One impossible heist, one less gang member and much kruge poorer later, the sumptuous and cracking sequel Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo is here. Our beloved group of misfits is back and provides more gripping action, cunning plans and crackling dialogues.
“Same thing that’s always wrong with him. – He’s Kaz Brekker.”
Title: Crooked Kingdom
Series: Six of Crows (#2)
Genre: YA Fantasy
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Publish Date: 27th September 2016
Pages: 536
Personal Rating: 10+/10
“Don’t worry, Da. People point guns at each other all the time in Ketterdam. It’s basically a handshake.”
Out of service for an indefinite period of time. Look for me in the sewage of Ketterdam if your business can’t wait. Feel free to join me at any time. Salty drinks of tear-water, dried shreds of hearts snacks and a support group of shared heartaches are provided.
“You’ll be fine,” said no one ever who read Crooked Kingdom.
“Isn’t that how things are done around here? We all tell Kaz we’re fine and then do something stupid?”
Truly and sincerely, I’m not well. Crooked Kingdom is one of those bastard books which evoke all the sorts of emotions inside of me and can make me cry for hours. Everything is just too perfect with Crooked Kingdom and the whole Ketterdam gang. Lush, thrilling, touching, vibrant and entertaining.
Summary
Welcome to the world of the Grisha.
Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts 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.
3 Reasons Why You Shoul Read It
Seriously? Leave me alone and read it. Experience the joy, delight and agony yourself.
Content
Leigh Bardugo is a genius and there ain’t no other words for it in my vocabulary.
Her prose – my death.
Her cracking dialogues – my death.
Her sumptuous fictional characters who come alive in her books – my death.
Her world-building – my death.
This list could go on like that for years and it somehow is always going to end with my death. Nice.
Crooked Kingdom just topped Six of Crows with more brilliant plotting, scheming, character profoundness, action, appearances of old faces from the Grishaverse (heaven says thanks to Sturmhound), gripping twists and heart-breaking goodbyes. The sequel is beyond what I could ever have wished for and I’m so grateful and blessed to live in a world where Leigh Bardugo writes and publishes books. Whatever she writes has such a great quoting potential and each word that is written in her books has a meaning, a place and makes sense. That writing skill she has is simply life-ruining and so vibrant. It makes me wanna build an altar for her. (Yeah, get in line.)
“We’re stuck in a tomb, merchling. You take the action where you find it.”
Honest Words
The Six of Crows duology has obliterated my heart. First it ran it over with a truck, later tore it to pieces with a shredder and last but not least set fire to the pathetic remnants. Awesome, fantastic.
I’m not over the ending, I’m not over some certain’s death, I’m not over Kaz, I’m not over Inej x Kaz, I’m not over Kaz’s solitude due to his phobia, not even close to be over the fact that the series is over, and, lastly, I’m so not over my addiction for those two books due to its unique vibe, lush world-building and cracking dialogues. I will keep on suffering, I guess.
Gladly, there is Hozier who can keep me backed up on crying. - Always so dependable. What a sweetheart.
And no. I am not alright (in case it wasn’t obvious).
“Nina is fine. Jesper is fine. Everyone is fine except for me because I’m stuck with a gang of hand-wringing nursemaids.”
What about my morale?
What about it?
“It was that or snap her neck and make it look like she fell down the stairs, Wylan. I think I showed remarkable restraints.”
Hahahahaha.
It’s terrible, isn’t it? Knowing someone holds your life in his hands. There are no good men in Ketterdam, Kaz said. The climate doesn’t agree with them. And then he’d simply let go.
Muahahahaha. It’s amazing.
“Because if you do, I’ll slit your mother’s throat and then your father’s, and then I’ll cut out the hearts of all these sweet slobbering hounds. “
At this rate I think loving Kaz Brekker and his cracking actions and remarks should count as a guilty pleasure, but, plain-spoken, I don’t feel like it at all. I think it’s, firstly, hilarious, secondly, lush and thirdly, invaluable. This likely leads people to wonder “Where the fuck did your healthy morale go?” Well, let me tell you a funny story, I don’t have a decent morale, and, frankly, it’s been nonexistent since the beginning. So if you’re looking for my morale compass – one little, precious tip – just don’t. Spare yourself the awe-stricken moment and just don’t look for it. All you’re going to see is a needle pointing at a very, very dark and dubiously violent black area.
“I’ll tell you a secret. The really bad monsters never look like monsters.”
The Open Ending (spoiler-alert)
For everyone out there who is acquainted with Leigh Bardugo’s books knows there is no way she turns us loose without hell of a heartbreak, at least one death of a major character and an open ending which makes us scrape the pages for more words which just simply aren’t there.
Subsequently, she didn’t change her way with Crooked Kingdom. There was hell of a heartbreak (at least that’s what I call fifteen minutes straight crying and sobbing – and I could start again any moment), at least one death of a major character (I’ll miss the glower-boy) and an open ending which awakened the desire to bitchslap someone just out of pure rage and sheer desperation because after 536 pages it was just simply over. No more pages, no more words, no more bastard Kaz to lust after (well, technically, that’s wrong since I still do…), no more reeky Ketterdam alleys, no more information about anything. Thanks, Bardugo. Really appreciate it. A dead and a too open ending that might make me lose my mind or tempt me to throw things at people. And no, that alleged “third book” of the Six of Crows series many years down the line after Crooked Kingdom cannot be taken serious. Oh please! Am I supposed to wither in agony for several years?
Had she really though the world didn’t change? She was a fool. The boy beside her. The future before her. Anything was possible.
Matthias’ death
Frankly, I missed the lines where he died. Granted, I was so in a hurry because my patience had worn dangerously thin (in the meaning of nonexistent) and thus I apparently missed certain words. Because at one moment he was gone, the next he had his eyes wide open again and I was like “woah, what?” while Inej said “let him go”. Woah, woah, woah. The-fuck-what is happening to my cuddly tank?
“I promise, Matthias. I’ll take you home.” “Nina,” he said, pressing her hand to his heart. “I am already home.”
Yes, major spoiler right here, the precious, (granted, he was a brutal killer but I mean who in the crew doesn’t have morally dubious preferences?), glowering and loyal cuddly tank Matthias Helvar bites the dust in like the worst imaginable way. That moron gets himself shot, jogs shot to the boat where Nina is sitting and waiting for him, makes heart-warming love declarations in a shot state and croaks in her freaking arms because shot. Bardugo could have just as well thrusted a dagger into my gut. I sincerely wouldn’t have minded.
“Let me get this straight,” Nina said. “You haven’t kissed me because the setting isn’t suitably romatic?”
*blink* Oh. *blink*. Helvar is dead. I’m sorry but I have to visit the restroom. *rushes out of the room, slams the door and a muffled “Ahhhhrg!” becomes audible*. But, hey, at least the author was so generous with us and gave us all the fluff in the first 500 pages and then she simply kills him off in the middle of our future fantasies where Helvar and Nina were concerned. Ha ha ha. Don’t make me laugh.
Inej x Kaz
Superfluous to say that these two are one of the cracking otp (one true pairing – for all the non-intellectuals out there). And since Nina and Matthias are evidently out of the picture (surprise, surprise) and our lovely gay coupld Jesper-Wylan are beautifully settled – please, Leigh, give me at least the goodhearted Inej and bastard Kaz fluff I need.
“I’d 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 – knifes drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.”
Just to make sure I didn’t miss anything, I read the last chapters several times. And though it’s not much we get at least we have confirmation that Inej won’t break off whatever was developing between them (thanks heaven, I wouldn’t have made it otherwise) and she wouldn’t give up on Kaz either. Freaking Hallelujah! I think the last time I did a happy dance in that extent was when… well, I can’t remember. It’s a huge thing.
She would fight for him, but she could not heal him. She would not waste her life trying.
However, I would have really loved to read something more like one or two words from Kaz which were similar to “Yes, Inej, I’ll come with you on board and hunt down those sons of bitches”. Something at least! But no, he just stands there and keeps his mouth shut. Well at least he takes her hand and doesn’t refuse to meet her parents, and Inej clearly wants to be with Kaz and knows he wants it, too.
Although it should be a promising chapter full of promising future there was that perfect, agonizing pull and ache in my heart and, well… why the hell did I wail so hard?
She felt his knuckles side against hers. Then his hand was in her hand, his palm pressed against her own. A tremor moved through him. Slowly, he let their fingers entwine.
Nevertheless, I’d love to read anything more about them… Hmm… Well, maybe in King of Scars? Bardugo just could do it the way Sarah J. Maas handles her shit – mention the characters of another series in the future (the whole “a pregnant woman and a man so beautiful I might fall from the sky” thing). She could simply write one sentence in the Nikolai Duology that would come close to “Mr. Brekker was at the time somewhere else. Instead of being in Ketterdam he was on a board hunting shitbags with the one true love of his life”. That would be adequate.
What I really want to say is that I hope we get some minor hints at where their relationship headed in King of Scars (which is waiting impatiently in my bookshelf, also because I may or may not have spoilt myself and a certain someone shows up at the very ending of the book… (I’m grinning btw)), alright? Can I get that one favour? Please?
Appreciation Quotes
Just the best shit from this masterpiece and our favourite crooks.
“If you don’t care about money, Nina dear, call it by its other names.” “Kruge? Scrub? Kaz’s one true love?” “Freedom, security, retribution.”
“Has anyone noticed the whole city is looking for us, mad at us, or wants to kill us?” “So?” said Kaz. “Well, usually it’s just half the city.”
“And you are all… students?” “Of a sort,” said Kaz. “Who spend their free hours in a graveyard.”
Nina picked up a pair of embroidered gloves from another stand. “Do you like these? Maybe we could get Kaz to wear something withflowers. Liven up his look.”
“Yes, yes, Nina Zenik is hungry. Now will someone feed me before I’m forced to cook one of you?”
Kaz said nothing. Fortunately, he said nothing about almost everything, so he had consistency working in his favor.
“Suffering is like anything else. Live with it long enough, you learn to like the taste.”
“He doesn’t say goodbye,” Inej said. “He just lets go.”
My Playlist
A perfect match to this perfect sequel to that perfect first book accompanied by that perfect heartbreak (my zodiac said there would be a major heartbreak in my 2019 – and here we fucking go!). Nothing breaks my heart more than a lush and cracking book in combination with the best songs ever. Seriously, at this rate I turned into a full masochist and it seems as if I’m both enjoying and loathing myself for it. However, you know what I’d like to say: Go big or go home! If you read the Six of Crows duology than do it right. (And yes again I didn’t manage to add a link to my Spotify because I appear to be a blockhead when it comes to technology. Deal with it.)
Six of Crows Duology Playlist
Bryce Fox – Horns
Hozier – Foreigner’s God
Billie Eilish – bury a friend
Hozier – In The Woods Somewhere
Bishop Briggs – River
Vera Blue – Fingertips
Hozier – Dinner & Diatribes
Laura Welsh – Break The Fall
Welshly Arms – Who Knew
Bishop Briggs – The Fire
Deathbyromy – Pocket Change
Hozier, Mavis Staples – Nina Cried Power
Bishop Briggs – Lyin’
Hozier – Shrike
Hozier – Movement
Hozier – To Noise Making
Ta-ku, Wafia – Love Somebody
Zayde Wolf – Hustler
Bishop Briggs – Hallowed Ground
Hozier – Would That I
Hozier - Be
Nina Zenik Vibes
Hozier, Mavis Staples – Nina Cried Power
(I know only one song. Cry me a fucking river.)
Inej Ghafa Vibes
Billie Eilish – bury a friend
Bishop Briggs – Lyin’
Deathbyromy – Pocket Change
Laura Welsh – Break The Fall
Welshly Arms – Who Knew
Kaz Brekker Vibes
Zayde Wolf – Hustler
Bryce Fox – Horns
Hozier – Foreigner’s God
Hozier – Shrike
Hozier – Would That I
Hozier – In The Woods Somewhere
Hozier – Work Song
Only the best shit for the biggest fucker of the Crows – Mister Brekker who apparently is behind it all – according to a certain frantic Jan Van Eck.
“Kaz Brekker,” Rollins mocked. “Philosopher crook.”
Oh, and, in case you want to cry – like a lot – then just listen to Hozier’s Shrike/ and Would That I while reading the last chapter from Inej’s POV. It was like someone was intentionally trying to make you cry the amount a population of 1000 would.
That’s it. I’m officially signing off and retreating to my little pit in the sewage of Ketterdam. The offer still stands – so join me whenever you please. I’m open for any inquiries such as listening to you crying your heart out, philosophizing about that bloody open ending or even setting up an altar to worship Kaz Rietveld. I’m down for anything. Just message me.
Have you already read my review to the first book of the Six of Crows duology? Click here to read it.
Nina knew that look. It was the first sight of land, the hope of shelter and even salvation that might await you on a distant shore.
Bardugo better put some mentioning into King of Scars about Kaz and Inej, or I will riot.
And that was what destroyed you in the end: the longing for something you could never have.
Read my 5-star review of Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo on Goodreads and follow me there to check out the books I've read and are on my to-do list.
Commentaires