Brief Synopsis
“Crooked Kingdom” is the second novel in the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo. Taking place in the same universe as her Shadow and Bone trilogy, “Crooked Kingdom” follows the Crows as they seek to rescue one of their own from one of the most powerful players in Ketterdam.
Content Warnings: Death (main character), Chronic Illness, Racism, Torture, Violence (PG-13)
What Do I Think?
First of all, I know it might be a little weird, me reviewing the second book in the series instead of the first. But to be honest, after reading “Six of Crows” and finding tons of other reviews online, I elected not to review it simply because I didn’t feel like I had anything more to offer. It’s a good book, I had a great time with it, and its problems were few and far between.
“Crooked Kingdom” is a weird book to review. On the one hand, I really liked a lot of aspects of it (hence why I’m still doing this review in the first place!); on the other hand, it definitely has some flaws. I’m going to kick things off with the negatives first in an effort to end this review on a positive note.
First things first: by golly this book is big. Clocking in at over 150,00 words (536 pages), “Crooked Kingdom” is an absolute beast of a YA novel. For reference, the first Hunger Games novel clocked in at just under 100,000 words. Getting through it, during my limited free time, took me almost a month. And honestly…there was no need for it to be too long: too many unnecessary subplots, too many unnecessary backstories, just…too much. I feel like this book could have been chopped by a third and it would have been no worse off.
The other issue I have with the book is its penchant for “audience subversion.” By this I mean having dramatic, surprising moments that come out of left field, with little to no foreshadowing, and that don’t really serve much of a literary purpose other than to create shock value. In particular, there’s a twist near the end of the novel that was so obviously just there as shock bait for shippers, and it felt entirely unnecessary and could have been cut.
And, truthfully, my issues with the book mostly stop there. Yes, it is in need of some major editing, but its issues are not nearly as egregious as can be found in other young adult novels of the same category. So without further ado, let’s get to the good stuff!
First off, Leigh Bardugo’s writing style continues to remain strong – she’s descriptive without being too descriptive, and her ability to write fast-moving dialogue scenes remains as top-notch here as it did in “Six of Crows.” They give you an excellent amount of information while also ensuring that you don’t get bored.
This is helped by excellent character writing: the voices of each of the Crows remain distinct, with unique wants and desires that propel them through the plot. This is one thing that not even some of the random shock-bait can ruin, because at no point do the characters suddenly act against how they have behaved before. If I had one complaint (I know, I know, I’m supposed to be entirely positive here), it is that the characters don’t really experience much growth throughout the story – they mostly remain the same. But honestly, that isn’t such a terrible thing, because they’re pretty great as-is!
The plot moves quickly and manages to follow a fairly logical progression. It’s full of action and intrigue. Others have complained about some of the plots of one of the main characters, which can sometimes be convoluted and require many moving parts, but the way the story presents them never took me out of the story; they were largely adaptive and fit with what the character already knew at the time. Even if we didn’t know every moving part, the pieces all came together in the end.
Overall, “Crooked Kingdom” is an excellent sequel to a phenomenal story. It is a little bloated and doesn’t do a lot in the way of character development, but it’s still a fun ride from the first page to the last.
Jacob Ryckman 