Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Happy Monday ya’ll! This week's review is going to be a bit shorter, but that is not on account of the book! If length correlated to how good a book was, I would be writing a freaking essay on Six of Crows! Yes, I just read Six of Crows for the first time, and it lived up to the hype. It was the hype. I loved it. I’ve got to give ya’ll the blurb before I continue gushing about this absolute masterpiece.

Here’s the blurb!

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.

Alrighty, I’m going to gush about three main points of this book in this review! The pacing of the story, the character depth and development, and whatever addictive magic Leigh Bardugo put in this novel because I could not put it down!

I don’t feel like I often encounter a book where it has the fast pace of a thriller/action novel, but it manages to keep this pacing while adding flashbacks to add to the characters’ depth. Leigh Bardugo somehow does all of that in Six of Crows and I loved it! The cast of characters is very mysterious, and on top of this, the heist that they are trying to pull off should be impossible, and I wanted to know everything about both of these! There wasn’t a distinctive lull in the pacing of the plot yet at the same time, there wasn’t the info-dumping that usually accompanies a novel this intricate and fast-paced. It made the novel an easy read that I was eating up from the beginning to the end!

As far as these mysterious characters go, the main cast in Six of Crows is priceless. I don’t know where she found these character ideas, but they were so real, raw, and relatable. I feel like they had some amazing character depth and development that hopefully will continue into the next book. Sprinkled into the fast-paced plot of the book are flashbacks from the various characters that make you feel like you’re getting to know them better and the author gets you so emotionally attached and invested that you go freaking bonkers when something bad happens to them! Oddly specific, I know, but exquisite nonetheless!

Put together the plot pacing, the amazing character development, and the iconic magic of the Grishaverse, and you have an amazingly addictive read about six (slightly) magical criminals and their impossible heist. If you haven’t gathered this from the review thus far, I highly recommend this book to anyone, and I mean anyone, looking for an amazing heist novel with political machinations and a touch of magic!

Happy Reading!

Renee