Book Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Book title: Crooked Kingdom
Author: Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Young Adult fantasy
Published: September 27, 2016
561 pages
My rating: 4/5

“I would 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 – knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.”

Kaz Brekker and his team have just pulled off a daring heist, but instead of enjoying their reward, they have been double-crossed by the merchant who recruited them. Determined to get their revenge and their money while the whole city is after them, the group plans another series of elaborate schemes to destroy their enemies – and maybe to save a few Grisha as well.

Crooked Kingdom is the second book in Leigh Bardugo’s young adult fantasy duology set in her Grishaverse. While the first book Six of Crows left me a little disappointed, it also lowered my expectations enough so that I could be pleasantly surprised with Crooked Kingdom. I'm happy to report that I enjoyed this book a lot more.

One of my major issues with Six of Crows was how much the narrative focused on the characters’ backstories. In Crooked Kingdom, there were a fair share of flashbacks, but they weren’t as intrusive. It also helped that the characters this book focused on were the ones that I liked more, namely Wylan and Inej. I found Jesper, Nina, and Matthias simply okay, and I still wasn’t a huge fan of Kaz. A major bonus of this book was that there was so little of Kaz and his backstory in it.

However, the heist plot of Six of Crows was a lot more interesting than the revenge plot of Crooked Kingdom. The group’s plans meandered from one scheme to another as their plans went awry time and again. Like Six of Crows, this book could have easily been two hundred pages shorter with a snappier pace. But I did enjoy the final resolution of how the group managed to get their revenge, although Bardugo’s constant reliance on misdirection made some of the plot twists predictable. Every time something seemingly catastrophic happened, I was already prepared to learn that it was exactly what Kaz had planned anyway.

I really don’t have much else to say about this book. In comparison to Six of Crows (because I cannot not compare it to the first book), I liked the characters more and I liked the fact there was less focus on backstories, but the plot wasn’t as exciting. I’m giving Crooked Kingdom four stars as well.