Audiobook Review – Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, Book 2) by Leigh Bardugo (5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale
Length: 18 hours (560 pages)
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: September 27, 2016
ASIN: B01LYTWGTJ
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Six of Crows series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 5/5 stars

“Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn’t think they’d survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they’re right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and left crippled by the kidnapping of a valuable team member, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope.

As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz’s cunning and test the team’s fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city’s dark and twisting streets―a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of magic in the Grisha world.”

This was a very well done continuation of this series. I love the world, the characters, and the beautifully twisty turny plot. This is the second, and final, book in the Six of Crows duology. I enjoyed it a lot.

I listened to this on audiobook. I actually wasn’t a huge fan of the audiobook (I read the first book in Hardcover). There are different narrators for each POV which is a good idea but doesn’t work all that well in this case. You end up having very different voices for the different characters depending on which POV you are listening to. Some of them are very jarring; for example the narrator of Wylan’s POV did Kaz’s voice very scratchy and squeaky which was annoying and much different than the other narrators. I personally would recommend reading a paper copy of this one and skipping the audio version.

This story continues to be very much of an Ocean’s 11 type of fantasy book. There is a lot of intrigue and scheming. Kaz is your completely invulnerable planner who has back-up plans for his back-up plans and always seems to come out ahead even when it looks like he’s been had.

I love all the characters in here; they all have a lot of depth to them and are each intriguing in their own right. I also loved how the story was told from so many POVs and still told such a beautifully cohesive story. Many times too many POVs fractures the story, but for this book it works incredibly well. All the characters’ stories weave together beautifully to form the main story.

This book does an okay job of wrapping up the main story. As I said, I am pretty sure that this is a duology. The last couple chapters had me a bit confused because it almost seemed like Bardugo was setting up for another story. Additionally there were quite a few loose ends that weren’t wrapped up at all. I am wondering if those will be addressed in a spin-off series or if they are just meant to drive home the fact that life goes on.

Overall I really enjoyed this book a lot. It’s well written, has some amazing characters, and the world-building is wonderful too. The story is woven together through a number of points of view (POVs) and it works beautifully for this book. My only complaint is that I wish some aspects of the story had been tied up better. Hopefully some of these characters will feature in a spin-off story at some point. This duology is definitely recommended to fantasy fans who enjoy an Ocean’s 11 style storyline.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge