Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) in Fallen Into Tijan Books

Jun 06, 2020 Books_and_Burritos rated it it was amazing

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I have to admit, because of my issues with the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, as well as my continuous effort to settle down and read during the past couple months, I did not think I would finish or like this book.

Thankfully, I completely fell in love with this book and its characters. I have never read a heist book and thought that I would be seriously bored, but I found myself really interested in the worldbuilding, relationships, character developments (and pasts), as well as the actual plot (whic I have to admit, because of my issues with the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, as well as my continuous effort to settle down and read during the past couple months, I did not think I would finish or like this book.

Thankfully, I completely fell in love with this book and its characters. I have never read a heist book and thought that I would be seriously bored, but I found myself really interested in the worldbuilding, relationships, character developments (and pasts), as well as the actual plot (which turned out to be my favourite aspect of the book). Every time a chapter ended I could not peel my eyes away, there were so many cliff-hangers that I could not keep up with them all.

Although I was neutral on my feelings for the Shadow and Bone Trilogy, Six of Crows was a one hundred percent 180 and had a fresh cast, society, and storyline (with very minimal similarities to the first series, which was expected considering they both take place in the same universe).

Now I will get into the 'more' spoiler section of my review:

Okay, so I am mainly going to talk about the characters here, beginning with Kaz, who was the absolute best and one of the most interesting characters I have read about this year so far.

Kaz has a very troubled past that becomes slowly revealed throughout the book, especially concerning the death of his brother, and his clear mistrust in others (aside from Inej - although there are still many examples of him not sharing the truth with her). It was really intriguing to see him develop into someone who could care more about others, and essentially reveal a more 'human' side of himself to others. When I began this book, I thought that I would dislike it because I believed that Kaz would be depicted as an "invincible" character, but we see plenty of strengths and weaknesses within all of the crew. I also really liked the portrayal of ability status within the book, and I found it a much healthier depiction compared to other novels (i.e. I'm talking to you Tower of Dawn). I loved the dark humour and know-it-all nature that he had, and my only change would probably have been towards the ages of all of the characters (I feel like they should have been a bit older, but it was not a big issue for me).

Inej was definitely one of my favourites as well. I really felt that she was the glue in this story and that twist ending had me shouting at the pages for someone to save her. She was a very calm and balanced person, and I also loved how she managed to continue to grow stronger and face her past head-on surrounding her experience in the Menagerie (I really hope she gets her revenge on Tante Heleen soon). I liked the representation of colour as a whole in this text, but I would have liked to see a bit more considering the racial imbalance with the population (even though it was somewhat explained).

Jesper and Wylan were also great characters, and it was nice to have LGBTQIA+ representation. I also just truly liked their personalities and I feel like I enjoyed their romantic plot line more than Matthias and Nina (I found Jesper and Wylan to have a bit of a healthier and more realistic story, but then again I am only assuming that they really like each other based on subtle hints from Six of Crows, and I am not sure that they will actually get together in the next book). I wish we could have read a bit more from Wylan's POV, and I hope I can see more of him in the next book. Jesper was also just amazing, but dude, you had to go and make the heist more difficult for everyone by oversharing before you even started XD. That fight between him and Kaz really tore me up, and I hope we can see him win some trust back because I adored Jesper's character and comedic relief he provided (and I also liked the Black/Person of Colour representation which is scarce in these types of books and really needs to be increased).

Now, Nina and Matthias were a different case for me. While I like Nina's role within the story, and found her character and her power really cool to read about, for some reason I guess I was a bit annoyed by her. Not to a point that I could not read her POVs, but it was just something I couldn't put my finger on. However, towards the end I started warming up to her and I'm honestly hoping we can see her fight the likely addiction that will be displayed in Crooked Kingdom.

Matthias was...well he wasn't the worst in the end. But I found him exasperating to read about sometimes because of how prejudice and discriminatory he was towards Nina and the Grisha. Maybe it was just the timing that I decided to read this book, but I found many of his actions to be just...yikes. The fast progression of his relationship with Nina towards the end also made no sense to me considering he spent more than half of the book complaining about literally everything Nina did.

Also, can I just say that he had a really 'weird' viewpoint. And I get it, all of the characters kind of did, but Matthias was straight up trying to escape and then he'd gain possession of a gun and think "wow, I could totally shoot Kaz right now" or he'd be sitting down and start thinking of ways to kill Nina, etc. I get how these views could be argued though, the guy was in a pretty rough condition when introduced, but I think his long-lasting lack of trust, his treatment towards Nina, and his general dislike for...well...everyone, really made it hard for me to like him. That being said, I hope I get to see him in a better light when he tries to rescue Inej and further his time spent with the crew later on.

Overall, Six of Crows is getting a 4.5* for me. I know I'm fairly late in reading this duology, but I have to say that I will be constantly yelling "no mourners, no funerals" for the rest of the week. ...more

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