Six of Crows

Admittedly it has been a while since I binge-read the Shadow and Bone trilogy but I still remember, vividly, how adamant everyone was that Six of Crows is just the better, more mature version that improves upon almost every aspect of Shadow and Bone. I was excited to read it and so I bought it all at once alongside the first trilogy and at the first book of the next duology King of Scars. Back then, I didn't get around to reading this book but I did enjoy the first three. I found the Darkling to be a terrible name for a villain and every magic-user being called Greg was weird but funny.

Six of Crows disappointed me, greatly. For the first few hundred pages I've kept wondering just why but come the end of the second third it hit me - Six of Crows is an anime! There's Kaz Brekker, the criminal prodigy whom all fear, and Inej the Wraith who will stab and murder with supreme skill, and Jesper the Sharpshooter, and Nina a powerful Grisha, and Wylan the Demolitionist, and Matthias the SS Soldier Witch-Hunter.
Who would have thought that these seasoned veterans are all no older than 19. Kaz, the feared demon of the criminal world, is seventeen years old. There was no reason to make their ages so explicit. It did nothing for the plot besides breaking any sort of suspension of disbelief one might have. Kaz, from the first few paragraphs of his story, was at least in his late twenties by the way his point of view was presented. I could understand twenty-three but seventeen is too low. It does not work. The murderous Wraith is sixteen because she's just so special.
Besides being literal children they are all quite horrible people and no amount of sad backstory will make that okay.

I've come across people praising the worldbuilding and same as with the characters, I am not sure what kind of mass hallucination has most of the readership experienced but this ain't it. It's anime, again. The north is full of very gruff and evil people who love ice and everything with cold because obviously they do. It's so generic in so many ways and with the focus being much less on the powers of the Grisha that somewhat interesting aspect is completely gone.

The plot itself is predictable and not that engaging. Again, the anime-esque nature of the book shows with scenes upon scenes that come seemingly randomly recounting the POV character's backstory. I'm sure good 15% of the book are these sections, perhaps even more. Couldn't we have Kaz tell his sad backstory to Inej instead of being subjugated to the plot coming to a stop just to throw it on us? Anime, pure and simple.

I will not be reading The Crooked Kingdom.