Crooked Kingdom: (Six of Crows Book 2)

I love the book, but page 431 is missing; they've printed an extra 'part 6' title page where it should be - literally mid-sentence. Returning for a replacement, and if the next copy is okay I'll come back and up it to five stars, but I feel like I can't give a collector's edition five stars if it's faulty (and I'm wondering how many people haven't spotted the fault because they've already read the non-collector's editions and bought this as an extra).Other than that the edition is beautiful.EDIT: Yeah, the second copy sent had the same misprint. Be sure to check your copy.

After my reread of Six of Crows I just had to read Crooked Kingdom and even though I knew what happens I was still not ready for that ending. This duology is one of my all time favourite books!It’s no secret that I adore everything that Leigh Bardugo writes and of course this book did not disappoint. This was a reread via audiobook and I highly recommend listening as it’s a full cast and amazing!This book starts where Six of Crows ends and it’s set entirely in Ketterdam unlike Six of Crows where they travel to Fjerda and back. So this story is a little different but no less enthralling and action packed. As usual the characters are absolutely wonderful and I love seeing their character development. I also loved seeing cameos by some of my favourite characters from the Grisha trilogy!Once again I was completely enthralled by the story and the characters. The banter between the characters is my favourite thing ever! They always seem so much older because of what they’ve been through but then they squabble and fight and sass each other just like your regular teen and it would just remind you how young they really are.The development of my ships was another thing I absolutely loved! The angst and the slow burn between them and how each couple is so different from the others and each go through their own journey and together as a couple and then on another growth in their gang together. Leigh had their character developments in all different areas of their life and did it so well.My favourite ship is of course Kaz and Inej. The slow burn between them and their own hardships and barriers they’ve built that makes it hard for them to even admit their feelings for each other. It just killed me! But I really love how Leigh handles Kaz’s PTSD. He cannot touch people and I loved that he wasn’t “magically cured” because he wanted to be with Inej. He struggled with it, it prevented him from being able to be close to Inej and it felt so much more real.This story is quite different from Six of Crows as it isn’t just one quest that they go on throughout the book. They have to make multiple plans and deal with lots of different groups of people. It was absolutely amazing to see how their plans came together. This book will take you on a wild ride!The ending of this book is so satisfying in so many ways but will also break your heart and drag it through the mud and run it over with a truck. I first read this book in 2016 and I have never gotten over a particular thing that happens at the end. They had so much potential and it was ripped away from them. BRB going to go cry.Anyways I highly recommend you go read this duology and all the Grishaverse books because they are amazing! I absolutely love all the grisha books but this duology will forever be my favourite!

Ok, I’ve just finished the duology and wow. Since I wasn’t coherent when I finished Six of Crows, and have now read Crooked Kingdom straight after it and can no longer really pick them apart, this is gonna be a review of the duology as a whole, but they’re basically one story anyway and I don’t comment on any specific plot points or anything so whatever.First of all, I have to comment on the author’s sheer skill with words. The writing itself is just so beautiful and gloriously visual. Bardugo crafts her sentences in a way that’s so smooth and sweet I could drink them down in one and ask for another glass. There are so many powerful, quotable lines and there were more than a few moments where I found myself thinking ‘I need all the fanart of this right now’.The pacing is brilliant as well - I’ve hardly been reading lately and I’ve been really restless and finding it hard to focus on books, yet this had me not wanting to put it down.One of my comments about the Shadow and Bone trilogy was that I loved the hints of darkness in it and wanted it to be even more ruthless, and I feel like Bardugo has well and truly achieved that. The tone is perfect, with it being properly gritty, yet still incredibly fun, with lighter moments and some excellent humour to cut through the murderiness.On top of the fact that she’s such a beautiful writer, the plot consistently surprised me and had me completely hooked. I loved how Bardugo would reveal nuggets of information at a time, just enough to keep you interested but never enough to work things out. And with the way she writes the characters, it’s often as if you’re finding out the plan along with them, with the only person knowing everything and holding all the cards being Kaz. I was constantly impressed by how clever he is and how everything is so meticulously planned in a way that feels both incredibly farfetched but also completely believable.Part of what kept me so invested was that it always feels genuinely perilous. The gang keep finding themselves in scrapes that I think there’s no possible way out of, and I’m absolutely hooked and worried about them all, with no idea how it’s going to play out. And usually when characters repeatedly escape situations like that, it starts to lose its edge a bit and I just get bored with it, but this was always done so imaginatively and cleverly that it stayed interesting.As much as I loved the scheming, peril, action, and darkness, I was so glad to see that even amongst all that, attention was still consistently given to the character development for each of the gang members, their relationships with one another, and revealing more of their backstories. It’s one of the most compelling plots I’ve read in a long time, but even that means nothing if the characters aren’t up to scratch, so building in that time to make me care about them made a huge difference.I felt something for every single member of the crew, but I don’t think I’ve ever read a character like Kaz. He is absolutely despicable, and I don’t like him in the slightest, but I... kind of love him? I respect him totally and I was hanging on his every action because he’s such a compelling character. I feel like if I was living in the Barrel I would follow him without hesitation and gladly put my life on the line to prove myself to him, all while knowing the monster he is and being more than a little disgusted and terrified of him. It’s a very complicated feeling.Finally, and kind of on a separate note, I’d just like a round of applause for Bardugo’s approach to diversity please. Different ethnicity? Couldn’t care less. Not heterosexual? Whatever bro. Differently abled? Who gives? Even with this being a fantasy world and obviously very different to real life experiences, there is so much brilliant representation in there. But the best thing about that is that it doesn’t shout about it in any way; all the characters are just judged on what they can do rather than what they are, and the respect and equality demonstrated feels completely natural. It just felt so positive and like an excellent example to other books.I now definitely understand why this is one of my best friend’s favourite duologies, and I’m kicking myself that it took me this long to read it. I think this is one that will stay with me for a long time and kind of resets the bar for all books for me a little bit.

No mournersNo funeralsAfter finishing Crooked Kingdom this morning I realised 2 things:1. My own headcanon is the only thing that's keeping me going today.2. I wish I read this sooner - so I would have recovered by now!After finishing Six of Crows a few weeks back - my plan was to jump right in to Crooked Kingdom. I knew I would love it, so I held off reading it in a bid to savour it.It certainly lived up to my expectations (though SoC is my fave).There were times when I thought the plot was too slow and nothing was really happening. But - overall I think that help build the tension for the climax at the end. I certainly wished I could flip back a few pages and stay in the safety of the previous chapters, before Leigh Bardugo ripped my heart out and squeezed every last bit of hope out of it.I laughed out loud at Jesper's and Nina's banter with the rest of the gang. It was needed in an other wise fairly bleak to and fro between everyone.When you're fed crumbs of hope on one page and then given a slap in the face back to reality on another - my emotions were frayed for the second half of this book.As most of you know - I love a good romance. And, although I couldn't say that the main 'romance' in this is even that - the bitter sweet affection that could be something more in time is the only hope I have. I'm filling in the gaps myself.Through all the scheming, distrust and harsh reality of life in the barrel - whether Kaz would ever admit it or not - he is the reason that all of them came together and he was used as a buffer as they all bonded. He's the reason for their friendships/relationships and I bet that just makes him feel all warm and fuzzy lol.I truly hope that one day we get another story from the Barrel because I'm not ready for this to be the ending.

This was such an incredible sequel to such a wonderful first book, filled with drama and tears and brilliant writing.I already adored all of the crows but this book really cemented them in my heart as my absolute favourite group of criminals. Inej and Kaz are wonderful, Nina and Matthias are wonderful as are Wylan and Jesper, all of their relationships were so well written and so adorable but also heartbreaking at the same time. I loved how they all developed over the course of the book and while staying true to who they were changed in such amazing and wonderful ways.The plot was so dramatic this time, it was full of excitement and trauma and just absolutely amazing. The last 100 paged just destroyed me, they were so full of action and I adored how it all ended becasue it was so sweet and heartbreaking and everything I expected from this book, to be honest. And that final chapter just blew me away and I felt like it was the perfect ending to an incredible book.The writing was wonderful and I cannot wait to see what else Leigh Bardugo has in store, not only in the Grishaverse but in her other books too.