And now we arrive at my favourite part of the Grishaverse tales and quite possibly two of the best books I have ever read.
Six of Crows can be summed up like this – six outcasts, one impossible heist and a million ways it could go wrong.
It’s set a few years after the Shadow and Bone trilogy and in an entirely new part of the world, even though it happens in places we have heard referenced already.
People have asked me how I recommend books before and why I do. This is the reason I would recommend these two.
The main character is a disabled boy who suffers from ptsd and Haphephobia (phobia of being touched).
Then there is a girl of colour who is a survivor of sex trafficking.
A plus-sized female character who must fight a crippling drug problem.
Add one boy with anger issues who is trying to overcome cult-like brainwashing.
A sharpshooter who is a bisexual boy of colour with a gambling addiction.
And finally, throw in a gay kid who’s an explosives expert with extreme dyslexia and dysgraphia.
That’s it. That’s how I sell it.
If ever a book could say “Representation? Yeah, leave that to us.” Six of Crows is that book.
So, there you have them, the Six Crows who will worm their way into your heart and then break it a hundred times over.
And if they don’t? You’re reading it wrong.
Another fun thing about Six of Crows is the multiple perspective narrative. Each chapter jumps from crow to crow so you hear everything from everyone, but the best bit?
Just when you think you know what’s going on… BAM! Did someone say PLOT TWIST?
The Six of Crows duology made me laugh, it made me cry my eyes out, and once again showed me that I say I would die for fictional characters a little too often for it to be a healthy practice.
But I would. Die for the crows I mean. And to be honest, it was probably one of them who killed me.
As well as this site, I keep a book journal and honestly, the only thing that I wrote next to these two books was – THE GRISHAVERSE IS A MASTERPIECE AND LEIGH BARDUGO IS A GOD!
So, I think that makes my opinion quite clear.
Honestly, I cannot sing the praises of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom enough OR give Leigh Bardugo nearly enough accolades as she should have.
In all truth, I was going through a really shitty time when I picked up Six of Crows. This book, this merry little group of the six most chaotic beings I’ve ever encountered, basically held my hand through it. I will never get tired of books that make me forget I am reading. And I didn’t read these two, I DEVOURED them, I absorbed them into my blood and let them make me stronger.
I will be forever indebted to Leigh Bardugo for allowing me to enter the Grishaverse and for giving me a whole second family in my Crows.
Welcome to Ketterdam.
Where the deal is the deal.
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