Although I read a lot of fantasy, I’ve outgrown most of the stories about dragons, dwarves and elves, but one aspect that continues to draw me in is ordinary characters who find themselves caught up in epic events and I have a particular soft-spot for rogues and underdogs. Six of Crows kept getting recommended to me based on other books I’ve enjoyed and I regret waiting so long to read it because it was exactly the type of character driven fantasy adventure that I love.
Six of Crows follows a group of teenage thieves, misfits, orphans and runaways lead by the criminal prodigy, Kaz Brekker. Kaz and his handpicked team are hired by the merchant Jan Van Eck for a high risk, high reward heist: break into an impenetrable military stronghold to rescue a hostage – preventing chaos and war in the process.
For a young adult novel, this was a little darker than I expected containing descriptions of torture and references to sexual exploitation, but it also ticks all the boxes for diversity with a cast made of different races as well as LGBTQ and disabled characters.
Six of Crows contains plenty of unexpected twists, action and suspense, romantic pining and humour, it’s a thrilling roller-coaster ride of a story that ends on a cliffhanger, and I can’t wait to find out how the final part of this duology resolves itself. Have a lovely week. X
Books aimed at teenagers really pull punches and sometimes they are more engaging – I think authors of this genre have to work hard for their readers attention. It sounds as if you really enjoyed it, interesting to raise such dark themes but then, I cannot believe we are living in a society where slavery is present – I look back and believe I was lucky to grow up long before fear took away freedom for children – we would disappear for a whole day without our parents worrying.
On another note, I love the knitting underneath the book! it looks lovely!
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I agree, children’s and YA books have to be engaging because the readers won’t read them just because they won an award or they’re a “classic”. I genuinely loved this, the characters have become some of my favourites and the plot kept me guessing right up to the end.
Thanks, I’m embarrassed to admit that I bought it from IKEA. X
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