broken. And they’re not trying to “overcome” their brokenness. They’re trying to survive it and thrive with it. Just like every person you’ve ever met on the street with scars, both visible and hidden.
How could I not fall in love with Kaz and his ruthless vulnerability? Or Inej with her strength hiding deep compassion? Or Jesper with his addiction to risk and snark. Bardugo gives this motley ensemble strengths and weaknesses. She gives them inner demons and tensions that make them incompatible. And then gives them a reason to work with each other. None of these were as beautifully portrayed or dire as Nina and Matthias. A Grisha struggling to pay for a past mistake and a hunter trying to reconcile his religion and beliefs with the reality of his enemy. Every single relationship was rich and compelling but that was the one that had me from the moment Nina and Kaz rowed out to stage a jail break.
Only then, when I was fully invested in the world and the tensions between the people populating it, then I started to really care about this heist and whether they’d all come out of it alive. This is the best kind of heist story. A grimmer Ocean’s Eleven with magic, where you don’t even realize the characters are keeping you in the dark until the end. You have no idea if a mistake is really a mistake or if it’s just another part of Kaz’s elaborate plan. Some people might get annoyed by this, but there’s a part of me that loves getting duped by a worthy mastermind. I relish that moment I realize I’ve been had just as much as the bad guy. It reminded me a lot of Heist Society by Ally Carter. Not speculative fiction, but if you like clever teenagers pulling off fantastic crimes you’ll like that one too.
In Conclusion: I’m hooked. This was a fantastic book with a great set of characters, cool plot, scary bad guys, and a ruthless thief you could only love. I’m reading Crooked Kingdom next, and after that I might pick up everything else by Leigh Bardugo just for the heck of it.
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