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4
Great read with an interesting plot
It took me quite some time to get to this book, mostly because I never managed to read the original Grisha trilogy, I tried several times to get started with it, but there was something about it that didnโt quite suck me in. Eventually though, I gave up that series and decided to dig into Six of Crows even though I had not read the Grisha trilogy in advance. And I am happy that I did because Six of Crows was an easy read that pulled me in rather quickly.
In Six of Crows we follow a group of six criminals from a gang called the Dregs, and when their leader, Kaz, gets a job that would change their lives forever, he canโt say no, despite the job being as impossible as it gets. So, in this book, we get to come along on the quest as they set out to break into one of the most secure prisoners in Fjerda.
Thereโs a lot of things that I really enjoy in this book, but also a few things that slightly annoyed me. But for the most part this is a great read and the way the author has managed to keep the reader invested in all three characters and their separate POVs is impressive, not once did I feel like any of the characters were unnecessary or flat. Every character is well developed with interesting backstory and thereโs also a lot going on in their relationships and thanks to the separate POVโs you get a very intimate connection to each an ever characters emotions and reasons to what they do. Itโs, like I said, beautifully crafted and the writing too is beautiful and vivid.
The wordbuiling is great and Bardugo manages to incorporate details of the world and the scenery in the story without it feeling heavy with information. It all flows very well, and as I read it was easy to picture the scenes.
The plot was interesting, full of twists and turns and seeing the teamโs job take shape from the eyes of multiple POVs made for a very interesting read and also gave the heist that sense of mystery and surprise that weโre used to seeing on tv and in movies.
As for the things that I didnโt quite like it was not bad enough to really make a difference in the overall rating, but it was still things that stuck out to me. The first being that I felt like the heist sometimes got overshadowed by massive bits of backstory. The backstory itself didnโt bother me because they were interesting and great, and they made me understand and connect with the character a lot more, but I didnโt feel like they were necessary for the story in that elaborated manor they had been written in, less information had been enough and kept the pacing of the main plot more consistent. So, even though I enjoyed learning about the characters pasts and the reasons they ended up in the gang, I would have preferred more focus on the heist itself.
The second thing is the beginning. It was unnecessary and pointless. Why make us invested in Joost and Anya just to basically never mention them again? I get the point of showing what the drug could do, but there must have been a better way to do it.
The third thing is related to the Fjerdans and primarily their language. The Fjerdanโs are, according to what Iโve read from interviews with Leigh Bardugo, heavily influenced by Scandinavia, and more specifically Sweden and Norway. As a swede, I can totally see that, and I knew that it is a fictional language and that my own language has been used as inspiration. But I couldnโt help feel a bit thrown off when there was suddenly words that I knew from my own language being used when there was so many other words used that didnโt fit at all with the way weโd use those words. Itโs hard to explain, and truly it doesnโt really matter since itโs fiction and not real, but it was something that stood out to me, like a hiccup that broke the flow of my reading. I think it would have bothered me less if the Fjerdans had actually spoken any of the Scandinavian languages, or at least had a more reasonable structure to their sentences and words that would have fit well with the use of actual words from our language. And in this same line are the names of the Fjerdan Drรผskelle. There were typical Scandinavian names at a lot of the times, but then there were these names that stood out and didnโt fit in with the rest weโd been told. But, Iโm not going to let any of this affect the rating since this is just a personal thing that most likely wouldnโt bothered anyone else, and if does not in any way affect the intensity and greatness of the story.
So, overall, this book will get a solid 4/5 stars from me, and I canโt wait to dig into the sequel. I can also highly recommend this book to basically everyone, itโs a great read and the way Leigh Bardugo handled all six POVs is reason enough for every author to pick up this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2019
