I’ve gotten way busier as senior year has chugged along and I’ve started seriously applying to jobs, but I’ve still made time for reading in the evenings! Of course, I couldn’t resist another raid of my friend’s stack of fantasy books, and Six of Crows stood out to me because it’s centered not on royalty, warriors, or monsters, but on six teenage outcasts who become embroiled in a high-stakes government mission. The infamous Kaz Brecker, one of the nastiest gang leaders to roam the streets of Ketterdam, is tasked with “hiring” five of his “colleagues”—Inej, Nina, Matthias, Jesper, and Wylan—to pull of a heist that involves breaking into the world’s most secure ice prison and stealing away a scientist who has created an incredibly dangerous, chaos-inducing drug. Are you absorbed yet?
I typically struggle with books that jump back and forth between multiple characters’ perspectives, but in this case, I loved it. I felt myself growing very attached to each and every one of the characters despite their serious moral shortcomings; the author reminds us that they may be murderers, gang members, gamblers, and runaways, but beneath their tough facades, they’re dealing with the turbulent emotions and relationship drama that all teenagers deal with. The palpable tension between Nina and Matthias, who were once in love, and the subtle, simmering tension between two other characters (whom I won’t name because I don’t want to drop spoilers) shape the group dynamics in exciting ways. In fact, I found the group dynamics to be even more interesting than the heist itself.
There are tons of fantasy books out there about dangerous missions, and these missions are often completed by sympathetic “hero” types. What happens when readers are challenged to see the villains as the heroes? That’s exactly what happens in this book. I wanted to hate the characters, but at the same time, I couldn’t stand the thought of them not succeeding.
“Inej glanced up to where the Ice Court stood like a great white sentinel on a massive cliff overlooking the harbor. Matthias has called the cliffs unscalable…They seemed impossibly high, and from a distance, their white lime surface looked clean and bright as ice.”
p. 258
Beyond the “noble outcast” aspect of the book that is so entertaining, it’s also worth mentioning that Bardugo’s fantasy world features several localities and ethnic groups whose volatile relationships and wars are stand-ins for the horrors of genocide and discrimination in real life. The ongoing fighting between the Fjerdans and the Grisha witches is a prime example of ethnic violence and blind hatred; the severity of it really hits home in the interactions between Matthias (a Fjerdan) and Nina (a Grisha). The idea of broader cultural conflicts playing out in a “forbidden” romance between two individuals isn’t unheard of in literature, but in the context of Bardugo’s fantasy setting, it is an even more powerful literary concept.
“The Fjerdans didn’t believe the Grisha were human. They weren’t even on par with animals, but something low and demonic, a blight on the world, an abomination.”
p. 173
If you’re looking for an intense journey through many different fantasy environments and a gripping story told through the eyes of several complex characters, this will be a great read for you. From the crowded streets of the Barrel in Ketterdam to the icy tundra of Fjerda, it’s impossible to be bored while tracking the six outcasts on their perilous quest. Plus, Six of Crows has a sequel!
