The Ice Does Not Forgive: Six of Crows Duology Book Review Part One: Six of Crows
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
*This review contains spoilers*
Content Warning
This review mentions slavery and sexual abuse.
Introduction
The Six of Crows duology is definitely going to go down as an all-time favorite read for me. After feeling that the predecessor series, Shadow and Bone, was (though enjoyable) just average, I was blown away by how much I loved this duology. It was the perfect blend of action, comedy, romance, mystery, twists and turns, and magic and mayhem! On top of that, it all comes with an amazing (and diverse) cast of characters.
Summary & Review
I will admit that in the earliest few chapters, I wasn't as hooked as I was hoping to be right off the bat with Six of Crows, given how hyped up the book was. While, retrospectively, I understand why starting with the introduction of jurda parem into the story was the best way to start, the prologue left me a bit uneasy about the overall aesthetic of the novel. The opening "Joost" prologue felt oddly futuristic and more sci-fi in comparison to Shadow and Bone, with was more of a dark fantasy. I also felt a bit put off by the rapid shifts in perspective among Kaz, Inej, Jesper, and Nina. Later on, the incorporation of multiple perspectives is something I consider one of the biggest strengths of the story, but in these first few chapters, it didn't feel like much important characterization was happening to all of them equally to warrant these constant POV shifts.
I was also uneasy with Kaz Brekker as the protagonist of this story at first (yes, I know, you just gasped). There was so much hype surrounding his character, and I knew how beloved he was by so many fans, and so there was such a pressure to love him. Honestly, from the start though, Inej was my favorite (and still is). Some aspects of Kaz' personality felt like they were leaning to closely to being that toxic male character that people really love even though there's not actually much to like about him.
There was also a certain hesitation towards two of the three main ships that Leigh Bardugo was building up. Some of this was due to characterization: Nina having been originally taken as a captive by Matthias and his fellow druskelle made it hard for me to believe they could ever have anything close to a healthy relationship. The other part was just the way that the ships were handled in Shadow and Bone. I was so worried about Kaz and Inej becoming way too much like Malina or Darklina (neither of which I'm really a fan of). Their relationship is a difficult one to write and make work, just based on their backstories alone. I was already rooting for Inej to triumph over her past, and I wasn't sure how ending up with Kaz Brekker helped that. I was weary of Bardugo's ability to manage such an intricate relationship.
But her writing skills felt more sharpened after Shadow and Bone, and these early misconceptions of the book cleared up for me very quickly.
It took me until about the chapter where the real twists and turns began--you know, that boat explosion--to realize this book was absolutely not what I thought it was going to be, in all the best ways. I loved the way that Bardugo handled the plot twists, the way she would go from chapter seeming as if everything had gone wrong, and then the next, Kaz has figured a way out. It really kept me on my toes, reading quickly to find out what would happen next. But at the same time, I was reading slowly because I wanted to absorb all the nuances of the characters that Bardugo was building up.
Bardugo crafted the flashback chapters for each of the characters in a way that made them feel so integral to the story, although I feel that Kaz, Inej, and Nina's flashbacks were stronger initially than Jesper and Matthias', who became stronger characters in the second installment and later in the first book. Don't get me wrong, I love Jesper and Matthias now. In fact, this is one of the few stories where I genuinely liked every major character. That being said, I think each of their character developments were a bit stunted earlier on.
Bardugo's positioning of Jesper's gambling problem didn't quite come across as a major part of the plot or his character arc for me at first. His character really started to stand out the most later when we learn that he's actually a Grisha who has chosen to subdue his own powers. I loved this plot twist because I absolutely never saw it coming, but looking back, it makes perfect sense. His decision not to be open about being Grish is also interesting, because it's explained by Jesper's lack of desire to serve in the Ravkan second army, which is really the only place where Grisha have ever been safe. It's an interesting juxtaposition to the Shadow and Bone trilogy, which protrays the second army as being a Grisha safe haven. With Jesper's story, though, we see the other side of that, this idea that Grisha are essentially being forced to fight for Ravka and serve Ravka if they want any protection from the prosecution of their kind. I love that Bardugo expanded this global perspective and politicking of the universe in such a subtle way. It helps add to the world building without it feeling too much like world building, because it's also integral to a character's arc.
With Matthias' character, I was mostly worried that Bardugo would lean too heavily into his tragic backstory--his family killed in a Grisha raid, so he decided to become a druskelle and hunt Grisha for the rest of his life. Certainly what happened to Matthias' family was traumatic and explains his character motives, but I am so relieved that Bardugo didn't use this as a justification for Matthias' prejudice against all Grisha kind. She's doing a very clever thing here that is similar to what she did with Jesper's backstory. Showing Matthias' tragic backstory does the job of adding an important part to his character's arc, but it also helps build the universe. We're seeing a side of the Ravkan second army that isn't so positive. Yes, they're fighting for their own survival, but the raid that killed Matthias' family killed civilians, not druskelle. It's dark and it's morally ambiguous, and that's the kind of writing that builds war stories in a way that makes sense. Even though Six of Crows isn't a war story, the war between Ravka and Fjerda is a recurring aspect of all the installments of the Grishaverse, so this subtle way of introducing some realistic conflict between the two countries works wonders at opening the reader's eyes to both perspectives.
I also love the way that Matthias' arc revolves around him unlearning his prejudice instead of succumbing to it. Realistically, it doesn't go away instantly and he backslides sometimes. The power of Nina's love alone isn't enough to make an entire lifetime of hatred vanish instantly. But his love for her is the first step that Matthias needs to realize that not every Grisha is like the ones who killed his family, and that's the first stepping stone to learning that everything he learned from the druskelle might not be true. And the added beauty of having all this development take place at Fjerda's maximum security prison for Grish--the Ice Court--adds such an extra layer to it.
There are obviously so many metaphorical values that can be taken from this storyline involving real life prejudices and how to consciously unlearn them. Bardugo never writes it in a way that makes you feel like you're reading an elaborate metaphor though. It's all completely natural to the story and the characters, and the reader subconsciously absorbs the message. That, in my opinion, is the best way to write metaphorical fiction.
The anti-prejudice message isn't the only strong message that Bardugo manages to convey in this novel either. The anti-slavery message is also exceptionally well done. Inej's experiences with having been abducted and forced into sexual slavery at the Menagerie are a crucial part of her character's experience. Similar to Genya's story in Shadow and Bone, Bardugo doesn't shy away from exploring the impact that Inej's sexual abuse has had on her, but she explores it in a way that is tasteful, not gratuitous, and focuses on the survivor, not the perpetrator. There is also the added layer of Inej being a woman of color and how this is part of the reason that she was targeted by the slavers in the first place. Bardugo is touching on a very dark part of the real world and exploring how it is absolutely unjustifiable, and she is showing the impact that this trauma has on a survivor.
And Inej Ghafa is a strong character, and I mean by that a very strong, well-written, well-developed, female character. I know the phrase "strong female character" gets thrown around a lot, and people have their disagreements on what makes a female character a strong one, but I can't imagine anyone arguing that Inej isn't one. She has the physically strong aspect, with her ability to fight, climb, wield knives, and walk without being heard. But Bardugo never reduces her to just being a physical badass with no real character behind that. Inej is also emotionally developed and strong too. She realistically feels her trauma and the loss of her family. It's canon that she cried the night she first killed someone. She has a religion that she adheres to. And Bardugo never falls into the trope of "strong, independent woman who doesn't need a man," because Inej does have feelings for Kaz, and having them doesn't do anything to reduce her strength or independence. On top of that, she knows her own worth. She isn't willing to settle with Kaz when she knows he isn't ready for a romantic commitment. Inej really is the perfect blend of all the right aspects to make for a genuinely amazing female character.
I also have to give a special shout-out to the scene of Inej and Nina on the boat together, when Inej is healing. She and Nina both admit that they have bad memories of being on ships, and so Inej asks Nina to sing (implied to be a distraction for both of them). And she does. Terribly. But the point isn't for her to sing well and entertain Inej; it's about distracting them both so they can get through the voyage. It's a truly beautiful moment, and I absolutely adore the friendship that develops between these two. There's no cat-fighting or petty drama, just pure women supporting women.
Of course, I have to talk about Kaz now. Because I was so hesitant about Kaz at first, I was not expecting to love his character arc as much as I did. Let me just say that Bardugo absolutely blew me away with his backstory. People always love stories that aren't cliches, but what Bardugo has done with Kaz' past has never been done before. She could have gone the boring, basic, overdone route of explaining that the reason Kaz hates Pekka Rollins is because Pekka killed his parents or something. But instead, Bardugo crafted something deeper and more complicated than that--with Jordie's death by the Queen's Lady's Plague, and how Kaz blames Pekka because he's the one who caused them to end up living on the street to get sick in the first place. Also, everything about Kaz getting dumped with the corpses onto the reaper's barge and floating to shore on Jordie's corpse is so gruesome and makes his touch aversion so understandable. The scene where Kaz nearly faints when the Crows are in the train cart because of the close proximity to other bodies reminds him of this traumatic experience is amazing. I love that the whole time you're led to think he wears gloves all the time because maybe there's something wrong with his hands, but in the end, there isn't. It's a trauma response.
The way that Bardugo crafted these individual backstories for Kaz and Inej was also such a great thing because it perfectly explains why they can't just be together without a bunch of pointless drama keeping them apart. One of my biggest pet peeves is when the two characters who are obviously going to end up together are constantly separated just because they can't have a mature conversation (*cough* Malina). But with Kaz and Inej, it has nothing to do with just sitting down and talking it through. They both need to heal first before they can ever be something meaningful together without just damaging each other more. They both know it too. Kaz perfectly puts it when he thinks about the possibility of scraping himself together into a man for Inej. With this one line, Bardugo isn't just developing Kaz' character, but also acknowledging the possibility that Kanej could become a toxic ship, but that it won't because they're both too self-aware and care about each other too much to let that happen. It's such a growth in the way that Bardugo handles character relationships since Shadow and Bone, and I'm so impressed by it.
The ending, in my opinion, was great too. I loved Nina's sacrifice of letting herself be doused with jurda parem to save her friends, risking her Grisha powers and possibly even her own life. The twist with Jan Van Eck double crossing them was perhaps predictable, but the direction it went wasn't. I never saw it coming that Kaz would stash Kuwei away and have Nina tailor Wylan (Van Eck's own son) to look like him. But looking at the boat scenes leading up to it, it was foreshadowed. I was also glad that Wylan was also getting some build up to a more major storyline in the next book. He's the only one of the "six" of crows who wasn't a viewpoint character in the first installment, which made me a bit sad because I really liked him from the start.
I was also furious (in the best way, as a reader) at the revelation that Jesper was the one who accidentally let it slip about their mission to the Dime Lions, leading to the attack on the ship that almost killed Inej. I was so upset at seeing him and Kaz fight over this, and seeing Jesper lose his trust, but I was also looking forward to seeing how things resolved in Crooked Kingdom. And of course, the cliffhanger of Van Eck abducting Inej had me desperate to start the second book as soon as possible.
Final Thoughts
Six of Crows earns a 4.5 out of 5 stars for me. The only thing that prevents me from giving it a perfect score was just the slightly bumpy beginning. It will absolutely still go down as one of my all time favorite books.
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