Odyssey Book BloG

Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Spoiler Free

★★★★★

This duology took me by surprise! I went in blind, without reading the Shadow and Bone trilogy (which technically kicks off the Grishaverse), but I’m here to tell you, Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom work perfectly fine as a standalone pair.

Overall, having a little more background on the politics and history of this world might’ve been helpful, but the high-level context in these two books was enough to follow the major political conflicts, regimes, and magic system. This genre can only be described as a fantasy-heist mashup. It had all the traditional aspects of a heist story like Ocean’s Eleven but it was set in a dark, magical world with epic-like world building which was unlike anything I’ve ever read! The Grisha are those gifted with magic and are central to the action, and their powers revolve around manipulating the elements (among other things, you’ll have to read and see for yourself) and the political conflict between them and other regimes is the driving element of this story.

A fun aspect of the writing for me was how Bardugo uses flashbacks to slowly and artfully peel back each of their stories. You meet them as surface-level archetypes- a scary gang leader, a brainwashed soldier, a rebellious Grisha girl, and then you gradually learn the how and why behind who they’ve become. Kaz’s plagued history and loss has driven him to be consumed by revenge, Nina’s path to Ketterdam was messy and accidental, Matthias’s conflicted loyalty was the result of deep indoctrination and pain, it all unfolds piece by piece through memories the characters ponder throughout their journey, making you feel like you’re in a slow-burn relationship with each of them. This way, you get to know them and accept them through their flaws (yes, even the brainwashed soldier Matthias) and the empathy is real.

The plot itself keeps you turning the pages, hitting all the beats of a classic heist with plenty of twists and surprises in the plan that you’re not even in on as the reader until after they unfold! It’s clever and fast paced, and had my heart racing plenty.

Although I’m looking forward to exploring this world more, in my humble opinion, you don’t have to read the rest of the Grishaverse to enjoy this duology. It stands strong on its own. This is absolutely written for fans of character-driven fantasy, twisty plots, and morally messy people doing dangerous things for the right (and wrong) reasons.