I know Six of Crows is highly-regarded and I’m pleased to see that it lived up to its hype. After all the premise is centered around a Oceans 8-esque heist that seems impossible to accomplish but will yield so many rewards if they succeed. And certain death if they fail.

The goal is to retrieve Shu scientist, Bo Yul-Bayur from the impentrable Frjerda palace and prison, White Island. Preferably alive as he is the creator of jurda parem formula-a drug that amplifies Grisha’s powers to do the impossible, making them even more powerful weapons hopelessly addicted after the first taste.

The crew consists of six as you might guess from the title. Kaz, the merciless, confident con man, the Bastard of the Barrell whose expertise is on impossible heist. Inej, a spider and holder of secrets and blackmail hoping to accumulate enough to leave her debts. Mattias, a witch-hunter who is torn between duty to his country and the promise of a pardon. Nina, a grisha yearning to return back to Ravka to help the Second Army. Jesper, one of Kaz’s right hands and handy with a pistol but a loser at the card tables. Finally, Wylan, former rich boy, willing hostage and demolitions expert.

Before I get into the plot, let’s talk about the main city full of dirt underneath its surface that these characters call home or hell.

Ketterdam is a vividly described city that Bardugo imbues with action and duplicity in every corner. One being the public view of Ketterdam, the other being the underbelly of Ketterdam run by the various gangs and their turf wars. It is no coincidence that it resembles Amsterdam with its canals, twisting streets, public brothels and an old center of commmerce and trade so the allusions allow readers to fill in the gaps while Bardugo makes sure to put in enough gritty differences and descriptions of architecture to make it slightly different from the city we know.

Now onto the characters: Kaz had a brilliant introduction showcasing how he knows almost everything of everyone, that he is merciless, an excellent bluff, and he’s patient. He leaves no loose ends and uses the element of distraction and other’s weaknesses to build himself immense power and reputation. Plus he’s got charm so he makes an excellent leader. Yet by playing mastermind, he can’t show weakness or feelings to others. In fact, he can’t stand to be touched either. All this ties back to his past of when he first came to Ketterdam with his brother whom Pekka Rollins killed. Bardugo’s slow unraveling of his past helps to reveal the emotional core underneath his criminal boss exterior. Loss and revenge are always a great way to make readers sympathesize with a character and Kaz is no exception. Especially as she shows how much he cares for Inej even though he can’t bear to say it outloud. Plus it pushes the plot along as some of his plans unravel and his need for revenge, his greed and his pride of getting out of any situation spell his downfall more than once.

Inej can be just a calculating as Kaz but her Suli belief in her Saints keeps her on the moral side a bit more which lends itself to nice back and forth between the two. Her special skill is her ability to sneak around and move around without a sound, giving her the name Wraith. Her time as an acrobat with her family helps too. A family that she wishes to return but fears that her time on the streets trying to survive will make her unrecognizable. For that girl with a loving family died on a slave ship when she was kidnapped from her hold and sold to the Mengerie of Exotics. Bardugo does, I believe, a sensitive job desccribing the trauma of sexual slavery, exoticization and her PTSD that fuels her to keep going on these jobs so she’ll have enough money to escape. Her attraction to Kaz is extra icing as they’re both scarred individuals who have found a symbiotic trust in each other in a world of thieves and liars. But it was even more moving to see her find a cause beyond surival and beyond assisting Kaz and thinking of a new possible future.

Nina and Mattias’ stories go together. I canot split them just as they cannot escape the path they went through together. He’s a witchhunter, she’s a Grisha, both want the other dead when he puts her on a transport ship for trial and certain death in Fjard. And there’s major Nazi vibes from Fjerd and the witch hunters and how they view Grisha as deceitful vermin, demonic etc. Right out of the Nazi playbook plus the whole Aryan descripions of blonde hair, blue eyes really help sell that metaphor as to how prejudiced and cruel the drüskelle are and why they hate each other.

But after the ship sinks and they manage to save each other, survive the wilderness and get to Katterdam, they develope feelings for one another that cannot be denied. Until Nina betrayed him and got him sent to Hellgate prison. Once again, Bardugo deals this difficult Nazi-Jew metaphor situation with finesse, using Mattias to display how fantacism and prejudice are instilled in young men. Men who can be gentle but whose faith and duty make them into murderers of the innocent. That sense of decency and duty is what keeps Mattias likable even after his rants that Grishas like Nina are lower than dogs and inhuman. His time with Nina makes him see past that propoganda.

It helps that Nina fundementally shares his discipline, loyalty and values even if its to a different cause and it was an interesting internal conflict between her guilt of sending Mattias to prison, her love for him, her desire to be of greater help to her people as well as her horror as she reminded of what kind of man Mattias used to be when they come across more signs of Fjard atrocities towards Grisha. The latter especially comes to play in a drop-dropping climax that completely changes the status quo.

I really really enjoyed Jesper even though he didn’t have much to do. He’s affable, the leading man’s best-friend archtype but he does have hidden depths. I don’t want to spoil it though as it doesn’t come into play until the second half of the book. I do wish it was brought up from the beginning if only to create a strong compelling narrative as the others had straight from the start. But I suppose I’ll see more in Crooked Kingdom. I do wish there had been more done in regards to his relationship with Kaz and how he wished he had more of Kaz’s trust. They are somewhat implied to be close friends or at least close as Kaz could be to another person. But I saw it more one-sided with Jesper while Kaz rarely thought about him in his POV.

Wylen didn’t have a POV at all here but that’s because Bardugo and Kaz keeps secrets close to their chests until they can be used as levarage (and a surprise end twist) later on. I did see spoilers that he has more of an involvement in Crooked Kingdom so clearly his past is under-wraps. However, within the story, he is a good addition as the niave rookie compared to these hardened characters and it was nice to see him grow in confidence. Plus cute flirtations with Jesper.

Finally, while the lines of the romances are clearly set, Bardugo does play around with group dynamics. The girls have a particularly sweet and trusting friendship based on shared experiences. Kaz and Mattias’ tense stand-off as Mattias is a moralistic soldier/man of faith add a nice push-pull as they’re such stubborn figures who do find grounds of respect. Mattias and Inej also have one significant talk and Jesper’s care for Inej is also has a nice commraderie report. And when they all work together, it feels like such a joyride. They don’t feel like just a ragtag group of criminals but a found family.