Six of Crows has been sitting on my Kindle for a looooong time, and at least half of that time it was waiting to be read because me and Marie @ Drizzle and Hurricane Books had agreed to do a buddy read! About a month or so ago, Marie told me she’s bought the books and we can start. I was incredibly excited! I finally get to find out what all the hype was about!

And guess what? The hype was worth it. The review you’re reading right now will be a buddy read style review, in which me and Marie ask each other questions and reply them. In my post, Marie is asking the questions, and I reply. Please also visit her post to read her replies to my questions here!

We met a group of, well… Outlaws. Who don’t really live an easy life, but they can make everything better if they do this one last job… This one really big and impossible job. Oh, only breaking into a fortress of a basically religious warrior nation that is utterly unpenetrable. Did I mention they impale their criminals on stakes? Yes, that kind of last job.

But despite any traces of sense, they do sign up for it and embark. And it’s the most ragtag, loveable and fuelled by inner passions little team you’ll ever find. You’ll probably fall in love with every singly one of them, as dark as all their pasts and presents might be. You can’t help but root for them. And they’ll take you on a wild ride alright. This is the first time I’ve ever bought a sequel straight after I finished book one – and at full price! (Now I’m wondering whether that says something about the series, or about me 😅)

Six of Crows is a very hyped book in the book blogging community: everyone’s talking about it and everyone is loving it. So… my question is: do you think this book was worth the hype, for you? Why or why not?

Oh, yes! Despite being pretty hype resistant myself (*cough* have still not finished the Harry Potter series *cough*), I succumbed to this book after all. I might have not bought it myself – thankfully, I won it in a giveaway! I tend to (in most cases, wrongly) think that all the popular books are either tropey or fluffy or just really simplified – but this one is none of those. Six of Crows had a lot of complex characters, wasn’t linearly told (and that was very well executed). It was also dark and bloody, very serious in places, and of course, it yanked and grabbed at all of those worst #feels of mine. It was amazing!

#SixofCrows had a lot of complex characters, was dark and bloody, very serious in places, and of course, it yanked and grabbed at all of those worst #feels of mine. It was amazing! Click To Tweet

The world-building definitely is complex – what did you think of it overall? Did you find it well-layered and not-info-dumpy or were you confused by it at times?

I absolutely loved it. I could not stop guessing which countries were the nations of Six of Crows based on for the entire book! (I know some of them are pretty obvious, but not all of them!) I thought Leigh Bardugo pulled that off amazingly. She managed to present all those cultures in such unique and colorful ways – and also to tell the story in a layered way without confusing you too much. All of the backstories were told gradually – where at the start of the book, you have no idea what’s going on with these people or why, and by the end, you’re starting to clue onto the reasons of why they became who they are or what are the driving forces behind what they’re doing. It’s not an easy way to tell a story, but it was done so very well, revealing bits and pieces at just the right times. I was very impressed with this.

And as for the infodump bit – it was a little bit tough at the start when all of those random characters kept being introduced and when you had to take in so much new stuff about all of the different cultures – but it doesn’t take you longer than 10 or 20 pages to get comfortable in the world of Six of Crows. After that, you start intuiting the ways this world works, and all of the info is incredibly easy to gulp down.

No spoilers! But what did you think of the ending? Did you expect it to happen or were you surprised? And as a whole, while reading the book, were you on the edge of your seat the whole time? GIF allowed to share your live reaction(s) while reading!

I wasn’t surprised by the ending for some reason! Thinking there’s a book two, you can’t really expect good things to go down, can you? I was more surprised by the fact that I guessed correctly what would happen. So I think my feelings were spared more than Marie’s! (I can remember a message where she had just finished a book and told me she was NOT okay 😂)

I did, however, feel at the edge of my seat a lot of times. And the book was sometimes hard to read, because it was just so stressful! Things kept being hard for these poor folks, and they just kept having these AWFUL emotions (which were justified too!) One of the most amazing parts of this book, in my opinion, was all the emotional tension between the characters and how many different bonds they formed amongst themselves. Not every book talks almost equally as much about SIX people! (We need more of those books, honestly.) Now, if you want GIFs… GIFs are for the NEXT question!

A GIF of Spongebob glowing and winking

We definitely get squad goals in Six of Crows and everyone’s interactions are amazing (RIGHT?!) What was your favorite pairing or/and interactions in the book? (Matthias / Nina, Inej / Kaz, Kaz / Jesper etc.) and why?

I feel like I won’t surprise anyone by saying that my favorite pairing was Inej and Kaz. Inej is just so irresistible, I have a total girl crush on her. And Kaz? Kaz is a very unique character, strong and cunning, but also so broken inside, he’s so incredibly well crafted! Their personal dynamic is amazing – they have just the right amount of tension, and they have this strange… Friendship? That I felt was the deepest bond out of all the pairings in this book.

And of course, I liked the other characters as well! The Jesper and Wylan dynamics are just too adorable, but I feel like they will get more attention in book two – book one just sort of hinted at a lot of things, instead of focusing on them. And as for Nina and Matthias – well, that certainly evoked a lot of feelings, but they were mostly just “Matthias, you damn idiot!” Of course, Bardugo explains why he is acting the way he’s acting and he has an amazing redemption arc, but that still kept me from enjoying this pairing too much – their love is meant to be tainted, but I just don’t enjoy romantic tension between people who are a slaver and a captive… If you know what I mean.

I would like to share some GIFs though! Without further ado, these are my #feels about all the pairings in this book.

Kaz and Inej:

A GIF of a man gesticulating and the text “Just do it”

Nina and Matthias:

A GIF of a Russian Tzar shaking his head no and burying his face in his hands

Jesper and Wylan:

A GIF of a kitty hugging a plush bear

What did you think of ALL the POVs – were there a lot, too much, just enough? Did you think each character was developed enough? Which one was your favorite and why? And least favorite?

Well, like I said. Girl crush on Inej! She was just so, SO cool. She can sneak, climb and she’s so lithe and gracious in the way she moves! She is also incredibly honorable, as much as you can be in the place where she lives. I feel like Inej managed to keep to her inner self intact the most out of all of her teammates – and even the horrors that happened to her didn’t truly break her spirit inside. The most amazing thing is that she didn’t forsake her religion – she keeps turning to her Suli proverbs and her Saints – and when you’re in tough situations, your beliefs in a higher being are usually the first to go (“there can be no god is these atrocious things happen.”) I adore Inej because she never lost her faith or honor, despite all she had to go through. And even aside from that. Isn’t she just SO COOL? She’s like a female Batman!!! (I am clearly fangirling here.)

A GIF of a woman flexing, she’s wearing heart glasses #girlpower

HARD QUESTION. This book equally develops the world and its characters – what did you love the book the most for? Its world, or its characters?

I think for me, it’s mostly the characters! The plot was definitely amazing, too, don’t get me wrong – especially because I’m a gullible reader, and Bardugo just never ceases to surprised you with those plot twists, especially the ones Kaz has in his sleeve. But for me, it was definitely the characters, their back stories and their drama. I couldn’t stop wanting to punch Kaz for being such an idiot and not talking to Inej! And Matthias and his clearly deluded views on how the world works? Or the reasons why Wylan is even there and what happened to him! It’s all just so amazing. If I had to tell you the percentages, I guess it would be about 80/20, and you already know which one’s about the characters!

A GIF of Adam Levine on The Voice reading War and Peave and pretending to weep

What did you think of the romances in this book? Do you think it was necessary to have characters paired up?

My readers might know that I’m not a big fan of romance in books, especially when it’s served on the side of a perfectly good story that could have gone without it. But! Strangely enough, I gobbled up the romance in Six of Crows like no tomorrow. I’m surprised at myself! Perhaps because it was as toned down as possible, and the way I’d write it myself, if I ever wrote anything. It’s especially why I liked the pairing of Inej and Kaz – you couldn’t even call it romance, because… It’s more about what they’re feeling, and not what happens. It’s pretty magical.

Do you think, after that series, that you will read more from the author? More books set in that world, too?

Oh, definitely. I’ve already bought and started reading the sequel – and I would love to read more books about the wonderful world Bardugo has crafted. I’ll have to look into it after I finish this series!

Be sure to head on to Marie’s post to read her take on this book! And you can also buy Six of Crows on Book Depository here through this link to support my blog <3

Have you read Six of Crows? Do you read a lot of hyped books?