Six of Crows: My favourite books ever
Read January 15, 2025 → January 22, 2025
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
These books are so beautiful and amazing and wonderful, I honestly don’t even know what to say about them. I’m at a loss for words. I’ve just read the books and I already want to read them again.
All of the characters in this duology have their own issues, their own personality and honestly, at first glance, they do not appear to ever become friends. They are just brought together by their circumstances. However, they learn to trust one another and are willing to risk their lives to help each other.
Kaz is such an interesting character. The others do not know what he is thinking and even as a reader, who can read his thoughts, it is unclear what his true plans and intentions are. There is always a part of the plan that remains a mystery, which is what makes the story so strong. The reader does not know everything. When everything seems to be going wrong and even Kaz seems defeated, he ends up finding a solution that is shown from the point of view of the other characters. It makes the story interesting and unpredictable.
I love Inej. Her optimism and will to fight, no matter how tough life gets, are so impressive. She is so talented and is willing to defend herself and her friends, but has also not let Ketterdam make her brutal. What I also appreciate about her character is that she always stays strong and says what she believes in. With what she’s gone through, I would expect her to be quite lonely and therefore accept the first love that comes her way. However, even when Kaz shares his feelings (or maybe sharing is a big word for Kaz), she sticks to what she believes. She believes their relationship can only work if they both put in effort. She is not willing to try until both of them work on their own issues.
Jesper is such a beautifully flawed character. He really tries to do the right thing, but ends up making mistake after mistake. While it is sometimes quite difficult to read about, it also makes him so human. He is just very sensitive to temptations, but always tries his best and wants to keep his friends save, while also struggling with more than he lets on.
I realised that Wylan does not have any chapters in Six of Crows, only in Crooked Kingdom. Still, that makes him a very interesting character. As a reader, you only learn about him in the second part, while you have already formed an opinion of him in the first part. Overall, I think he is such a sweet boy, who just wants to feel loved. He tries his best, but it almost never enough. I think he really balances Jesper out, and I just love their relationship. It is nice to see Wylan come out of his shell when he has gained the friendship of the Crows.
Nina is one of my absolute favourite characters. She is so unapologetically herself, it is amazing to see. While she tries to change Matthias’s beliefs, she is also willing to learn. She slowly understands that perhaps her way of looking at Grisha and politics is also formed by her life in Ravka. Overall, I just love her. She loves her friends and is such a confident person. She’s amazing.
Matthias is the character I always struggle with the most. Having such strong beliefs that you hate someone simply because of what they are is just not something I can relate to, so I found it really difficult to understand his point of view (perhaps, a bit like Nina struggled as well). Still, I have learned to love him. He is loyal, he is strong, he is willing to work on himself. He also realises that he cannot simply change because he wants to. He allows himself to grow, even if it is not as fast as he would like it to be.
Overall, the story is so strong. Their heists are so fun to read about, especially because Kaz knows exactly what everyone’s strengths are. He knows where to put everyone and doesn’t want to risk anything (or is willing to risk everything for Inej). Like I said, it is really fun that as a reader, you still don’t know the full plan of Kaz Brekker. There is always some twist. When everything seems lost, Kaz has a plan. And he needs his friends to be able to achieve them.
