Amazing conclusion to a great duology

I have listened to this book series over and over. Crooked Kingdom managed to be even better than its predecessor, upping the ante with twists and turns right through to the finish. There was never a dull moment, and each new crazy scheme was better than the last.

Bardugo managed to give even more depth and character to her protagonists. Every new thing we learned added to their individual journies, and well as their complex and heartfelt relationships to each other. I cannot recommend this series more.

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amazing

loved it all. the narration, the story, the characters. the whole thing was absolutely perfect.

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Unbelievable!'

This book is incredible. And the performances really make it! I'm so glad I listened to both of these rather than just read. It pulled me into the story in the most incredible, heart racing way.

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awesome

so good, loved every minute of this one. enjoyed all of the narrators as well!

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Fast paced and exciting

Rich characters with great character development and the variety of voice actors make this a really gripping experience. The plot twists do become a bit predictable after a while.

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Great read

Narration was good, the characters interesting and the story held my interest to the end.

Enthralling ❤️

It was awesome. The story was a bit slower than 6 of crows but it still was fascinating enough to make me listen without fast-forwarding. Narrators are great, they make you believe in the characters and get you invested in them.
Overall a lovely story and excellent performance.

Amazing story, a must read

Unfortunately there is but one scene that almost ruins the entire series. Hopefully it does more for you, than it does for me

Outstanding

The performances are outstanding and the plot equally so. If you enjoy a great heist story and fantasy, this is the perfect blend of the two.

A gargantuan tale expertly brought to life

I'm going to give my review of Crooked Kingdom by treating the Crows duology as a singular story, although that isn't quite correct, imo. It has so many threads, it's really many adventures, connected by the Crow Gang. I admit that I initially found Six of Crows to be slow-going. It involved a lot of exposition, and sitting around laying the groundwork for schemes that wouldn't reach fruition for an eternity.

As a result I found myself frequently dropping SoC for other books, or shows, and coming back to it in fits and starts. Even as I began to enjoy the pacing more, as the first book wore on, I would drop it for stretches just because of how long it was. That wasn't a criticism, once the action began, the pacing sorted itself out, and I was grateful for how much there was to listen to.

Having said that, it's definitely a book that you should endeavour to have a regular schedule to listen too. There is just so much going on, that if you put it aside for a month, you'll come back and be thinking "When did they get here again? Oh yeah, they did do that..."

The production value is extremely high. I'm no expert, but the large cast was the only way to do justice to a story with such an incredibly broad range of locations and characters. The theme of this review has been about just how much content there is in the duology and ai cannot stress enough how much goes on.

There are so many plots, I've literally lost track. In Six of Crows, the Fjerda storyline was a huge chunk of the story, yet by the time you finish Crooked Kingdom, you'll barely remember it, like a distant memory of a life long past. There are schemes within schemes, characters who will probably never appear again, yet are fleshed out to the point where, in a different book, they could've been a supporting cast member.

The locations are wonderfully done too. Ketterdam really springs to life, as a city of commerce and corruption. Fjerda is desolate, imposing, and starkly beautiful, albeit, in a terrifying way. Tbh, it's the secondary villains/antagonists, who really shine as characters. Pekka Rollins, Tante Hellen, Dunyasha, Colm Fayhe etc. If the locations are diverse, the cast is doubly so, and seemingly endless.

That is where this series shines. I'll end the review the way I started it. It's the sheer size and scope of this series, that is its strength. Realistically, most of the goings on, happen in Ketterdam. Yes, a large chunk of book 1 is in Fjerda, but Crooked Kingdom is entirely in our beloved city of sin. It's the enormous cast that gives the series its endless sprawling storylines.

It took me a while to warm up to it, but by the end, I had really bonded with the main cast. I have praised the diversity, and strength, of the villains and minor characters, what I haven't done until right near the end is praise it's incredible, main cast.

So let me finish by saying that the sole reason I eventually read Six of Crows is because I fell in love with Nina and Mattias from the Netflix show. What I felt by the end of reading the Crowd duology is that the show didn't do enough justice to the rest of the Crow gang. They are all spectacular. Especially Kaz. My only criticism is that I believe Kaz can't keep being dark on the surface but, deep down, has a moral compass of sorts. I think he should start to cross lines he can't come back from.

It would make his relationship with Inej all the more intriguing if she couldn't keep up her belief that deep down he has the qualities off a good man.