Six of Crows was one of those books that I kind of rolled my eyes at. I saw it here on r/Fantasy like all the time, and it was YA to boot. Who cares about YA? Who would want to read something popular? I sure didn't!

The Bingo Queen, u/happy_book_bee, had such a glowing review of Six of Crows that I decided to pick it up in the big Audible cash sale last year. It was enjoyable, and I quite liked it! However, I felt that the comparatively large number of POVs and frequent flashbacks made it hard for me to figure out what was going on most of the time. I decided to continue on to Leigh Bardugo's sequel, Crooked Kingdom, in ebook format, which ended up being way easier to follow for me.

First, some bones to pick with this book: it's ludicrous that these kids are...kids. There's just no way that young adults could be able to do half of the things listed in this book. And a turbocharged teenage crime lord of this caliber just stretches credulity even for fantasy. In my mind I had to age up the main crew for it to remotely make sense.

I think if this book were published in 2023, rather than 2016, Bardugo might have been more able to flesh out some of the queer aspects of this novel. The relationship between Wylan and Jesper has so much potential, and I'm super tempted to head on over to AO3 to see what the fandom world has come up with (I may live to regret this).

Nina's character arc is what I think really makes this novel. Her addiction recovery struggle over her identity and how she fit into the whole gang after the loss of her powers is gripping. And that scene where she animates corpses to do her bidding is phenomenal, eclipsed only by when she tries to resurrect Matthias.

There's just so much I could say about what is done well in this novel. Wylan's father is a total asshat and the embodiment of a narcissistic parent. Bardugo really did her research, or knew from firsthand experience, exactly how those relationships work (or don't). Overall, I thought that this was a big step up in quality from Six of Crows. This duology is the only part of the Grishaverse I've read, and I've heard to maybe avoid the Shadow and Bone trilogy (though I think I may have to check out the Netflix adaptation!).

Even if heist novels aren't your thing, I highly recommend this book purely for the characters!

I realize now that my tendency to avoid young adult books was misguided, and that there is actually some really cool shit going on in the YA speculative fiction world. Seriously, go search young adult on this sub or check out the YA section on the 2023 bingo big thread of recs.

Bingo squares: Young Adult, Coastal Setting, Sequel