Let me preface this by explaining that I love Leigh Bardugo so much. Six of Crows is in my top five books of all time, and inspired me to write my current novel. This book was in my most anticipated books of the year, and one of the two books I managed to get preorders of for Christmas. (The other's release was just pushed over a year, but that's a whole 'nother story)
So, yeah, I went in with really high expectations, some of which were met, others, not so much. Let's get into it, spoiler-free of course.
Characters
The characters were honestly fantastic.
Nina was amazing as usual. Her character growth from the beginning of Six of Crows, and the lingering effects of that ordeal are definitely present, but she's still the Nina we loved in SOC. She's sassy and badass and still so infinitely good.
Nikolai was great. His internal struggles were brilliantly done, and I loved getting his POV. His relationship with Zoya is also amazing.
Zoya was even better in this book. I wasn't the biggest fan in the Grisha books, though granted I only read through two of them. She's powerful and unapologetic as always, but seeing her be vulnerable to herself and how she seems to genuinely care so much about Ravka and even about Nikolai is great.
Isaak was an amazing surprise. His role is spoilers, but his character was actually my favorite. He was sweet and good, and I just love him a lot.
Hanne was one of my favorite things in Nina's storyline. Leigh promised us Nina would have a girlfriend in this series and Hanne is going to be perfect, if that's where this is going. She's strong and brave and good, and I love her lots.
All the side characters are well fleshed out and entertaining as well, so it's great.
5/5 on characters
Plot
The plot was– fine, I guess.
The entire first half of the book was very, very slow. I found myself slogging through the book, a little bit bored. It picked up when part 2 came along, but was still a bit strange? The climax had a few too many POV jumps for my taste. Instead of building suspense, the disconnect in storylines made the cuts feel choppy and made me loose interest a little bit.
The multiple POVs, while interesting, felt extremely disconnected.
Nina was on a spy mission in Fjerda
Nikolai is at the palace, then on an adventure with only Zoya
Isaak is at the palace
Of these, Isaak was the most interesting to me, basically throughout– the writing there reminded me most of Six of Crows. Nina's story, though extremely interesting towards the end, was very mundane and internal for a while, which was not very much fun. Nikolai's adventure was thoroughly boring until the very end, and kind of confusing to boot.
Others have pointed out that this book is kind of boring– and in contrast with Six of Crows, it kind of is? But there were parts I enjoyed.
2/5 on plot
Writing
The writing was pretty great. Leigh Bardugo improved a lot from the Grisha Trilogy to Six of Crows, and her writing hasn't decreased from Six of Crows. However the shift to a plotline more similar to the Grisha Trilogy than Six of Crows made it a little muddled. Still, the exploration of characters and overall style is pretty good, way better than anything I could do.
4/5 on writing
Worldbuilding
So this is an already existing world, but damn I love the Grishaverse a lot.
The references to past events, like Alina Starkov's death, her sainthood, Kerch and Kaz Brekker, all made me very excited. (Sidenote is that zowa healer Leoni mentions Jesper's mother because if so HOLY SHIT) Nina quoting Kaz Brekker gave me life, seriously.
I love the religion she created, and the fanaticism that erupts through it. Fjerdan culture is thoroughly observed here, and I adore the detail she's put into it. Some of the Darkling stuff was a bit tedious since he was never my favorite villain, but it was still great.
I adore fantasy politics (one of the reasons I love The Queen's Thief so much) and this book had a lot of it. That's an aspect of worldbuilding, and I love the tension it creates in this book.
4.5/5 on worldbuilding because Leigh Bardugo is a queen, 0.5 taken off because there were so many missed opportunities to bring in SOC characters that weren't taken, and Wylan wasn't mentioned once.
Overall
I thought the book was pretty good honestly. People are kind of bashing it, but I think they went in with expectations that it would be like Six of Crows, which it very much was not. It was slow and kind of confusing, but it delivered on a pretty great storyline, and I'm interested to see where it goes next.
Overall rating: 3.5/5
This book was solid, but I hope the next book amps it up. The cover is still the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen.
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