Leigh Bardugo - Crooked Kingdom

Leigh Bardugo – Crooked Kingdom

4/5 Stars

Kaz Brekker and his crew pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope.

As old rivals and new enemies descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of jurda parem – a dangerous substance capable of altering the very fabric of Grisha magic – Kaz’s cunning and his team’s fragile loyalties are tested to their limits.

A war will be waged within the city’s dark and twisting streets – a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the future of magic and the fate of the world.

At the end of Six of Crows we saw the group get double-crossed, hurt, and left with nothing. We saw Nina struggle with the aftermath of taking jurda parem, after pulling off the most impossible heist they should have been celebrating.

This book allowed us to understand fully Jesper and Wylan’s backstories. Because of this they went from two of my most forgettable characters to two of my favourites. I’m trying to be spoiler free for a change so bear with me. Jesper’s dad was a really nice addition to this book. The amount of explanation it gave for Jesper as a person. The little snippets from his childhood. The sharing of information about his mother. It all perfectly explained how he turned out to be this person. Wylan, sweet Wylan. I am more convinced that this man could do no wrong in his entire life. He is a perfect angel, and I won’t hear another word about it. Hearing about how his father treated him broke me. No one should have to feel like that due to a parent. Though I’m sure a couple of us know exactly what that is like.

Resilience isn’t a word we use to describe morally grey or even bad characters; it is a very fitting description for this group. The sheer number of failed plans, the amount of times things went wrong, and they were backed into a corner should have been enough to make them give up and accept their fates. It wasn’t. They pivoted and wiggled their way out of every imaginable situation. It definitely makes you think, if Kaz can manoeuvre his way out of the whole of Ketterdam being out for him, surely I can figure out my life’s little problems.

I’m convinced now more than ever that Nina Zenik may just be one of the strongest female characters I have ever met. There’s something to be said that she was the only known Grisha to survive the effects of jurda parem and then continued fighting afterwards. Despite the fact she was struggling with a change to her magic, an addiction that was almost crippling, she picked herself up and she fought the fight. We see the effects of addiction in everyday life. We have all been educated and taught how difficult it is to deal with. So reading this I had a lot of empathy and admiration for how she copes.

All of the characters written had well thought out backstories. All aspects of their personalities could be explained by what they have gone through. The worldbuilding throughout the entire Grishaverse made me feel like I was right there with them. I truly didn’t expect to love the Six of Crows duology, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I did.

Considering I have been reading my entire life, I should be used to authors breaking me a little bit with every new book I finish. Yet here I am, broken and shocked that I am broken. LEIGH BARDUGO I TRUSTED YOU! One line should not have made me sob like a baby the way that it did. Without spoilers.

“We were all supposed to make it,”

And now on to King of Scars for me. I’ll be back with my thoughts on that as soon as I have finished reading it.

J x