Book Review: Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo

Hello Everyone!

Today, as you can see from the title, I am going to be reviewing the Six of Crows Duology by Leigh Bardugo! I published a review a few weeks back reviewing her Grisha Trilogy, which I adored and I can say the same for this Duology! Leigh Bardugo is an absolutely phenomenal author and I will read anything she writes. This is going to be a spoiler-free review, so anyone can read it because I really want to convince those people that haven’t read Leigh Bardugo’s books to do so. I can promise you will not regret it if you do! Let’s actually get into the review though because I have a lot of thoughts, so this is going to be long enough as it is!

I think the best place to start is with the characters because they are really what makes this book so phenomenal! I have gone round and round in my head trying to pick a favourite character from this duology and I genuinely can’t do it because they are all just so amazingly written, well-rounded and complex characters. I adore every single on of the crows all for their own reasons. Matthias is so precious and he only wants to do what is right. I loved seeing the battle in his head trying to decide between doing what he thinks is right and what he was taught is right. I think that is something that a lot of people go through nowadays and it was really amazing to see it put into words.

“I like it when men beg, but this isn’t the time for it.”

Jesper and Wylan are my precious little children and I love them to bits. Wylan may not have grown up on the streets, but he has faced hardship of his own and he adapts to the new situation he is in beautifully and really proves himself. He learns his own worth throughout the story even though he has been neglected by his father and taught that he was a failure and it was so lovely to see that character development. Jesper is probably the closest to a favourite I am going to get because not only is his sense of humour hilarious, but I just love his attitude to everything. You can really see a huge development in his character and mind set by the end of the book and it is so satisfying to see. I also really love the relationship between Jesper and his Father and I think is was really important to see.

Inej and Nina are probably some of the strongest characters I have ever read about. Nina is in a dangerous situation on the streets as a Grisha and has been through so much especially by the end of the duology. What I really love about Nina is that even though she is a Grisha and they are viewed with fear because of their power, she is never ashamed of what she is and we really get to see that she is still human. No matter what others might think, she is  human being and struggles just as much as everyone else. Despite this though, her focus never wavers from what is right and I love that. Nina is also hilarious. Inej is just as strong and I have so much admiration for her. It was so nice to see two amazingly strong female characters fighting side by side and never did they have their strength questioned because of their gender. The friendship between the two girls was also the best female friendship I have ever read in a fantasy story!

Kaz is the most amazingly written character I have ever read. He has suffered so much and has built himself up from nothing and yet still he doesn’t let anything stop him. He is fabulously cruel and as much as I wish he didn’t have to suffer like he did and still does he is an amazing character and he wouldn’t be the Kaz I know and love without all of that. His drive and his intellect are stunning and I have never been in awe of a character so much in my life.

“Scheming-face”

The plot is of course fabulous (because it is Leigh Bardugo and everything she writes is amazing) and I am sure you have heard what the plot is by now because everyone in the book community has been talking about it for years, but I’ll give you a brief summary anyway. The Basic gist is that these 6 people (the crows) are hired to go on the biggest heist they could imagine in order to save the world and also get lots and lots of money. Of course it doesn’t quite end up going to plan and everything unfolds from there. The story is amazing and I don’t really have much else to say about it other than IT IS AMAZING. However, I do just want to go back to Kaz and how mind blown I am that Leigh Bardugo managed to write him and the plot so well:

Kaz is known for being devious and incredibly intelligent and always, always being one step ahead of everyone else. Leigh Bardugo managed to pull that off so well though because I genuinely never had any idea what he was planning. I felt like I was truly one of the crows and I was just as clueless as they were to what Kaz had planned. There was one point at the end of the second book that I was really worried that someone might have actually outsmarted Kaz, because that is certainly what is seemed like, but then I realised that this is Kaz Breaker we are talking about here and I was obviously just being silly. I can’t help but admire Leigh Bardugo for all of the planning she would have had to do in order to write Kaz like that and pull off all of these surprises every other chapter because she too would have had to be ahead of the game just like Kaz.

“When everyone knows you’re a monster, you needn’t waste time doing monstrous things.”

Another thing that shows just how amazing Leigh Bardugo’s writing is, is that she managed to successfully pull off the use of multiple perspectives. I usually hate multiple perspectives in books becasue I get confused or I often don’t care about particular character’s points of view. The only other author that can successfully pull off multiple perspectives to my liking is Rick Riordan. The reasons I really loved the use of multiple perspectives in this book though was, one because I genuinely adored every single character, so i loved seeing all of their perspectives, but it was also done in such a way that there was never really any repeats in the characters thoughts. What I mean by that is that the use of different perspectives is often just used to show the thoughts a character has about another character or to prevent us from knowing what another character is thinking, but that wasn’t the case here. It was used to show you different parts of the action (as the characters were often split up) as well as to further develop the individual characters.

The final thing I wanted to mention before I wrap this up is that it was so nice to see some of the characters from the original trilogy turn up in this duology. I think ever reader always wonders what happens to the characters after the story is finished and it was amazing to get to see some of my old favourite characters and know exactly what they’re doing now and that they’re okay.

I think that is pretty much is! I clearly loved this book and obviously gave it 5/5 stars. I would have given 10/5 if that was an option! I already want to re-read all of Leigh Bardugo’s books, which I might just do in time for her new one to come out next year. Have you read any of Leigh Bardugo’s books? If so what did you think of them? I’d love to know!

Goodbye for now!

Over and Out