Crooked Kingdom
Leigh Bardugo
4/5
I don't usually like books with more than two main characters, or four at the very max, but this duology really changed my mind. All of the characters had their time to shine, all of them were relevant and all of them worked together to create a beautifully cohesive story line. Following the aftermath of their previous heist, Kaz Brekker and his crew are out to get their due reward. They aren't messing around either, it all involves a convoluted series of one gang trying to get the jump on the other and it builds and builds. It's all beautifully done so that Kaz is always, amazingly, one step ahead of all the people trying to tear him down.
The characters in this book are what really get me. They are all unique and they all respect each other so much. Like, no one's trying to tear each other down, but they're all willing to say what needs to be said. Inej will call out the government that Nina idolizes, Kaz calls Jesper ridiculous for his loose morals, Wylan gets called out for not accepting his limitations and going beyond them. This whole series is a great way to show people's strength through their weaknesses and I love it so much. I just love Bardugo's subtlety when dealing with situations like PTSD and LGBT stuff- especially the LGBT relationship. I love how Jesper and Wylan aren't treated any differently, they're there and they're great and I loved how happy it all is.
Kaz and Inej are my two favorites I think, they're such different characters with such different sets of morals and yet they are so in sync in their traumas and sensitivities. I do wish they hadn't spent quite so much time hating themselves, it made me so sad. I understand it, they've both been through so many horrible things. But did their happy endings have to be so short? It was like three pages of them deciding they were going to be together no matter what and I'm like ok 500 pages of not knowing where they stood and then three pages of happiness? I need more please.
(Spoilers in this paragraph) Nina and Matthias were my least favorite in the last book but somehow I was really liking where they were going. THEN they had to kill him, in such a heartbreaking and obligatory way. It's like, everything ended too easily so let's kill this poor dude without even going into his killer or giving Nina her just revenge. I get it, it's all a setup for the next book but I am literally SO SAD and I was reading Matthias's last paragraph just crying. It got me and I'm so upset about that. (End spoiler)
Anyways, this has just been a long drawn out way of saying read the series. You won't regret it. I didn't like this one as much as the first, mostly for the previous paragraph and general lapses in the action that I didn't feel in the last. But even saying that, it was amazing and I would totally recommend.
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