Book Review: Six of Crows (The Dregs #1) by Leigh Bardugo

 

Ketterdam: a bustling hub of international trade where anything can be had for the right price—and no one knows that better than criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker. Kaz is offered a chance at a deadly heist that could make him rich beyond his wildest dreams. But he can’t pull it off alone…

A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can’t walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Kaz’s crew are the only ones who might stand between the world and destruction—if they don’t kill each other first.

This was an amazing book plain and simple. When a book has as much hype surrounding it as “Six of Crows” does you definitely go into it expecting it to blow your mind and in this case it did not disappoint.

I was actually a little worried I mean everybody and their grandma loved this book and gave it at least 5 stars! Beside that I wasn’t exactly a HUGE fan of Bardugo’s “Shadow and Bone”, while I didn’t hate it I wasn’t crazy about it either. So needless to say I thought I might not like her newest book/series.

While I cannot give this book the full 5 star rating that most people have given it I can say it was still a great read, I did have some complaints though. I think it might just be a problem I have with Bardugo’s writing because I feel like some of the same problems I had with“Shadow and Bone” are apparent for me in “Six of Crows” as well.

One more note is that you CAN read this book without reading the Grisha trilogy! Although I will say it helps out a little, just reading “Shadow and Bone” gave me a better grip on understanding terms and such.

 

I’m going to start off by saying my favorite part about this book was the plot. Six criminals pulling off an impossible heist? Heck yes! I love heist stories, I can’t get enough of them. “Six of Crows” definitely delivered that. The entire planning aspect of said heist was a lot of fun, I loved reading how these guys were going to make the impossible, possible.

This book has been advertised as a cross between Game of Thrones and Ocean’s Eleven, it definitely has elements of both. Although I think it’s leaning a little more towards Ocean’s Eleven, actually it’s JUST like Ocean’s Eleven. I think most days EVERY new fantasy book gets slapped with the “Like Game of Thrones label”. The only thing that was remotely Game of Thrones-esque was the multiple POVs and some plot twists. However, good shocking plot twists are not exclusive to Game of Thrones. Point made.

Anyways! I loved the world-building in this book, whereas “Shadow and Bone” was very fantasy-lite I feel “Six of Crows” has ten times that depth. We actually learn about the separate countries, cultures, and languages. THIS is how you do fantasy world-building. There was TONS of diversity as well, we had characters with a lot of different skin shades and belief systems. I loved it. SO MUCH FANTASY CULTURE.

Also even though this is marketed as YA it felt surprisingly more adult-like. There’s definitely YA elements and I myself would label it that but there were some pretty dark moments that made me question what genre I was reading. In a good way, of course! I mean after all you are reading a book about a bunch of criminals and criminals they most definitely are.

The overall pacing of the book is very fast, it’s a pretty big book after all and didn’t really take all that long to finish. That’s how quickly I was turning pages. There’s SO MUCH action, I couldn’t go to sleep because I just wanted to keep reading.

Also there’s a pretty cliffhanger ending, so if you’re not up for that…..now you know.

I freaking adored every single one, they were developed incredibly well. They all had such great depth to their personalities, I couldn’t believe it. Bardugo managed to craft excellent characters in just one book. They’re all badass criminals but there’s also so much more to them than that.

Each character has a POV int his book (minus Wylan, no idea why though) and they have flashbacks throughout the book to help us get background on their pasts. I loved this element in the story, learning about what drives each of these characters to do what they do. It helps you feel so much more attached to characters when you know where they came from and what they’ve been through.

Seriously, Bardugo did an OUTSTANDING job writing these characters. I could sit here and gush about them all day.

Please excuse me while I rant and use some curse words…..

I hated how EVERY SINGLE FUCKING CHARACTER HAD TO BE PAIRED UP FOR A ROMANCE. EVERY SINGLE ONE. There’s six main characters thus the book’s title and each of them was GAGA over one of the others. Sure one of the pairs isn’t as outright as the other two pairs but it’s still definitely there and noticeable. I HATED IT. Like really? Can’t we just have great characters that like being their own person and don’t NEED another one of the characters? Can we? No?

Like excuse me for not wanting a huge love fest in the middle of my heist book.

A lot of people say the romance did not take over the book at all and I beg to differ. While you can still read this book for the heist and action and have a good time, I found all of the romances to be a bit distracting. I hate romance driven books for the most part and I’m just not a fan of having that many going on in one book at one time.

This is why I didn’t like “Shadow and Bone” I hated the romance(s) even though I loved the characters. So I think it’s safe to say that I just don’t like Bardugo’s writing when it comes to romances.

Basically it all boils down to I thought the sheer amount of romances was completely unnecessary. I did NOT need all of my main characters trying to romance and flirt with each other.

 

I loved it far more than I thought I would, this is a book that really lives up to all of its hype. Even if you didn’t really love Leigh Bardugo’s other book “Shadow and Bone” (like me) I still think you should give this one a try.

I’ll definitely be returning for the sequel!

Yes, yes, yes. As I said earlier you do NOT have to read the Grisha trilogy before this book! So go ahead and read this book now!

Links: Goodreads / Amazon