Six of Crows - Six of Crows #1 - Leigh Bardugo
Sum up: (Goodreads)
Criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams. But to claim it, he'll have to pull off a seemingly impossible heist:
Break into the notorious Ice Court
(a military stronghold that has never been breached)
Retrieve a hostage
(who could unleash magical havoc on the world)
Survive long enough to collect his reward
(and spend it)
Kaz needs a crew desperate enough to take on this suicide mission and dangerous enough to get the job done - and he knows exactly who: six of the deadliest outcasts the city has to offer. Together, they just might be unstoppable - if they don't kill each other first.
Some scenes contain sexual and violent contents that may offend sensibilities of readers.
Plot:
Kaz is the chief of a gang that is known in Ketterdam. One thing is sure: you do not want to mess with any of them. If he seems like a young boy, he knows everything about everyone's sins. When he is entrusted with an important task that could lead to his death or to more money than he has ever seen, he gathers everyone around to help him:
Inej, a shadow and his best spy,
Matthias, a former Grisha hunter who spent months in the worst prison,
Nina, a Grisha with considerable powers,
Wylan, the son of a wealthy man who has a thing for explosions,
Jesper who knows each weapon by heart.
The six of them will try to retrieve a man who was able to create a drug that gives more powers to Grisha from a prison that is known to be unbreachable. But they all have secrets and secret motives...
Opinion:
Unfortunately I didn't really enjoy this reading. It took me over two weeks to read it when usually I could read a book in less than 3 days. Everyone kept talking about this book on Bookstagram and how awesome it was. But I didn't feel like that at all. I thought it was slow and I didn't like any of the characters maybe because I couldn't identify to any. I mean they are outlaws so it may be normal to not really like them and yet, I felt frustrated because they were all selfish and I couldn't sense their feelings. Their relationships were so neutral that it bothered me. I think the only charcaters I kind of liked or felt like I could enjoy were Matthias, Nina and Inej.
The universe created by Leigh Bardugo is really complex. I read 95% of the books in English and yet, I really struggled with this one. There are many information that are sometimes useless, such as the names of the bars or each business in Ketterdam. It also took me a while to understand the connection between the characters and to remember their names. Some moments I was not sure I understood what happened so I had to go back, re-read the scene before I could keep on reading, which annoyed me a bit. Let's say that this is not a book that you read to relax, haha!
I also didn't really like that it ended on a cliffhanger. When it is a series that I really enjoy, I don't really mind but here I want to read the next book just to know what will happen even though I didn't enjoy much the first book.
However, the story was really original. It is not like anything I have ever read. After the first part, there are some actions that make us want to know more, which probably explains why I didn't give up on the book at the beginning. I also liked that the more the story keeps on going, the more secrets are revealed about each character and secrets the reader absolutely does not expect. I liked to read about their hopes because - even though they are thieves and thugs - they dream a better life than the one they have.
Anyway, you should probably give it a try but be aware that the beginning is slow and some scenes are violent. As for me, I will try to give it a try to the second and final book of this duology :)
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