Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

December 30, 2020 Kirsty Hanson

I kinda figured that since I was already in the Grishaverse after reading Six of Crows, I may as well carry on and read Crooked Kingdom. I really enjoyed Six of Crows, so I had very very high hopes – *cue Panic at the Disco song* – for this one.

Kaz Brekker and his crew of deadly outcasts have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives.

Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties.

A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets – a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

Like Six of Crows, I read Crooked Kingdom via audiobook, and I have to say, I think that it was the perfect decision. Audiobooks have been my saviour this year, but I also just love listening to how some of my favourite characters come to life.

Crooked Kingdom starts about a week later after the previous one (I think?), and I’m so glad it doesn’t do some serious time jump thing, because those seriously irritate me. This book doesn’t really have a big heist like in SOC. This book concentrates more on character development and the political scene of the Barrells. The characters of Van Eck and Rollins are the behind the scenes bad guys, and the goal of the dregs in this book is to take them both down.

“I would have 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.”

– Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

I was kind of glad about this. Instead of going straight into another heist or other crime, Bardugo took the opportunity of a second book to really flesh out her characters. One of the things that got to me about the first book was that there were too many points of view without any character development, whereas in CK, we get an added POV (Wylan!!!!), but A LOT more character development, so it doesn’t too busy.

As in the first book, Nina Zenik was my food saviour. There was so much talk about waffles (which is one of my favourite kind of foods), and I think I nearly cried when she lost her appetite for a bit. I’ve heard that Nina is also in King of Scars (which centres around Nikolai), and I can’t wait to read more about her.

“No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to the fact that there would be no expensive burials for people like them, no marble markers to remember their names, no wreaths of myrtle and rose.”

– Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

Now, the only trouble with listening to things on audiobook, is that you sometimes tend to *miss* certain things. I tend to listen to audiobooks more when I’m going to sleep; listening to them helps me get to sleep.

SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD:

So someone sends a random girl to try and kill Inej, and I really didn’t see the point in this. I don’t know whether it was because I was falling asleep or not, but I didn’t understand who the hell this assassin woman even was? So, if someone can elaborate, that would be wonderful 😅.

ENDS OF SPOILERS

I know that I’ve been going on and on about character development, but it was such a key aspect of this novel. I said in my review of Six of Crows that Inej had no respect whatsoever for Kaz’s PTSD, but in this book, Inej finally understood why Kaz didn’t like the feeling of skin touching his own skin. Inej has her own armour from working in the pleasure house, so for them, both to kind of (?) put those things to one side for a slight moment, was MASSIVE FOR THEM and it makes me so happy that Bardugo made them both acknowledge their mental health.

“Be a monster. Be the thing they all fear when they close their eyes at night.”

– Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

Also, for all you Sturmhond fans, he makes a small appearance in this book!

Looking back, I wish I would have read the physical copy of the book for the ending because listening to the bloody audiobook had me in tears. The narrators caught the emotions in the book perfectly, and I just got so emotional.

Overall, this was such an enjoyable book. I don’t know whether it’s better or worse than Six of Crows, I might say that they’re both as good as each other for very different reasons. I’m so glad that I’ve FINALLY read this series. All that’s left now, is for me to read King of Scars, and then I’m all up-to-date with the Grishaverse! 🙌🏼