Review Six Of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Hi all my bookworms!

How are you?

My name is Chiara and I am a Bookworm.

Last night I finished Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo which is a good thing since I wasn’t sure in my plan for February what I was going to write today.

So here is the cover and stats …

Six of Crows, Leigh Bardugo

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Date: Published: 29 September 2015

Format: Paperback

Pages: 495

Genre: YA, Fantasy, Magic, Adventure

Rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

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

Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first. 

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I have to begin by saying I love this book!

I don’t know why I put it off so long. I don’t actually remember when I bought this book. I found it about a year ago in my living room under a pile of papers. Why it has taken me since then till now to read it, again I don’t know.

But I love it!

Can I say it any louder?

I.

LOVED.

IT!

Now let me tell you why.

The writing is excellent. Six of Crows is the first Leigh Bardugo book I have read and her writing is superlative. I know many people love Bardugo’s work and they always recommend her stuff. In fact just the other day I put Six of Crows on a Top Ten Tuesday list and I lost count of the number of people who commented just for that book. I’m glad I have finally read it.

I thought the way that she dropped the reader in the middle of this marvellous technicolour world that she has created but then eases them into all the past and history, customs and cultures, religions and beliefs in such a way that the reader feels as if all this is perfectly natural.

I love heist stories, particularly heist films. And I love them because of the pattern that they all follow. They get a job, the plan the job (usually the viewer/reader only gets half the picture), the execute the job, everything goes wrong (or so you think) they get away with their money/art/prize and explain that everything was exactly as they intended. This was a mixture of that and deviating from that pattern. And it was brilliant. You knew a lot of the plan right from the beginning and then boom (literally) it went all wrong and they had to come up with plan B right on the spot. I was sat on the edge of my seat the entire time I was reading it. Often I couldn’t sit still. I paced up and down the corridor hoping for a point where I wouldn’t have a million and one questions waiting to be answered.

Let me let you in on a little secret. I haven’t found that point yet. I’ve finished the book and I still have a million questions burning inside me.

While reading the book I came across these two sentences and I thought, at the time that it would sum up the book perfectly. In hindsight I am even more convinced.

“Any other impossible feats you’d like us to accomplish?”

The barest smile flickered over Kaz’ lips. “I’ll make a list.”

Unfortunately I forgot to make a note of the page number but this book is just full of impossible feats, the sort of feats that you would only find in fiction, and yet I find myself believing them. I suppose that it a testament to Bardugo’s writing and storytelling than to my over active imagination.

But beyond that main story element of the heist there is the characters and each character has a back story and not a little short one, a twisted, convoluted one that even now I’m not completely sure I have got the full picture. I think Bardugo likes to lie to her readers, in the best way possible, of course.

Out of all the characters that were in this story I’m not sure I could pick a favourite. They were all my favourite. If I were to pick Inej, I would feel I was betraying Kaz or Nina. To pick either of them would be to betray another character. Sincerely I loved them all.

Have you noticed I keep using the word love?

I could expand my vocabulary but often I think the simplest, most direct words are the best.

Almost, I am tempted to leave it here. But I just want to mention that final cliff hanger. I have I ever mentioned before how much I hate cliff hangers?

No?

Well, I do.

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I’m writing all of this on not enough sleep, so if you’ve got this far I would like to thank you for putting up with my rambling thoughts that seem to be going in circles today. If you’ve read Six of Crows, let me know in the comments. Do you agree with my assessment? If not have I finally convinced you to read it as well?

The book cover is from Goodreads.com. No copyright infringement intended.