Tag: Adventure

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Uncategorized

Before I had even finished the second chapter of this book I knew that I was going to enjoy it more than the Shadow and Bone trilogy. I spent every free moment I had every day in the pages of this gritty adventure.

Between Novyi Zem and the continent that is made up of Ravka, Fjerda, and Shu Han, in the middle of the True Sea, lies the island of Kerch. The overcrowded and maze-like city of Ketterdam is where the island’s great source of wealth comes from, trade. Like most large cities with a focus on trade, it can be easy to find exactly what you are looking for in Ketterdam, whether that be rare goods or pleasurable company, or information. Kaz Brekker, also known as Dirtyhands, can find out anything about anyone, and in exchange for doing him a favor, he won’t spill your deepest secrets. Information is power in this city, and Kaz has used his arsenal of blackmail worthy knowledge, dirty espionage, fighting skills, and business savvy to make his gang one of the most powerful and prosperous in the city. The other great power in the city is that of the merchants guild, and they want to hire Kaz and his gang to do something for them, a job that will make them more wealthy than they could have ever dreamed of. The problem is that the job is extremely dangerous and has been said to be impossible. 

We get introduced to the small team that Kaz has determined have the right mix of skills to get the job done, and it is an unusual group. Not everyone likes each other, some of them actually want to kill the others, and they are not shy about voicing that fact, and there is not a lot of trust between anyone overall. The tension between everyone keeps you invested throughout the story, combined with the fact that Kaz always has a part of the plan hidden from the rest of the team that he only reveals when necessary, which is usually at the last minute. He is so incredibly clever, he seems to think of everything, and he almost always has a back up plan for the back up plan. I loved how everyones past was revealed a little bit at a time and I also loved that the book was written in a first person perspective from multiple characters. I was worried that this duology would read the same as the Shadow and Bone trilogy, but I was so relieved and excited when I discovered that it was much more dirty, dangerous, and thrilling. I liked Shadow and Bone, but it felt like something was missing, something that would make me more engaged with the story. This book had everything that I felt was missing from those books, things I couldn’t put words to at the time. If you read the trilogy and felt the same way, do not give up on the Grishaverse. Six of Crows will draw you back in and keep you. Come back next week to see what I have to say about Crooked Kingdom. I am particularly interested in seeing what happens between the three potential love interests that were set up here.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes By Suzanne Collins

Fiction

I don’t know why I didn’t immediately buy and read this book when it came out in 2020, being a huge fan of the Hunger Games series, but I finally got around to it. After seeing the recently dropped trailer for the upcoming movie I knew I wouldn’t be able to wait. That, and I am very much someone who likes to read the book before seeing the movie.

The story takes place as the tenth Hunger Games are about to begin. The war is still fairly fresh in everyone’s minds and the country as a whole is still recovering, including the Capitol. It has been suggested that the games need some livening up in order to get more people interested in watching them, but also, the message of the meaning of the games needs to be made more prominent. Our main character is Coriolanus Snow, the country’s future president, as an eighteen year old student who has been picked along with twenty three of his classmates to be the first ever mentors for the district children. The mentorship is part experiment, for the position of mentors in the games, and part opportunity, in order for the gamemakers to learn how to make the event more engaging for viewers. 

I don’t want to say too much more because it would give too much away. But I will say that as the story progresses you see how Snow started to become the man you already know as the feared and cruel president of Panem. The end leaves me wanting more. One, because the final scene with Snow and his tribute ended too abruptly, in my opinion, even though I recognize that the ending correlates with his tributes ‘song’. And secondly, I want to know more about the things Snow did to acquire the huge amount of power he attains in the future, besides him having an incredibly strong ally who has taken in Snow as her protege. I do hope that the author considers writing another Snow book, or as I read in a bunch of comments recently, a book about young Haymitch and his Hunger Games.