The six main characters of the book, the crows are hired by Jan van Eck to perform a highly dangerous heist for lots of money. This involves traveling to and breaking into a military base in the austere Scandinavian-inspired Fjerda and rescuing the scientist Bo Yul-Bayur. Bo had recently invented a drug called Juda Parem that makes the supernatural powers of this world’s elemental witches, Grisha’s become very powerful. Unfortunately, it is also very addictive. Things go wrong almost from the beginning but the ingenuity of these experienced criminals allows them to get into the base only to find that Bo Yul-Bayor is missing. Instead, they find his son Kuwei, a Grisha who informs them that his father had died. There is some trouble but with the use of pellets which allow them to breathe underwater they all escape. They are chased down by the Fjerdian army who has a powerful Grisha taking parem with them. Seeing no other way to escape, Nina the crows resident Grisha takes some parem, knowing that she could very well become an addict. Nina defeats the army singlehandedly and they make their escape. Unfortunately when they get back the man that hired them attempts to double-cross them. There is a brief scuffle and Jan van Eck takes our main character, criminal prodigy Kaz Brekker’s love interest Inej and all of their money. He arranges for them to trade Kuwei for Inej and the money in a week’s time.
While I didn’t find this book especially special, it was a very enjoyable read. I have never seen such an ambitious plot executed well in YA fiction before and I was very surprised when it worked out. Everything came together well and the characters were very fun. Speaking of the characters, they were all great in my opinion, and Leigh Bardugo did a good job making you like the characters you’re supposed to root for and root against the characters you are supposed to dislike. Something I find is quite rare when YA authors attempt morally grey characters. This is especially impressive because it is told from six different perspectives. I understand that might get confusing for some people or that having so many perspectives might not be your thing. In that case, you should probably avoid it. Like I said earlier although Six of Crows is an enjoyable read, it isn’t anything too special.
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