Oct 2024 Book Recommendation: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Intro

Fall is now in full swing, so I thought it would be a good time to share one of my favorite fall reads. Plus, there’s a fair amount of creepiness in it as well, making it great for spooky season.

If you’re a fan of YA fantasy, you’ve almost certainly heard of Six of Crows. It’s easily one of the most popular young adult books out there at the moment, and its fame is well-earned by its intrigue, action, and lovable—if a little morally gray at times (looking at you, Kaz)—characters.

This was actually the first YA book that I ever read, and it continues to be one of my all time favorites. So, let’s dig into it, and we’ll see if it seems fit to become one of yours!

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo Overview

Genre(s): Young adult, fantasy

Series: Book 1 of 2 of Six of Crows

POV: Third-person past

Length: 480 pages

Six of Crows follows Kaz Brekker—a seventeen year old orphan who has managed to make a name for himself as one of the most feared criminals in his home city of Ketterdam—as he works to pull off an impossible heist.

But, for all of his cunning, he can’t do it alone. So he builds a team of five other teenage outcasts capable of helping him get the job done, promising them a grand reward with the potential to change each of their lives forever—so long as they survive long enough to receive it, a task that’s made all the harder when some of them are hellbent on killing each other.

As Kaz and his crew put his plans into motion, ghosts from all of their pasts come back to haunt and hinder them, and tensions within their group continue to rise. Will they manage to set their troubled pasts and grudges aside so that they can claim the prize, or will all of Kaz’s plans come to ruin?

Personal Thoughts

To be totally honest, I’m usually not too crazy about morally gray characters like Kaz. (Who I’m about 95% sure is the reason why morally gray ever became so popular in YA fantasy in the first place.) But there are some exceptions, and Kaz is definitely one of them. He can be a major jerk sometimes, don’t get me wrong, but he’s got likeable qualities too that make it so that you don’t always want to punch him in the face. Plus, his backstory is gradually revealed throughout the book, so you get a better understanding of why he is the way he is as the story goes on, which helps too.

And, even when Kaz was driving me up the wall, his crew—most of whom are also important point-of-view characters—more than made up for it. Inej, Nina, Jesper, Matthias, and Wylan were all great characters in their own right, all with unique—and often conflicting—personalities. Inej, Nina, and Matthias all also have backstories that are revealed throughout the story (Jesper and Wylan’s are both saved for book two), which adds a lot. And I think there are a lot of people out there who would agree when I say that Nina and Matthias’s backstory—which they both share—was easily one of the best parts of the book.

Another thing that I really loved about this book was the group dynamics. There aren’t many books that have almost made me laugh out loud, but this one—despite its overall pretty dark vibe—was one of the ones that got dangerously close. (Multiple times, if I remember correctly.) As I mentioned earlier, the characters all have very distinctive personalities that often oppose each other, which leads to all sorts of hijinks and funny interactions that help lighten the mood.

Outro

All right, that about wraps this one up. If you’ve already read this book and are looking for titles that are similar, check out the list I’ve provided below. Until next time, happy reading!