It’s rare that I add any kind of warning before my reviews BUT I think this review may need one. I am aware that many, many people love Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. It has an almost perfect five star rating on Goodreads. Everybody raved about this book to the point that I bought a brand new, box set duo (like a clown) because I just “knew” this duology was going to be a favorite…

I did not like this book at all and I’m not even going to bother with its sequel, Crooked Kingdom. I’m giving this book a one star rating on Goodreads which is something I almost never do. However, just because I don’t like this book, doesn’t mean that I think you shouldn’t like it. I wanted to love it but it was just not my thing. This review is going to be harsh and I understand if you’d rather not read it. Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s get into the synopsis and my thoughts. This review will be spoiler free.

Synopsis:

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone. . . .

A convict with a thirst for revenge

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager

A runaway with a privileged past

A spy known as the Wraith

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes

Kaz’s crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

My Thoughts:

Six of Crows was mind-numbingly boring and had horrible pacing issues. I was 45% of the way finished with this book before anything remotely interesting happened; I know it was exactly 45% because I made note of it on my Goodreads. If it wouldn’t have been so hyped up, I would have DNF’d this book long before that. I was hopeful that after that point the action would really get started. Nope. All there was was more story line that just crawled along. It’s honestly shocking how bland this book is because it sounds SO interesting. It’s about a gang of six teenagers that are planning the heist of a lifetime… How do you make that boring?! I have no idea but somehow Bardugo managed it. Unfortunately, the story line wasn’t the only issue. There’s also a host of dull and forgettable characters.

Oh, the characters… there was so much potential for them that it honestly hurts. Nina, Matthias and Inej were the only somewhat interesting ones but even they weren’t fleshed out enough for me to really care about them. As far as I can remember, I have never read the first book in a series and not been interested enough in at least one of the characters to finish the series. I just don’t care about any of these characters or what happens to them.

However, perhaps the worst character of the entire book is the leader of this little gang, Kaz Brekker. I understood what kind of character he was supposed to be and how Bardugo wanted the reader to feel about him but I found him to be obnoxious. He had no redeeming qualities and there was nothing about him that made me empathize or that endeared him to me.

Along with not being fully fleshed out or likable, the characters seemed much older than they were. Their ages ranged from 15 to 18 but they spoke and acted more like people in their mid to late twenties. They were not believable teenagers in the slightest and this made most of their actions seem odd. If this book would have been in the New Adult genre with older characters, better pacing and a spicier story line, this could’ve been a great book.

Final Thoughts:

Overall, this book was awful and I have never been so confused about why a book is popular before. I really have no interest in reading anything else by Leigh Bardugo because I’ve heard that her other books are even slower than this one and I just don’t like her writing style. If you love this book, feel free to explain what I’m missing because I clearly don’t understand. Thanks for reading and have a great day!