Six of Crows - by Leigh Bardugo

Second review for 2nd time read

This book is everything to me. Whether I’m 27 in ten years or 37 in twenty, I will always love this book. Unless you're legally blind, you already know how much I love this book because of the homepage of this blog. You should love this book too.

This is one of those books that make you want to be more. I didn’t just laugh and cry and scream in frustration, but I smiled so much and my heart twisted during so many of my favorite parts and I know that this book will always be a bright light in my darkness. This book just made me want to be so much more. It showed me the stark beauty of family and raw feelings, it showed me that even my favorite characters are flawed; that we’re not the only ones with an inner battle of our minds at war with our hearts.

Wylan felt it when he chose not to look back at his decision to leave his father for good. Matthias felt it when he turned his back on his country to save his beautiful Nina. Inej felt it when she stood up to Tante Heleen and faced her fears of the Menagerie. Jesper felt it when he learned to embrace the restless soul that he was. And Kaz felt it, when he didn’t turn away from Inej, even when he recognized her as his weakness, even when he knew that she would be his downfall.

They all faced their worst fears, their worst nightmares. And they overcame them. Does that not make you want to overcome yours?

A book is not just about the romance. A book is not just about the drama (even though that helps). A book is not even about the plot. It’s about the characters, and what they mean to you. After all, a story has no meaning without its characters. A book is about what you take away from it, what you learn from it, and what it means to you. That is what a book is. So when I tell you that this book did all of the above for me, you need to know that’s the truth.

Six of Crows is not your average book. It’s not one of those books where you read it quickly and you forget about it. It’s not one of those books you read just to get your mind off the present, just to drown out the people around you.

Six of Crows will lure you in, nice and slow, little by little, coaxing you in with the characters and interactions and narration. It’ll be so slow you won’t even notice it, not until it’s much too late. Because it’s all fun and games until your heart is involved. And when you grow to care for the characters in this book, it will be far from fun, because these stupid ass characters have some kind of death wish and are always risking their damn lives.

And even when you go into this book feeling cautious because you’re not the type of person to listen to the hype, even when you’re trying to be careful to not let this book in, Six of Crows will snag your heart from page one and won’t let go until you’ve reached the last page of the sequel, Crooked Kingdom. And maybe, just maybe, after you finish Crooked Kingdom and you’ve given yourself some time, maybe your heart will fall back into its normal, steady rhythm that it’s so used to. Maybe your heart will stop eating and tearing itself apart from the pain and heartache and missing people you’ve never even met. Maybe your brain will be occupied by other things.

But I can’t guarantee you a thing, because I haven’t mastered that yet.

You won’t forget Six of Crows. That much I can guarantee. It’s one of those books that you’ll still read ten years from now, no matter how old you are, and it will still ignite the same emotions you felt in the past. You’ll still get chills when you read about Inej climbing six storeys with no net to break her fall, with the fire waiting below to claim her. Your heart will still break when you read about Kaz realizing that, no, he will never be good enough for lovely Inej, brave Inej, good Inej. And that no matter how many pieces of him chipped off over the years, he will go back and piece them all back together, if only it means he can be a man for her. Or some semblance of a man for her.

Sometimes there are things we readers know for certain, things that we can bet our lives on, because we are readers, and we are smarter than everyone else.

Well, this is what I know.

I know that even after Leigh Bardugo breathes her last breath on this earth (I hope you live a long a beautiful life, my badass bitch of a queen), you will still breathe and you will still live. You will live in between these pages you bled your heart and soul on, and you will live forever.

I know for certain that Leigh Bardugo will never truly die.

”Because no story ever truly ends, as long as it is told.” - The Starless Sea, Erin Morgenstern

My queen, I hope I meet you in the next life, if not in this one. I literally love you. (And your characters, if that wasn’t already obvious.)

First review for 1st time read below

I just ... died. I literally died. Like how am I still breathing right now?

This was just the epitome of unbelievable. Like I’m still trying to breathe and I don’t understand anything around me right now. Like wait shit I need a breather.

1) I won’t say “This book was so fucking good like FIGJRFI, and I won’t say “Damn, this is my new favorite,” because that would just be a motherfucking understatement and I would be a goddamn liar (I’m sorry for all this cursing but this book was such a bad influence on me lol).

2) I literally can’t believe I’m still alive. Books like this don’t fucking exist. They shouldn’t. IT ISN’T RIGHT. IT ISN’T FAIR.

These stupid idiot mother********* characters. These idiot bitches that I love so damn much. I would kill for them. I would probably sell my soul for them. I LOVE THEM. I LOVE YOU. Inej, Kaz, Jesper, Nina, Matthias, Wylan. The six of you need to get out before I do something reckless.

3) *Audible Motherfucking Sigh*

Anyway. On to #4.

4) I ... I NEED A MOMENT. DAMN.

5) Okay I’m being serious now. YeH so like I said in numero 2, I would die for these six damn idiots and I would do anything for them. Anything they asked. Anything at all.

Like WTF INEJ ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME. Inej is the love of my life. I love her SO MUCH. She’s—she’s everything. She is the baddest bitch that has ever stomped into my heart. EVER.

WAIT OK CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT ENDING

THAT THAT ... UH THAT ENDING WAS BRUTAL

I WAS IN TEARS LIKE THESE DAMN AUTHORS HAVE NO HEARTS

6) Okayy let’s be real for second. Kaz and Inej need to get a room. Wylan and Jesper need to get a room. Nina and Matthias need to get a room. The way Leigh Bardugo flawlessly created the relationships between my six babies is so fucking cool and amazing and like I’m literally choking right now. Like I was literally drooling. Not literally. But still. This woman is amazing. (But how else am I supposed to describe this EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER?? I think drooling is a pretty accurate description.)

OK IM TRYING TO BE ARTICULATE HERE BUT IM STILL TRYING TO BREATHE PROPERLY. IN OUT, IN OUT—

Okay I’m being really dramatic. Let’s start over. This is so fucking cringey like I need to stop.

Yeah so Inej is my warrior princess and Kaz is my FJVJJFNF

Kaz is my everything. I love him so much. I love the way Leigh Bardugo created this unbeatable warrior inside Kaz that really showed the readers he’s the shit. Which he is. But still.

Okay I’m not making sense again.

It was really amazing to see this development of a hard-ass 17 year old boy that was driven by anger and vengeance for his brother Jordie, and he no had room to feel any happy emotions. And as the novel progressed, we see the unraveling of Kaz and the boy he tries to be, because of a really special girl, Inej. He finds that he can’t always be that hard boy that got him where he is now, because he loves Inej and he wants to be there for her. At the end of the book, when Inej is captured and he realizes that he can’t ever truly be with her, he makes up his mind that he can never be the boy Inej wants him to be. He can never be kind-hearted and more gentle and the boy without the armor. AND THAT FUCKING HURT MY ALREADY FRACTURED HEART.

Okay I think we should all pause and give me some type of acknowledgement that I just managed to write an entire paragraph without cursing or screaming or being inarticulate. Except for the end. But that doesn’t count.

I’m not giving a lot of love to my other four faves. Don’t worry Wylan, Jes, Nina, Matthias, I love you guys so much like I just can’t even understand it. Like they’re so tight like family because of that crazy “impossible” heist and honestly I’m still shocked that all six of them made it out alive unharmed. Except Nina. MY BABY (I have like a hundred thousand babies in this book, don’t mind me.)

Nina is so brave for that sacrifice. I have a huge amount of respect for her, even before she decided to take the perma jurda (however the fuck you spell that damn drug). I liked Nina from the beginning. Hands down.

Okay so this next part is GONNA BE HARD BUT ILL GET THROUGH IT. I GOT THIS. AT LEAST I DONT HAVE TO FIGHT FOR MY LIFE AFTER A FUCKING HEIST. Okay. Gotta choose my favorite character now: _____________

I-

No.

Absolutely not.

WITCH. BARBARIA—

(Uh did anyone just get that Six of Crows reference. cus i did. *raises hand*)

Okay so I guess I’m just going to have to pretend that I’m being held at gunpoint now and someone wants me to answer the question or else. So I guess I really have to go through this.

Obviously I love Kaz and I love Inej and I love Wylan and Matthias and Nina and Jes but like I DONT FUCKING KNOW

Inej.

No.

Kaz.

No.

Inej. Wylan. Definitely Matthias. Jes. Yesssss.

No. Inej.

INEJ

ITS INEJ. ROLE MODEL

and damn like can we just talk about how despite spending two years in a brothel, my girl STILL HAS DIGNITY AND REFUSES TO SETTLE FOR A KAZ WHO WILL NOT BE OPEN WITH HER. How she wanted him unarmed. That’s so beautiful.

Crazy how my favorite characters want my normal life and I want their crazy life. I'd swap any day.