Six of Crows Book Review
Six of Crows is a fantasy novel series by Leigh Bardugo. It contains Six of Crows and its sequel, Crooked Kingdom. This series is the spinoff of the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which I reviewed previously. I will try to focus my best on only Six of Crows without spoiling the Shadow and Bone trilogy and Crooked Kingdom, but I will mention Crooked Kingdom occasionally. There will be some spoilers for Six of Crows, but only Six of Crows.
Both the Six of Crows duology and the Shadow and Bone trilogy are set in a world where some people, called the Grisha, are born with magical powers such as the ability to control fire, heal others, or easily manipulate metals to forge weapons. In most countries other than Ravka, these people are discriminated against, forced into slavery, or even hunted down and killed, considered a blight on the world.
The plot of this series starts in Ketterdam, a wealthy city of merchants with a large underworld often referred to as “the barrel”, which is filled with many rival gangs. The story follows Kaz Brekker, a 17-year-old man known as “Dirtyhands” because of all of the horrible things he has done. He is a lieutenant of a gang called the Dregs and is incredibly cunning and smart. The story opens with Kaz, a young woman named Inej, a man the gang called Big Bolliger, and a gambler named Jesper. They are going to a meeting with a rival gang. The rules of the meeting state that they are not to fight, but Kaz suspects otherwise. He has Inej, an acrobat, climb up the walls of the nearby building to check if he bribed city guards to snipe them, but not to fight them yet. After they search each other for weapons, they begin to discuss business. The rival gang member, Geels, tells them he bribed two city guards. He tells one of them to fire on Kaz, but they shoot Bolliger instead. Kaz reveals he was blackmailing those guards not to shoot him. Everyone is confused as to why he shot Bolliger and not a member of the enemy. Kaz reveals that Big Bolliger had been betraying them and let Geels walk in with a gun. In response, Kaz tells them that he hired someone to kill his girlfriend if he doesn’t walk out safely. This is just one example of Kaz’s ruthlessness.
Soon after, a wealthy merchant named Jan Van Eck gives Kaz a job. A scientist named Bo Yul-Bayur, a member of an enemy country, created an extremely addictive drug called Jurda Parem. It is lethal to non-Grisha, but if a Grisha takes it, it brings their power to unimaginable levels. He was going to defect and join Kerch, the country Ketterdam is located in, but he was kidnapped by Fjerdans, members of another enemy country. They have dedicated soldiers called Druskelle who hunt down and kill grisha. His job is to rescue Bo Yul-Bayur from the ice court, a supposedly impenetrable fortress that also serves as their capital. He shows Kaz a disaster caused by Parem, and offers him 30 million Kruge, the currency in Kerch, to rescue him. Kaz puts together a team of six members including himself. They include Inej, a talented acrobat who is working to pay off an indenture, Jesper, a gambler and sharpshooter, Wylan, a demolitions expert, and Nina, a grisha heartrender who specializes in the human body. They also need Matthias, an ex-Druskelle, to help them break in since he knows the layout of the fortress. They need to break him out of jail, though. He also has some history with Nina, which I will not spoil, and Nina has always wanted to free him from prison, but Matthias hates Nina. This relationship is explored throughout the book. To avoid spoilers, I will not talk about anything after he puts together his team, but the rest of the book mainly involves going to Fjerda, planning the heist, and trying to pull it off.
One of the most interesting characters in the book is Kaz Brekker. Kaz is introduced as a ruthless, amoral thief, but over the book, you learn more about his mental health problems and severe Haphephobia, or fear of being touched. This is because of an incident when he was much younger. He and his older brother Jordie came to Ketterdam after their father died. They were conned out of all of their money by Pekka Rollins, a wealthy crime lord. Soon after, they both contracted a plague that had swept through the city. Since they were unable to afford treatment, Jordie died, and Kaz was thought to be dead as well. In Ketterdam, the bodies of the less wealthy are disposed of by putting them on a boat called the Reaper’s barge and burning them. He awoke on the Reaper’s barge and only survived by using Jordie’s rotting body as a buoy. This incident deeply traumatized him for life, and he hates feeling human skin, so he always wears gloves. He also has a crippled right leg. His goal is to ruin Pekka Rollins’ crime empire to avenge Jordie's death.
The actual heist is fascinating and complicated. There are lots of plot twists, and it is well thought out. It is one of the best parts of the book. I don’t know what else I can say about it without giving major spoilers, but it is one of the main reasons I love this book. This also applies, maybe even more, to Crooked Kingdom’s multitude of well-planned events.
Six of Crows is an incredible book and one of my favorite books I have ever read. One thing I will recommend, though, is reading the Shadow and Bone trilogy first since it will spoil the ending of that series, and that series is also incredible and hilarious. I have tried to avoid giving spoilers, and I think Kaz's backstory is the only time I gave away a major spoiler. But also one of the most interesting parts of the story, so I had to talk about it. Remember there is a sequel, which is also an incredible book. I would recommend this to anyone who read the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I would go so far as to say that one of the main reasons I would recommend the Shadow and Bone series is because once they finish that series, they can read this duology.
