Book Review: Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1)

Six of Crows
Leigh Bardugo
5/5

I read Shadow and Bone, part of the series which precedes this series chronologically in the same universe, and everyone told me that it wasn't worth reading because Six of Crows is so much better. I was like you know, it's not a bad book series so I don't know why everyone's upset. But then I read SOC and I was like wow, this is so much better. I'm not usually a fan of more than two POVs, but I could get behind it here, like everything that was happening was pretty interesting. Obviously I have my favorite characters, but I wasn't totally dying during the other character's chapters.

SOC is about a heist, Kaz Brekker puts together a squad of talented people in order to kidnap a scientist responsible for creating a superdrug that makes the Grisha go crazy. It's considered an impossible task, but Kaz's entire life has been considered an impossible task. I've read books with the underdog plot, literally all the books I read have the underdog plot, and there's a tendency for the group to be too good at what they do. If the underdog is just getting everything right, I don't want to read about them it feels too fake. Bardugo wrote a masterful underdog story, people who have had numerous tragedies in their lives but have risen above them. They are stronger than they were but they're also not infallible, they make mistakes and they own up to their mistakes.

Kaz Brekker especially, I feel like he's the favorite for everyone who I've seen reading this series. He's morally gray, not a great guy, but he's also not hopeless. He's someone who had to grow up and who has faced horrible situations and toughened himself to deal with them. I love his tragic backstory and his cleverness, but I also love how he isn't inhuman, things effect him and hurt him. Same with Inej, her life is so sad and everything has been so hard, but she is still such a great person. When I read books about hardened characters, people turned to assassins cause of circumstance like TOG, I need to see redeeming qualities in the character. I need to see their humanity but also feel their brutality, Inej is just the perfect blend of that.

I would recommend this series, and I honestly don't even want to finish the Shadow and Bone Trilogy now. I don't know what happened to Leigh Bardugo that had her shift from such a basic storyline and stagnant characters to such a diverse group, but like shoutout to her because I love it.