27 October, 2016

REVIEW: CROOKED KINGDOM by Leigh Bardugo

Title: Crooked Kingdom
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Series: Six of Crows #2
Genres: Fantasy, YA
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Source: Hardback
Pages: 546

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SYNOPSIS: When you can’t beat the odds, change the game.

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.
This book was the October read for All Our TBRs group.
You know how much I loved Six of Crows, right? Well, Crooked Kingdom was my most anticipated book of 2016 and I just had to order the whole freaking box set because look how beautiful the covers are! Plus, the pages are black and red stained! It didn't disappoint me in any way. I loved every page of the book.


THE WORLD: We are back in the capital of Kerch, Ketterdam, and the whole books takes place in there so Leigh was kind enough to provide us with a map of the city:

(My apologies for the quality, I had to take the picture directly from the book)

CHARACTERS: We also have the same characters, my murder babies: Kaz, Inej, Nina, Wylan, Jesper, and Matthias. Let me tell you, the character development of The Dregs is amazing! They all mature, admit their flaws and mistakes, fight for their friends, omg what else could have I asked for? We also get new characters like Kuwei Yul-Bo (who was rescued from The Ice Court, remember?), Duniyasha Lazareva, who thinks is better than Inej and has a huge ego but she's just a bit pathetic... it was actually cool to read about her. It was amusing. Then we have the antagonists Jan van Eck, a complete douchebag; and Cornelius Smeet, another merch and not exactly evil but highly corrupted. Also, a lot of secondary characters appear or are mentioned like Jesper's father, Colm Fahey; Wylan's mother, Mariya Hendricks; lots of characters we already know! Zoya Nazyalensky, Genya Safin, Sturmhond, Alina Starkov... The Darkling! CAN YOU HEAR ME SCREAMING? I am glad they were at least mentioned because we're still in the Grishaverse so it would've been weird to not hear the names of such famous people.

LOVE: De-ve-lop-ment. That's what we get my friends. All hail the ships please. We can cry together whether of happiness or sadness.

PLUS: Everything! The book starts right into action with magnificent impossible plans that Kaz somehow is able to come up with. Kaz is my EVERYTHING okay? I LOVE him so much, my murder baby. The Dregs are more united than ever before and even though they still tease each other we see a deeper connection between members and readers can tell they care about each other a lot more than in Six of Crows.

What else? Oh, the villains! We don't have any magical villains with superpowers blah blah that's too mainstream. Instead, we have normal people who are absolute pieces of sh*t. Garbage human, complete trash that remind me of a certain blonde politician...

Anyway, the plot twists! There are a couple twists I didn't see coming and whoa I was very surprised.

The last plus was mentioned already but seriously... the character development! They were all characterized so well. I couldn't be happier (except for the minus point in... well)

MINUS: I don't have any big minuses. Well, I do have one but it's a super spoiler so I won't post it here... I'll put it under spoilers in my Goodreads review ;)

OVERALL: 5 stars and goes to favorites. My soul has been slayed by Leigh. What a great duology. I just can't process anything right now. I am dead. I WANT MORE!


What did you guys think about CROOKED KINGDOM?