As Crooked Kingdom is the sequel to Six of Crows, there will be spoilers from Six of Crows in this review. There are no spoilers for Crooked Kingdom.
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy
My copy came from: I purchased the hardcover from Amazon.
Review: Crooked Kingdom is jam-packed with action and adventure, has a touch of romance, and is an excellent sequel to Six of Crows. I loved it.
Crooked Kingdom takes us back to the world of Ketterdam and the characters we loved from Six of Crows. Told in the same way as Six of Crows, with POV chapters from the six main characters, Crooked Kingdom jumps right into action as Kaz and crew try to rescue Inej, who was captured at the end of Six of Crows. That’s about all the synopsis that you’ll get from me, and really, you don’t even need a synopsis. If you read and liked Six of Crows, you’ll be reading Crooked Kingdom.
No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to the fact that there would be no expensive burials for people like them, no marble markers to remember their names, no wreaths of myrtle and rose.
The characters are the same, with more growth shown, specifically in regards to Wylan and Jesper. Inej is still her feisty self, attempting escapes from Van Eck, and trying to outwit him. Kaz is Kaz, and is one of the most interesting male leads I’ve read in quite some time. I just never know what he’s going to do next, and I love it. Nina and Matthias are working through their relationship and dealing with Nina’s jurda parem addiction after using it to help her team at the end of Six of Crows.
The characters are the highlight of this duology, and while in Six of Crows I loved Jesper, in Crooked Kingdom I leaned more towards Inej, and she’s got several scenes and lines that were beautiful. But I enjoy all of the six main characters. There is no one whose chapters I want to skip over. This is just a great group of characters, of friends, and I just want to keep reading about them!
There seemed to be more flashback scenes in this book, I don’t recall so many flashbacks in Six of Crows. The flashbacks were fine, and added to the overall story, but they sometimes felt out of place. Also sometimes the fact that it was a flashback was unclear, and this could’ve been tightened up a bit.
I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.
While the book was really good, there were a few scenes that seemed a bit manipulative, mainly with the characters of Wylan and Matthias. This did not lessen my enjoyment of the book, but I did feel a bit manipulated in a few spots.
Oh, and it did seem to have a major spoiler about the Grisha Trilogy. So much so that now I’m wondering if I should even read that series.
All in all, it was a great finish to the Six of Crows duology, but I really wish that there were a third book coming. I’m not ready to say goodbye to these characters and their world!
Bottom Line: Loved this! An excellent sequel that left me wanting more books set in this environment with these characters.
Links to Crooked Kingdom on Amazon and Goodreads
Links to Six of Crows on Amazon and Goodreads
Read my review of Six of Crows here!
Have you read Crooked Kingdom? Do you dream of wandering the streets and canals of Ketterdam? Who is your favorite character?
luvtoread 
In Six of Crows my favorite character was Inej… by the end of Crooked Kingdom my favorite was Wylan. I think he had the most growth. I think all of the characters grew amazingly throughout the two books I would love to read more about them.
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Funny that you’re favorites were different in each book too! I liked Jesper in Six of Crows and then Inej in Crooked Kingdom. But I really love them all! I have a feeling that I may connect to different characters if I ever end up doing a re-read at some point.
I agree that Wylan had the most growth. I just really love all of the characters.
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I really enjoyed them all too but the dynamic of Jesper and Wylan had be super happy in the second book.
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Yeah – they were so great for each other! Loved Wylan’s calming, thoughtful, influence on Jesper, and Jesper’s liveliness and confidence helped Wylan.
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This is a duology about characters – Bardugo did such an excellent job with them. I don’t love the plot for these books (heist books just bore me a little bit), but MAN I cannot deny that I am in awe of how amazing the character development was. Great review!
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Thanks! 🙂 I think these were the first heist books I’ve ever read. It’s truly amazing how Bardugo was able to write all these characters to be unique and memorable, but still be realistic and honest at the same time.
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This series is absolutely character-based, and I loved it. There was a bit of a spoiler, but I think you’ll still really enjoy the Grisha trilogy if you decide to read them!
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Oh good – I’d love to read more about the Grisha and the world, even if these particular characters don’t appear.
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I can’t wait to see what you think of it when you’ve read!
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Yours is the second review I’ve seen that mentioned a major spoiler for the Grisha trilogy. I read the first book in that trilogy when it first came out, and didn’t bother reading the rest—but now I think I’ll go ahead and read them before picking up Crooked Kingdom. I really appreciate you pointing this out. Great review, of course! =)
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Thanks! 🙂 Yeah, you may want to finish up the Grisha trilogy first. I was disappointed when I read the spoiler.
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I’m buddy reading this next week with a few bloggers. Your review is getting me so excited to read it. The characters are definitely my favorite part of these books. And I also want to read Grisha after I’m done with this duology. Nice review, Amy! 🙂
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Oops, my phone changed your name to a y instead of an i. Sorry about that. 🙈
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Ha ha! No worries 🙂 Thanks! It’s such a great book. So much fun, I just wish I could stay in their world for longer! Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
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Glad you enjoyed it! I still have to read Six of Crows and by the look of things, it won’t be before 2017! But all the raving reviews are teasing me so I hope to like the duology as much as everybody else.
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I hope you love it too! Can’t wait to hear your thoughts once you read the books. They really are so much fun and the characters are really wonderful.
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Everyone tells me to read Grisha first, so I’m waiting, and it’s frustrating! Lol!
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Yeah, read Grisha first. Before the spoiler in Crooked Kingdom I would’ve said you didn’t need to read it first (I haven’t read it yet), but now that I’ve read that spoiler I’m not all that enthused to pick the books up.
But if you end up reading Six of Crows first, you’ll enjoy it and pick up the world and setting right away, as you really don’t need to read Grisha first. it’s just that the dang spoiler was put in !!
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