An Unpopular Opinion: Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (Review)

In recent years I have been slowly but steadily outgrowing the Young Adult genre, but I did pick up this duology by Leigh Bardugo because of the unbelievable hype surrounding it on Booktube.
And I was heartily disappointed. Since I seem to be the only one I wanted to share my thoughts.

This duology consisting of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom is about a crew of adolescent thieves centered around Kaz Brekker that are hired to pull off a seemingly impossible heist. Every member of the crew has their own special skill which makes them invaluable. Kaz is the glue that keeps them all together while also being their fearless leader whom they count on to outwit the people trying to bring them down.

If this sounds a lot like The Lies of Locke Lamora by the genius Scott Lynch to you - then you would be right. In my opinion this series is essentially the poor man's version of the intricate, suspenseful, page-turning original. Or else, the diluted YA version.

I won't deny that I had a lot of fun during the first book. I'm always a sucker for heists and that alone is enough to keep my interest for a long time. Plus I did really see potential in that book - it developed its characters well and expanded on a world that we had already known from Bardugo's previous trilogy beginning with Shadow & Bone.

BUT. Crooked Kingdom really went off the deep end. In an attempt to make the heists more interesting and complex than in book one, the author tried to simply cram as many as possible into this 500 page novel. Which no doubt is the reason for its unnecessary length. It went on and on and on and on, one heist/trick/feint piled on top of the next with no real purpose and certainly not a lot of skill. Instead of interweaving the different plot points (again, the Locke Lamora books do this masterfully) they were simply happening one after the other with such quick resolutions to unnecessary problems you didn't even have time to be afraid for the characters.

This was made worse by the fact that literally nothing bad ever happened to them. One time after another they escape their certain end so that the reader seriously loses in interest in what they're even getting up to anymore - after all, it can't possibly end in anything but victory for them.

Additionally I really wasn't a fan of the romantic relationships that developed in this book. There are six of them in the group, so that means three pairs. Sure that might not be natural for everyone to always fall in love with someone who also happens to love them back, but this way everything gets up tied neatly. Way too neatly, if you ask me. Because of these strange and contrived dynamics, the only couple I ended up giving a damn about was Kaz and Inej. Their relationship was more subtle, more based on a shared history than just the misguided need of the author to let all the fan-ships sail.

This was the last attempt that I made on Leigh Bardugo. I was extremely dissatisfied with the ending of her previous trilogy and this series clearly didn't improve her standing in my book. I think she can write, she just can't end her stories well. And those are always the best part.

For more detailed, jumbled and/or ranty thoughts, check out the video I made a while back on this topic:

Happy Reading! (but better pick a different book...)
xx
ivymuse