Crooked Kingdom
Fantasy, High Fantasy, Young Adults
Leigh Bardugo
Six of Crows, Book # 2
Henry Holt and Company
September 27th 2016
Hardcover
546
English
March 31, 2020 April 4, 2020
When you can’t beat the odds, change the game.
Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets—a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.
About the book
Crooked Kingdom is the conclusion of the duology dedicated to the Grisha of Ketterdam on the island of Kerch. After the conclusion of the first book, we were left with a question, or rather with something unsolved. Here we are in Ketterdam and our gang is facing the person who started the whole journey in the first book. Will Kaz be able to get paid for his services or will the bad guy on duty get the upper hand over our favorite gang?
What I think
I liked the second book more than the first, even though in the middle I was a little tired of reading that our “heroes” could never win. But overall I really liked Kaz’s ideas above all. And the ending is adorable.
Style
Each chapter, like the first, is dedicated to a character of the gang and this time the merchant’s son has also a part. The chapters are not very long even if sometimes they reached 20 pages per chapter. However, the language is fluent and there are no complicated turns of words that make you lose the sense of what you are reading. Furthermore, as for the first book, here too the present and the past are well delineated and when a character recalls an action of the past, we understand very well the time in which we are.
Characters
The characters are the same as in the first book, plus the boy freed in the first book, who does not have a point of view of his own, I mean, he does not have a dedicated chapter.
We can say that the protagonist is Kaz, the leader of our gang and we finally understand why he always wears gloves. His ideas will lead to the solution of the “case” and I must say that the end is ingenious. I liked what he did for Inej in the end and I like that he considers Ketterdam his home despite what the city took away from him.
The other members of the gang are also well characterised and everyone brings something to the plan.
Matthias was my favorite and despite what happened to him I am not angry with the author. His path is the one I liked the most, but now I want to know what happens next! I want to know about Nina’s trip. But I know that the book is self-conclusive and therefore I will never know about her adventures.
Conclusion
So I liked the book a little more than the first one, although I still think that the first trilogy of this duology should be read first. So if you are going to read this series, first read the first three books.
