Six of Crows

Starred review from July 13, 2015
When the score of a lifetime presents itself, criminal mastermind Kaz Brekker assembles a crack team of talented outcasts. Their mission: to rescue a prisoner from the most secure prison in the world, so that the secrets he holds can be exploited by the right people. As Kaz and his compatriots put together a daring plan, they contend with old grudges, mistrust, lingering secrets, and deadly rivalries. Naturally, things go wrong once they start their mission, and now they must escape the very prison they sneaked into. Bardugo expands on the world of her Grisha trilogy with this series opener, which marries heist and action conventions with magic and mystery. Her characters are damaged, complex, and relatable, and her worldbuilding is ambitiously detailed. As various characters’ backstories unfold, Bardugo reveals intriguing new depths and surprises. This has all the right elements to keep readers enthralled: a cunning leader with a plan for every occasion, nigh-impossible odds, an entertainingly combative team of skilled misfits, a twisty plot, and a nerve-wracking cliffhanger. Ages 12–up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media.

Starred review from July 15, 2015
Adolescent criminals seek the haul of a lifetime in a fantasyland at the beginning of its industrial age. The dangerous city of Ketterdam is governed by the Merchant Council, but in reality, large sectors of the city are given over to gangs who run the gambling dens and brothels. The underworld's rising star is 17-year-old Kaz Brekker, known as Dirtyhands for his brutal amorality. Kaz walks with chronic pain from an old injury, but that doesn't stop him from utterly destroying any rivals. When a councilman offers him an unimaginable reward to rescue a kidnapped foreign chemist-30 million kruge!-Kaz knows just the team he needs to assemble. There's Inej, an itinerant acrobat captured by slavers and sold to a brothel, now a spy for Kaz; the Grisha Nina, with the magical ability to calm and heal; Matthias the zealot, hunter of Grishas and caught in a hopeless spiral of love and vengeance with Nina; Wylan, the privileged boy with an engineer's skills; and Jesper, a sharpshooter who keeps flirting with Wylan. Bardugo broadens the universe she created in the Grisha Trilogy, sending her protagonists around countries that resemble post-Renaissance northern Europe, where technology develops in concert with the magic that's both coveted and despised. It's a highly successful venture, leaving enough open questions to cause readers to eagerly await Volume 2. Cracking page-turner with a multiethnic band of misfits with differing sexual orientations who satisfyingly, believably jell into a family. (Fantasy. 14 & up)

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Starred review from September 1, 2015

Gr 7 Up-Bardugo has created a wildly imaginative story of six young people who have been commissioned to pull off the greatest heist of all time. They are to nab the creator of jurda parem, a highly addictive product that enhances the innate paranormal powers of the Grisha peoples, in the hopes of creating weapons of war that will upset the balance of power and destroy the economies of rival governments. Kaz, the hero of the story and mastermind of the plot, recruits five others to aid in his quest for revenge for the loss of his brother and the promise of vast wealth. Taking what could have been stock characters of young adult fiction-the loner, the rebel, the outcast, and the con artist, the author has fashioned fully fleshed out, dynamic protagonists who will engage and enchant readers. What a thrill it is to return to the world she created with her popular "Grisha Trilogy" (Holt). While the unresolved ending may frustrate some teens, the promise of a sequel will give them hope that this unsettling, captivating, magical journey will continue.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2015
Grades 9-12 Bardugo returns to the gritty Grishaverse, the setting for her popular Shadow and Bone series, with a thrilling tale of double-crosses, buried secrets, and one fantastic heist. Kaz Brekker runs a tight ship as lieutenant of his street gang, and when a high-class merchant offers him a dangerous jobbreaking a scientist out of a notoriously secure prisonhe initially balks, but 30 million kruge is tough to turn down. It's an incredibly risky gambit, but with a highly skilled, if ragtag, team behind him and his own boundless daring driving them headlong toward their goal, Kaz is sure they can pull it off. Bardugo drops readers right into the midst of her richly layered fantasy world and the lives of Kaz's dynamic team, artfully weaving details and backstories throughout the speedy plot. Though the story gets off to a relatively slow start, once Kaz's team embarks on their quest, the twists and turns are dizzying. The whirlwind pace, along with some witty banter, burgeoning romance, and high-stakes action, makes this series opener a surefire crowd-pleaser. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Banking on the success of Bardugo's Shadow and Bone trilogy, this new Grishaverse series will have fans lined up around the block.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2015
In Ketterdam, a port city in the same fantasy universe as Bardugo's Grisha trilogy (starting with Shadow and Bone, rev. 7/12), thief lord Kaz Brekker is made a lucrative offer: if he can infiltrate the impregnable Fjerdan citadel and retrieve the scientist Bo Yul-Bayur, who faces a death sentence for inventing a drug that illegally intensifies magical abilities, the merchant council of Ketterdam will pay him thirty million kruge. Kaz assembles his team: Inej, an acrobatic thief; Jesper, a sharpshooter who likes to gamble; Wylan, an explosives expert; Nina, a Grisha who can render others unconscious by magically slowing their hearts; and Matthias, a Fjerdan witch-hunter familiar with the citadel. Each one with his or her own agendabut once the heist starts, nothing goes according to plan. Beginning with a robust plot structure, Bardugo kicks up the action with dilemmas tailor-made for each of her characters, not least Kaz, who hides the trauma of his brother's death beneath an eminently self-confident exterior. Romance, tentative and fragile, makes an appearance between several characters and is slapped down by fate; magic saves the day thanks to the strength of the outlaw drug, but at a terrible cost. From her ne plus ultra climax, Bardugo sweeps on to snatch away the happy ending (and set up the plot arc for a possible sequel)an exciting beginning to a new sequence from a fantasy author swiftly becoming a talent to watch. anita l. burkam

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)