Book Review: Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Rating: 10/10

Overview: 

Six of Crows is the first book in a duology by Leigh Bardugo set in the same world as her earlier series, The Shadow and Bone trilogy (which I have not read). Six of Crows follows the adventures of a group of teenage street thieves led by the infamous Kaz Brekker, a boy turned monster who people say crawled out of the muck one day and started building his empire...by any means necessary.  Also known as Dirtyhands, Kaz has a reputation for taking on ANY job, a mantra that is put to the test when he has to break into one of the most fortified castles in the world. Luckily he won't be going it alone. Kaz has recruited the help of a Grisha Heartrender, a circus Wraith, a sharpshooter, a demolition expert, and an ex-Fjerdan soldier. 

As a Reader: 

From a reader's perspective, this series had me in its clutches from the first page. I fell in love with the characters immediately, despite (probably because of) their flaws and rough backstories. The book bounces around between each of their perspectives, and I loved getting to see little pieces of their thoughts throughout the story. If I had to sum it up quickly, I would describe this series as a swashbuckling tale, but instead of pirates on a ship, it's sarcastic teenage criminals in a gritty seaside town. This book was recommended to me by a friend, and I started out just borrowing and reading her copy. She only had the first book, and I loved it so much that I refused to return it until purchasing my own copy of BOTH books in the series. This is a pretty big deal for me because I don't buy books without reading them first, and then only if I intend to read them over and over again. Six of Crows is probably my new favorite series and one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of reading. I recently heard a rumor that it may be turned into a TV series in the near future so I'm definitely looking forward to that! (Update post on the TV series here!)

As a Writer: 

From a writer’s perspective I hate this book for one reason and one reason only, I will never be this good! I am so envious of Leigh Bardugo’s ability and want to learn as much as I can from this series to find out what made it so appealing to my reader half. The characters (Kaz Brekker especially) are completely addicting and perfectly flawed. The worldbuilding is phenomenal and impossible to describe. Bardugo manages to capture this perfect balance between what we think of as real and the more magical elements the characters have to deal with. In all its perfection, Six of Crows did bring one concern to mind when it came to my own writing. One of the bigger frustrations to me as a reader is when books have character names that are difficult to pronounce. I clumsily slog through them and eventually learn the correct pronunciation from a much smarter fellow reader, which leaves me feeling cheated somehow. If I've bonded with a character named Jerry, and then I learn three weeks after I finish the book that his name was actually supposed to be pronounced Gerry, it stings a little (And yes, while reading Harry Potter I was one of those people who pronounced Ginny as if it were Guinea). This happened to me with a few characters in Six of Crows, at least until I got to the end of the second book and found a list of correct pronunciations that would have been very helpful to have at the BEGINNING of the series. So you'd think this pronunciation irritation would lead me to pick super easy names like Sarah or Dave in my writing. WRONG. I still love to pick crazy names. Some of them aren't even in English and have those fancy little dashes and swoops on top of the letters. Heck, I can't pronounce the names I pick sometimes. But for those of you who haven't done it, picking names for your character is a BIG DEAL. A lot of thought goes into the process because the name should tell the reader something about the character it's assigned to.

Do you guys as readers and/or writers share my frustrations? How do you deal with reading names you don't know how to pronounce? What do you worry about most when creating names for your beloved characters?