Six of Crows

It's been a long time since I've read a book that made me stay up hours after bed but this one did it. I really enjoyed the characters in this book. Each had personality, with their own uniqueness, and flaws which I appreciated - giving realness to the characters. I enjoyed the jovialness of the group dynamic. Whilst they were in many ways strangers to one another, there was a level of friendship despite the bickering, that made for very pleasant reading. The ending of the book gets pretty intense and I am very eager to begin to the next book.

I'm not sure the story itself was anything fantastic, but everything else more than makes up for it. It's essentially a heist story with a ragtag crew. I am aware this book is set in a larger universe (Grishaverse) with prior novels in a seperate series. There were times I felt I needed to know more about this world to understand it better with descriptions and references that felt like assumed prior knowledge (though I suppose in many ways it is) but it wasn't difficult to wrap my head around it.

There were a few times when I felt cracks in Bardugo's writing, but these were kept to a minimum (maybe like 3 times), where I couldn't quite follow or make-out what was happening or who had said what. Overall, the writing isn't anything to write home about it but it does get the job done very adequately. The first half of the book required more plot as well as the story doesn't truly begin until halfway through.

In short: the characters are awesome, the story is pretty good, these a few minor flaws here and there but overall a very good book. 4 stars.