Six of Crows

By Leigh Bardugo

Welcome back to the blog! It has been a few weeks since my last post and I am excited to get back in the swing of things. Without further ado, my thoughts on Six of Crows (sans spoilers):

Right off the bat there are two maps preceding the text. I love that. Give me your settings in relativity to each other, show me the interior of the main prison, help me visualize this so that my imagination can be busy crafting something else! Major points for the inclusion of the two maps.

Beginning this story was difficult for me. Since reading I have learned that I could have read the Shadow & Bone trilogy before the Six of Crows, but it was not necessary. Maybe if I had prior knowledge of the Grishaverse the slow pace would not have bothered me. Or maybe it would have bored me even further because of an existent understanding of the world and some of the characters. I am not sure. The book took over 100 pages to pick up and thus pushed me away from the story. I had heard such wonderful things about this book and everyone on bookstagram was losing their mind over it and it was actually given to me as a gift to be read simultaneously with one of my friends. Safe to say that the hype of the text may have skewed my initial perceptions.

Once the story finally broke through and the action was well and fully underway, the characters were delicious, the twists and turns of the plot were wonderful, and the writing was fun. Upon completion, I was thrilled. I literally zoomed to the closest bookstore not an hour later and bought Crooked Kingdom (book two of this duology). I do recommend this book to most readers, but also assure you to stick with it as the finale is worth the wait. 

Also almost immediately after completing this book, the Netflix series, "Shadow & Bone" came out. It is set in the same universe, the Grishaverse, and actually includes some of the main characters from Six of Crows! When scrolling through the streaming service I saw the cane with the crows head and lost my mind. It had to be Kaz's cane. I do recommend reading at least Six of Crows before watching the show as some of the character development seeps into the show and it is always nice to have your own understanding and imagery of the characters/settings before seeing it on screen. 

To Crooked Kingdom I go!

Happy Reading, Bookworms!