Crooked Kingdom ~ Leigh Bardugo
Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo is the sequel to Six of Crows. Kaz and his crew pulled off the heist of a lifetime, one they didn’t think they would return from. Instead of landing in Ketterdam as heroes and getting paid as they expected, they’re having to fight just to hold onto their way of living. Van Eck has double-crossed them and they’re low on resources, morale and hope. But, Van Eck will pay and Kaz and his crew will get what they were owed and more.
I didn’t expect to read Crooked Kingdom this soon after Six of Crows but when I saw it on the shelf at the library, I couldn’t resist, I had to know how the cliffhanger was resolved.
I think I enjoyed this book more than the first. My biggest problem with Six of Crows was that there were just too many different points of view and I got a little bit confused. This book mostly stuck with the six main characters, who at this point I knew and so it wasn’t as difficult to follow as before.
The characters continued to develop, although the focus was on the characters that hadn’t had such a big arc in the first book. I was very interested to hear more about Jesper’s past and how that interacted with the story, same with Wylan, who although we got a lot of his past in Six of Crows, it felt a little bit superficial. But, by far the most surprising character arc was Kaz. I half expected not to get much development because even though we have his POV, he didn’t seem to be more than his facade.
There was one bit about this book that I can’t decide whether I like or not, and that is the mysterious workings of Kaz Brekker. Kaz is a masterful schemer and often doesn’t tell anyone his whole plan, not even the readers. I don’t know whether I liked this as we were kept in the dark until the final reveal or whether it was such a good way to describe his character and keep me guessing. Maybe it would have been better to get a few puzzle pieces before being thrown into the deep end.
Overall, I enjoyed this more than Six of Crows and think that I would definitely like to read a follow-up of Kaz and Inej’s adventures. I also preferred this storyline to Shadow and Bone despite them being in the same universe.
C🌙
