Hello again! Now that we’ve established both the characters and the settings, we can start to explore the plot of Leigh Bardugo’s Six Of Crows. This book follows Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Matthias and Nina.

The book starts with a seemingly random character called Joost, a new guard at the house of a Ketterdam Councilmember. One night he and other guards are summoned to the boathouse where he sees a Grisha Corporalki girl, Anya, inside a cage with a boy. The councilmember cuts the boy’s arm and instructs Anya to heal it. After she does, he cuts the arm again but this time he gives her a mysterious drug and tells her to heal it again. This time, the girl’s power seems to enhance and she is able to control the guards’ minds to let her go and tells them to wait so she has time to escape; everyone in the room dies waiting for another instruction.

We then go to Kaz’s point of view. He is summoned by a rich council member, Jan Van Eck, who offers him a job for 20 million of kruge (Ketterdam money). He has to liberate a Shu scientist called Bol Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court in Fjerda as he was captured for creating a drug capable of enhancing a Grisha’s powers in unimaginable ways; Jurda Parem.

Kaz accepts this job and decides to finally help Nina break Matthias out of Hellgate as he needs someone who knows the Ice Court as well as a Fjerdan drüskelle (No one has ever been capable of breaking into the Ice Court, nevermind stealing someone from inside). Along with Inej and Jesper, Nina and Kaz manage to break Matthias free after creating a distraction and switching him for a disguised dreg made to look like him (Nina is Corporalki so she can change someone to temporarily look like someone else). He accepts to help in exchange for a pardon.

Before leaving, Kaz also enlists Wylan for his knowledge of explosives, he’s the only one who knows that Wylan is the son of Jan Van Eck so he also serves as a sort of insurance (Kaz still doesn’t know that Jan tried to have Wylan killed).

Breaking into the Ice Court is an Odyssey type of adventure. The crows first survive an ambush and manage to get in their ship towards Fjerda (Inej is almost killed and Kaz ignores his aversion to touch and his limp to carry her to the ship while running, here we see a glimpse into the romance between Inej and Kaz).

Then they break into a prison wagon and break themselves out of their cells (Because they don’t have any weapons, Jesper reveals he is a Grisha Fabrikator and uses the iron bars to create a lockpicking tool). They separate as Inej climbs through an incinerator (Veeery stressful part of the book) to the roof so she can throw a rope at the other crows and they can escape the prison.

Everyone separates again and after double-crossing his former drüskelle mentor, Jarl Brum, Matthias and Nina attempt to find Bol Yul-Bayer. They discover he is actually dead and his son, Kuwei (Also Grisha), is being forced to recreate Jurda Parem for the Fjerdans. Kuwei, Nina, and Matthias escape with the help of Kaz and leave the Ice Court via an underground spring.

Meanwhile, Inej had tried to infiltrate a royal party taking place (Nina was with her until Jarl Brum captured her) but her cover was blown by Tante Heleen (She was there providing prostitutes). After a fight, Inej is able to flee with Wylan and Jesper (Who have been developing a romance of their own). The three of them steal a tank and forcibly break out of the Ice Court.

The crows reunite in the port where their ship waits but a Fjerdan army with Grisha who appear to have taken Jurda Parem intercepts them; before they are killed, Nina ingests some of the Jurda Parem Kuwei brought and puts the army to sleep and everyone escapes back to Ketterdam. (Nina is very affected by the drug and almost dies from withdrawal on the ship).

One in Ketterdam, Kaz arranges to meet Jan Van Eck on a little island away from the city. Once he has Kuwei, Van Eck goes back on his promises and reveals he will use Jurda Parem to create his own army and take over the whole continent (Villainous behavior). Nevertheless, the Grisha powers wear off and it’s revealed Kuwei was actually Wylan disguised so Jan instructs his men to take the money and kill the crows. Here, Kaz makes the mistake of looking at Inej, revealing his weakness, so Jan instructs them to take her as well.

The book ends as a desperate (and kind of feral honestly) Kaz creates a new plan to free Inej and get his money.

I genuinely love this book and its sequel, Crooked Kingdom, so in the next post, we’ll talk about the continuation of this story. In the meantime, if you don’t feel like reading this du0logy, I recommend watching the two seasons of Shadow and Bone on Netflix as you can see the story of the Shadow and Bone characters and also a sort of prequel to the Crow’s story.