Could Six of Crows be both a fantasy and a heist novel? Yup! The toughest guy in the docks gets hired for a mission that spans across countries. The target? A scientist whose invention boosts magic users’ powers exponentially—only to burn them out just as fast. Sounds… not ideal.
Assemble the Crew
The first part of Six of Crows is all about putting the team together. And this is where Bardugo’s novel really shines. The characters are unique and memorable—hey there, Kaz, Nina, and Ghost! And the setting, Ketterdam’s slums, feels like a twisted version of an old Dutch city that might still exist today. (Limburg maybe? Or Utrecht? Can’t say for sure.)
Wait, They’re All Teenagers?
Now, here’s where things get a little weird: all the main characters are teenagers. To pull in the YA crowd? Probably. Or maybe I just hadn’t realized I was reading a YA fantasy until now. (Entirely possible.) But Bardugo’s plan doesn’t really work, because the human brain, that lovely self-correcting machine, just automatically bumps their ages up past 20. Because, let’s be honest, it’s impossible to believe that a bunch of 15–17-year-olds could be this professional, this good, at so many things.
Stir Crazy! (Jailhouse Nonsense)
The second half of Six of Crows—just like in any proper heist story—is where the action kicks in. Our merry little band of ten- or twenty-somethings breaks into the Ice Court, aka THE MOST HEAVILY GUARDED FACILITY IN THE WORLD, and goes on a full-blown rampage. They’re running around with a rough sketch of a plan cooked up about a thousand kilometers away and rely on tools they find on the spot, MacGyver-style, to pull off the job.
Anyone who crosses their path? Taken down. Lucky for them, THE MOST HEAVILY GUARDED FACILITY IN THE WORLD is, bizarrely, almost empty. And if a few guards do happen to wander by, they all turn out to be complete morons. At this point, the book fully sinks into the usual mediocre territory of typical YA fantasy. Implausible and dumb twists come one after the other, and you just sit there going, “What the hell is this?”
Based on the first couple chapters, this story should’ve been a clever, twist-filled heist full of master-level trickery—think Money Heist (La Casa de Papel), or, uh, at least the first two episodes of that show.
No, You’re Not the Only One Getting Bored
What somewhat saves the second half of the book are the inserted flashbacks that reveal some characters’ backstories, filled with deep tragedy (and dumb misunderstandings). These create a noticeable contrast with the clumsy Ice Court chases and the terrible final chapters.
It’s like Leigh Bardugo came up with this epic story, wrote it with full steam ahead, and then, somewhere around the halfway mark, went “eh, screw it,” got tired of all the fiddly bits, and just tried to wrap it up as quickly as possible.
Still, despite its flaws, Six of Crows easily beats out most of the YA genre. The first half is genuinely high-quality writing, and refreshingly, it’s not full of the constant whiny nonsense that usually floods similar books. But still, it’s a bit of a missed opportunity.
Oh, and yes—there’s a DOUBLE love subplot too, for the romantics out there. YA-style, of course, so mostly it’s just longing stares and endless sulking.
Rating: 6.5/10
Six of Crows (Six of Crows #1) by Leigh Bardugo
465 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2015 by Henry Holt & Company
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The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood
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UPDATE:
If you enjoyed Six of Crows, I recommend Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte. The two have a lot in common.