Rating: 5/5
Book Summary
Six of Crows left off with the crows accomplishing the impossible task of breaking into the Ice Court, so surely now they should be celebrating? But their mission isn’t over, and the stakes just got way higher. Jan Van Eck has kidnapped Inej and is holding her hostage until he gets given Kuwei Yul Bayur, which can’t happen since Van Eck seems to have a dangerous alterior motive for the recipe on Jurda Parem, that is the secret that only Kuwei knows, which means that Kaz will just have to find another way. However the team is weak, and still recovering from the events of the previous book, which means that they may have to ally with some old enemies and make dangerous decisions, in order to save Inej and the future of Grisha. In this thrilling second installment of the incredible series, everything is at stake and no one is safe…
Non — spoiler review
I also really enjoyed Crooked Kingdom, as I feel like it is such a good continuation from the first book, since it has the same elements of friendship and suspense while also still having a completely unpredictable storyline. In my opinion, I think this series is extremely well written, as Leigh manages to make the reader care for the characters and want to root for them, while also having an incredible and fun plot, which is not normally seen in the average book. I wholeheartedly recommend this series to everyone, as I think the books cater to all different types of readers, since there are so many different aspects and parts of the story which will be appreciated by different readers. If you’re unsure whether the second book in this series is worth it, I can assure you it is, as it is so similar yet different to the first, and further develops each of the characters, to produce a well-rounded narrative which contains all the essential parts which make up a good story.
Spoiler review
This book was so sad! When Matthias died I was actually so shocked, as it was so close to the end of the book and the group had gone through so much together just for Matthias to be killed by someone so similar to his past self. When Nina rowed away on that boat alone it was so heartbreaking as she was so close to having the perfect life she always wanted, with Matthias at her side, but in the end she left alone with Matthias’ corpse to bury :( Although there were definitely some sad moments in this book there were also lots of happy ones, and a moment I especially liked was at the end when Kaz got a boat for Inej and she introduced him to her parents, as this moment was sort of a gateway into the future and it shows how even though Matthias and Nina weren’t able to end up together, it was still possible for Kaz and Inej to have a (sort of) happy ending. I definitely really enjoyed this book, however I would say it is a bit more dark than the first one, and there isn’t as much of a structured plot, as there are some times when not much is happening, then others where like four things are happening at once. This doesn’t mean I thought it was a bad book though, as I would still say it’s on the same standard as the first! There are so many moments in this book I enjoyed and I can’t mention them all, but I found the part where the crows kidnapped Alys so funny since they were trying to be serious and she was just saying the most random stuff which was very entertaining. Just a last quick note — Jesper is my favourite character because he’s really funny, who is your favourite character from this book series?
