Leigh
Bardugo’s bestselling Six of Crows
had everything from a compelling secondary Victorian world, likeable and unique
characters, kickass fight scenes, and a heist that kept me turning pages
regardless of the amount of grad school work waiting on my desk. Full
disclosure, I’m a sucker for con stories—all the Ocean’s flicks, The Sting,
Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid. Thankfully,
Six of Crows gave me inclusivity the
genre had been missing for me. Plus magic. Crooked
Kingdom continues the fun and thoughtfulness.
(Warning: Mild Spoilers for Six
of Crows to follow)
For
those who need a refresher, the hefty Six
of Crows introduced the crew that Bardugo continues to focus on throughout
book two: Kaz Brekker, the scruffy leader who has the brains and the brawling
skills to turn himself into a legendary ruffian; Inej, the former acrobatic who
now goes by the Wraith and is Kaz’s eyes and ears; Nina, a Grisha (Bardugo’s term
for magic users) who loves sweets and has a complicated relationship with the
man who tried to kill her; Matthias, a warrior trained to kill Grisha, who fell
in love with Nina; Jesper, a sharp-shooter with a gambling addiction; and
Wylan, a merchant’s son who ran away after his father tried to kill him.
Together, they complete an impossible heist with plenty of flash, as they would
call it.
I
embarked on the sequel, Crooked Kingdom,
with excitement and trepidation. The story centers on the characters we know,
but twists their screws, opening them up for the reader. Bardugo swaps point of
view in each chapter so we spend nearly equal time with all the characters’
thoughts and experiences, creating compelling backstories that weren’t as
evident in the first installment of the series, particularly for Jesper and
Wylan, the most two-dimensional characters from the first book.
At
it’s heart, Crooked Kingdom is
another con story with the location in the Victorian-esque city of Ketterdam
rather than the first book’s major Norwegian-esque local. The similar heist structure
makes the first half of the book a slow burn as Kaz schemes and cons to save
the captured Inej and reclaim their rightful prize stolen from them at the end
of the first book. Since most of the cons are successful at the beginning, the
story feels too easy—yes, we know Kaz is a brilliant heist man and has the best
crew in Ketterdam, et cetera. Bardugo uses these initial chapters to deepen
character relationships, particularly between Nina/Matthias and Jesper/Wylan,
but even so, Crooked Kingdom lacked
that page-turning excitement I so enjoyed in Six of Crows.
At
least, until the second half of the novel kicked into gear. I won’t spoil Kaz’s
cons for you, but suffice to say Bardugo introduces failure, the type Kaz can’t
keep ahead of. Kaz’s failure to imagine all possibilities also touches on his
childhood, particularly the death of his brother, so the heists become knit
into the fabric of Kaz’s personality, giving the outcome more weight than a
simple cash prize.
Bardugo
shines in conceiving of machinations for her characters that truly surprise and
delight me as a reader. While that trick felt a little heavy-handed in the first
book, Bardugo takes advantage of her pacing to fully unfold the city of
Ketterdam in the second book. In young adult literature, world-building isn’t
always the strongest element with a focus instead, and understandably so, on
character and plot. Perhaps because Bardugo has been writing in this fantasy
landscape for a while (her other trilogy also focuses on Grisha), the place
felt like a character. Zeroing in on Ketterdam and containing the characters in
the city allowed her to explore the political systems as well as groups like
the Council of Tides, who only have shadowy mentions until the end of Crooked Kingdom, where they have one of
the coolest reveals in the book. The plots and ploys explore all of the merchant
class with some nice digs at capitalistic systems (I particularly liked the
lengthy scenes where a beautiful cathedral is used as an auction block).
There’s
much to enjoy in this duology romp, but Bardugo doesn’t only leave the reader
with flash, as Kaz might say, but develops ideas of sexuality, abuse, touch,
phobia, and disability throughout the plot. Two of my favorite moments deal
with Kaz and Inej’s relationship but also their fears of intimacy, particularly
physical intimacy. These characters are only seventeen or eighteen—this book
could easily be shelved as “new adult”—but their scars do show. Young adult
literature has a bad habit of putting characters through terrible situations
but never following up on the trauma. The weight of the past haunts these
characters and shows as they try to steal all that Ketterdam has to offer.
The Math
Baseline
Assessment: 6/10
Bonuses:
+1 for two how the hell did Bardugo come
up with this!? moments, +1 for poking fun at capitalism
Penalties:
-1 for playing the con card a few too many times
Posted
by Phoebe Wagner
Bardugo,
Leigh. Six of Crows Duology [Henry Holt and Company, 2017]
