Six of Crows Review

The other day I finished Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, and I am having a rather hard time deciding how I feel about it. On the one hand, I think it is set in an interesting world and has some very interesting characters. On the other hand, however, I found the plot to be a little lackluster and the writing to be rushed. I really enjoyed reading it, but I could have used just a little bit more...something.

What I liked:

I thought the dark atmosphere of the story was implemented well. From the start, it is clear that Bardugo is not writing a light-hearted fantastical romp through an imaginary realm. Instead, we are shown dangerous and addictive drugs, extreme violence, really cool powers, and a scary religious cult. Honestly, that description alone will peak my literary interest. I also thought the backstories of Kaz, Matthias, and Nina were done very well. Kaz's backstory specifically broke my heart. The amount of diverse characters in this story is really refreshing, as well. We have lgbt characters, poc characters, characters suffering from trauma, female badasses... all people we find in the real world.

What I didn't like:
As much as I enjoyed the characters and the group dynamic, there are some things I would have liked to see changed. I think the characters' ages are not believable at all. Yes, they've lived hard lives but they all act as thought they're closer to twenty than sixteen. If I hadn't known that they were all about sixteen or seventeen, I would have assumed they were between twenty-two and twenty-five. I just think their maturity, skills, and harsh violence are not believable at their ages. I definitely aged them up in my head. I also think that we read from the perspective of too many characters. Save for Kaz, Inej, and Jesper, I didn't feel much of a connection to any of the crew. I love multiple perspective stories, but only if I really get to know each character. If Six of Crows were longer, maybe the multiple perspectives would have worked more in its favor. Because we keep jumping from mind to mind, I had a hard time keeping up with some of the story. I found a lot of the book to be more expose than anything because I kept needing to reacquaint myself with a perspective. Not too much happens in this book, and I think that's because of how many characters there are.

I know I wrote a lot of what I didn't like, but I did give Six of Crows four stars on Goodreads. While it may not be the best book I've ever read, I cannot deny that it kept me hooked for a couple days. I'm currently reading it's sequel because I just had to find out what happened next.