There will certainly be no mourners among the readers of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, as the novel exceeds expectations in every aspect of a fantasy book. The common good-luck phrase by the characters – “no mourners, no funerals” – captures the tough and strong-minded ideals of the main Six as they plunder through their adventures in the breathtaking land built in Bardugo’s previous Grisha series.
Six of Crows surrounds Kaz, the leader of the Dregs gang in the fictional city of Ketterdam.
Kaz is offered an obscene amount of money to break a scientist out of the Fjerdan jail. The
scientist is wanted by many powerful people as he is the only one with the recipe for a drug that enhances the magic of the Grisha - those with the ability to manipulate elements. Kaz forms a team of criminals and outcasts to pull off the seemingly impossible task. His team includes Inej, a former acrobat and victim of human trafficking; Nina, a fiery Grisha; Matthias, a wrongly accused and imprisoned Fjerdan soldier; Jesper, a sharpshooter struggling with a gambling issue; and Wylan, a merchant’s son who holds unexpected influence over the mission.
The novel provides a full cast of vivid, developed characters to tell the story. Each is given their own voice and background through a rotating first-person point of view. Characters are what bring any story to life, and Bardugo does a superb job with this aspect of writing. With each of the Six being so different yet so elaborate, readers are able to submerge themselves into each of these different lives, and have the chance to relate and fall in love with them all.
Alongside the animated cast, Six of Crows’ plot is complex and involved without being overloaded. It flawlessly flows with each character bringing along their past and background and skillset, learning to work together and trust each other in order to succeed. Bardugo finds a seamless balance between a fast pace and a mind-bending story. She goes into detailed descriptions of the events and the character relationships of the book while never reaching a point of confusion for the reader.
For the whipped cream on the sundae, the novel is placed in an exciting and unique fantasy setting. From the Kirkus Review, Bardugo “... broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised” (Kirkus Reviews). The reader gets to see the characters forge their own future in a place both more dangerous and more amazing than anyone in reality is able to.
As with every good thing, however, there was a drawback to this sensational saga. As anticipated as soon as the inauspicious setting was established, there were a few scenes that crossed over into morbidity. As Kaz revisits the memories of his past and how he lost his brother in the Barrel, and when Nina encounters the cruel persecution of the Grisha, images resembling terrors from nightmares are painted in the mind of the reader. This can be taken as an ideal level of macabre, but for those less lion-hearted, border on disturbing.
Six of Crows was a brilliant, fast-paced, and fulfilling novel that, in the words of one of the Six, can blow into your life with the wind and rain and set your world spinning, to be off balanced ever since. Whether diving in with absolutely no expectations or standards as high as the sky, you will not be disappointed. All in all, Six of Crows is not the book to leave on the shelf.
Credit to Leigh Bardugo and Kirkus Reviews for the quotes.
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