Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

★★★★★

source: e-galley from Macmillan

publication: October 6, 2015, Henry Holt

**all quotes are from uncorrected proof**

HERE IS A REVIEW WITH, LIKE, ACTUAL WORDS, I GUESS. [spoiler-free]

Here's something you should know about me: the number of playlists I have for a book is directly related to how much I loved that book. My favorite book, which I read for the first time more than two and a half years ago, has since claimed 182 songs and 15 playlists in my iTunes library. I should mention that some of those playlists and songs go with the sequels, because that is relevant to what I'm about to tell you.

Six of Crows does not have a sequel yet*. I did not read Six of Crows two and a half years ago; I finished it four days ago.

It already has 9 playlists and 57 songs.

If that does not tell you enough, here are some additional thoughts:

Six of Crows is an edgy whirlwind heartbreaker of a book. It's a fantastical, gritty, emotional story about not one, not two, but six three-dimensional characters, every one of whom feels like a real person. It's a heist story, a resilience story, and a story about the vanishing line between human and monster. (I can already tell you that one of the most popular quotes of the book will be "We're all somebody's monster.")

"When everyone knows you're a monster, you needn't waste time doing every monstrous thing."

The characters and their relationships were my favorite thing about this novel, but I don't want to say too much about them because I think the experience of getting to know them made me all the more attached. I will say that they're a bunch of Weebles, you guys. They've spent most of their lives wobbling in one way or another, but they refuse to fall down. Two of them are dealing with a betrayal that cost them everything. One of them is hiding severe PTSD after a traumatic and heartbreaking experience. One is tired of always being someone else's property. One is a gambler whose loose lips get him in trouble, and the last is a runaway from a life of privilege and secret pain.

There was no part of him that was not broken, that had not healed wrong, and there was no part of him that was not stronger for having been broken.

And they have not stopped fighting for what they want, whether it's revenge, freedom, love, or acceptance. It turns out that Weebles make for really gripping characters.

So, what brings this eclectic cast of people together? Well, Kaz Brekker, of course. He's assembled this talented crew for business purposes: a man came to see him about an impossible heist that will either get them killed or win them a life-changing sum of money, and who is Kaz Brekker to turn down a deal like that?

The heist has something to do with Grisha and brings about moral debates between some of our characters, but I won't go into detail because the synopsis is similarly vague. I will say it's a new side of the Grishaverse, because now we're in a part of the world where Grisha are something to be used, not revered or respected. The novel then takes us to another part of the world that believes they are monstrosities, that their existence is wrong and must be corrected. This is the central conflict between two of the protagonists, one of whom is a Grisha and one of whom was conditioned to believe all Grisha are evil, and it's a beautiful Jongritte-esque situation if I ever saw one.

There's not quite as much magic in this one as there was in any of the original Grisha books, but that's okay because when it is used, it's used perfectly. Alina Starkov's journey was, in a way, defined by magic: when she found her magic, she found her power, but losing her magic was ultimately how she kept her power**. In Crows, magic and power are inversely linked; characters who have magic must choose how to be powerful despite it, which is a really interesting flip of the dynamic, and I actually think the unconventional approach made for more nuanced character development.

Another thing I loved about this book (okay, I loved everything, shut up) was the strategy behind everything that happened. Kaz is like a male, criminal, slightly more underhanded version of Kestrel from The Winner's Curse, so he's always ten steps ahead of everyone else and he uses any information he can get (thanks to Inej) against someone if he has reason to. He can usually think of a reason to.

Kaz cocked his head to one side, his eyes focused on something distant. 
"Scheming face," Jesper whispered to Inej. 

God, I love him. Kaz is the antihero I think everyone wanted the Darkling to be (or is still pretending the Darkling was). I could talk to you about Kaz Brekker for days without interruption. But while he may be the one I feel strongest about, he is by no means the only one who had me basically writhing with emotions. Hence, the playlists. 57 songs in 4 days. You do the math.

When I finished the book, I was all

and Leigh Bardugo was all

So congratulations, Bardugo, you have ruined me. In the best way possible.

*at least not one I have read because, hi, this book isn't even out for another 5 months.

**by which I mean, her power over her own life, which is the only kind of power Alina actually wanted and the only kind that's relevant to the main six in Crows.

Double Review: Ten Tiny Breaths/One Tiny Lie

TEN TINY BREATHS: ★★★☆☆

Oh, the mixed feelings I have about this book. There were some things I found extremely problematic, and some moments that made me wish I could forget the problematic things because they made me want to love the entire book as much as I loved those moments.

Let's start with Kacey. First off, I just hate the spelling of her name. It's a dumb thing to focus on, I know, but it bothered me throughout the whole book. There's an unattractive red underline under it as I write this, and I feel like I was seeing that red underline every time I read the name in my physical copy of the book. But anyway, Kacey herself was a decent character. I loved her snark, and I understood her desire to push people away. I've never had a problem with a prickly character before. For some reason, though, I never felt that emotional attachment to her-- maybe in her attempts to push everyone else away, she made me feel pushed away too. Obviously this book was about her personal journey into someone who actually lets herself care about other people (I don't think this is a spoiler; it was always fairly predictable that that was where it was going), which was a moving journey to witness. But I felt like that's all I did: witness it. I never felt like I was experiencing anything with Kacey.

Then there was Trent, whose entire purpose in the book seemed to be "stand there, look pretty, and wait for Kacey to fall in love." I mean, they barely had one conversation before she was thinking about him constantly. He somehow found out where she worked and came to watch her every night. He watched her, in true stalker fashion. Of course, he wasn't doing it to be creepy, but nobody ever is, are they? He knew that she was attracted to him, and he used it to help both of them. My problem is that as characters, they didn't seem like a key and a lock that were made for each other. There weren't facets of Trent's personality that were perfect for Kacey's, or vice versa. He stalked her, he found her, they "fell in love," and then his secrets were revealed. The only convincing part of their relationship was the lack of immediate reparations when things went wrong. Their time apart made everything more realistic and kind of quelled the ragey fire in me that is only ever lit by insta-love.

The secondary characters-- namely Storm, Mia, Livie and Cain-- were possibly my favorite thing about this book. Storm and Cain smashed stereotypes left and right; Mia was that requisite adorable little kid who says just the right things; and Livie was the perfect little sister who probably had more going on than she let on.

So basically, I liked Ten Tiny Breaths. I didn't love it. I felt there were one too many of those scenes without the heart to back them up, and the romance was a little flat, but the plot moved along and I barely predicted the twist toward the end (though I did kind of feel like I had just read Hopeless for the third time-- once for Hopeless, twice for Losing Hope, and three times for Ten Tiny Breaths). And I enjoyed the way the epilogue wrapped things up for Kacey while setting things up for...

ONE TINY LIE: ★★★★☆

*I received a copy of One Tiny Lie from Atria Books in exchange for an honest review.
To simplify my reaction to this book after Ten Tiny Breaths: That's more like it. I know a lot of people absolutely adored Ten Tiny Breaths, but One Tiny Lie worked so much better for me on so many levels, I don't even know where to begin.

I guess I'll start with Livie. Her problems seemed so much more accessible to me, not just because I identified with them, but because they seemed like a much more natural reaction to her situation than Kacey's problems did. The last thing her father said to her before the accident that killed her parents was "Make me proud." Of course she's going to dedicate her life to getting good grades and going to Princeton, and not letting herself get distracted by the things everyone else her age is doing. Of course she'll feel it's her duty to do well so Kacey doesn't have to worry about her, because Kacey herself is broken and Livie doesn't want to add any stress to her sister's life.

But all of this sensibility has put a lot of pressure on Livie. She's had tunnel vision for so long with exactly one end point in mind, that she hasn't looked around to see what other options she has. She hasn't asked herself if the promises she made her parents, her sister, and herself so long ago are still the ones she wants to keep.

Enter: Ashton. He's got that bad-boy-with-something-deeper thing going on, and he turns out to be exactly what Livie needs. They just met, got to know each other, and fell in love. It was forbidden, yes, because they were both seeing other people, but it never felt wrong the way Kacey and Trent did to me. Ashton is good for Livie because he helps her think about what she really wants for herself instead of what everyone else wants for her, and she's good for him because she is the only person who's ever tried with him. Everyone else wrote him off as a thoughtless party boy who sleeps around, and while that was what Livie thought of him at first, she gave him a chance to show her otherwise. Someone told Livie that you know if a guy loves you not by what he says, but what he does-- especially the things he does quietly-- and there are so many small moments in this book where Ashton proves this to her. He doesn't ask for anything in return; he doesn't even ask to be recognized for any of it. He helps her because he cares about her.

Also: those scenes had the heart to back them up. They didn't just happen because two characters were in a room together; they happened because two characters had an emotional connection in the scene first.

I love the new cast of characters in this one, too. They all have that friendship chemistry that I love so much: in addition to being fleshed-out individually, their relationships were three-dimensional as well. And it was nice to see Kacey and Trent again, having worked out all their heavy issues and finally moving on with their lives. Acting, for once, as a steady support system for someone else.

Overall I just think One Tiny Lie was a more subtly moving novel, and all the better for it.