Every few years a book arrives in YA that changes the conversation about what the genre can do. Six of Crows is that book for ensemble casts, for heist plotting, for the particular pleasure of watching extremely capable people be extremely capable under pressure. Leigh Bardugo took everything she learned writing the Grisha trilogy and applied it to something structurally more ambitious, and the result is one of the best YA fantasy novels of the decade.

Ketterdam is a city built on trade, corruption, and the convenient fiction that the two are unrelated. Kaz Brekker is seventeen, runs the Dregs gang, and is the most dangerous person in most rooms he enters — not because he’s the strongest or the fastest but because he plans further ahead than everyone else and has no compunction about the implications of those plans. He’s offered a job that should be impossible: break into the Ice Court, the most secure prison in the world, and extract a scientist whose research could change the balance of power across the continent.

He assembles a crew. The book is their heist.

Kaz

He is the most compelling YA protagonist I’ve encountered in years. He is not a good person. He is not trying to be a good person. He is trying to accomplish specific things for specific reasons, and the gap between who he performs as and what he actually carries is the book’s emotional core. Bardugo reveals him in fragments — a detail here, a scene there — and by the time you understand him fully you are so thoroughly on his side that the understanding itself is a kind of devastation.

The trauma that shaped him is handled with extraordinary care. His relationship with touch, and what it costs him, is written without euphemism but also without exploitation.

The Ensemble

Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias, Wylan — each of them is a full person, each has their own relationship to the crew and to the mission, and each gets moments that are entirely theirs. Bardugo manages six protagonists without any of them feeling thin. This is genuinely difficult and she makes it look easy.

The Kaz and Inej dynamic is one of the great slow burns in recent YA. Their scenes together are charged with what neither of them can say, and Bardugo draws that charge out across two books with perfect control.

The Heist

The plot mechanics are rigorous. Things go wrong in ways that feel earned rather than convenient. The solutions to impossible problems are creative without being arbitrary. If you love heist films — Ocean’s Eleven, The Italian Job — this delivers that pleasure in book form, with considerably more emotional investment in the characters than those films usually allow.

Why YA Readers Will Love This

For readers who have loved Bardugo’s Grisha world: this is her best work in it. The Grishaverse is richer and more interesting for Ketterdam’s existence, and the characters here cast the earlier trilogy’s events in a different light.

For readers coming to this cold, with no Grisha context: it works completely without it. Six of Crows is designed to stand alone, and it does.

For readers who want morally grey protagonists — not antiheroes who secretly have hearts of gold, but people who are genuinely complicated and whose complication is the point — Kaz Brekker is the answer.

Crooked Kingdom follows and is, if possible, even better. Read them back to back if you can. The duology is complete and it is among the best things YA has produced this decade.

Published: September 2015 · Genre: YA fantasy/heist · Series: Six of Crows, Book 1

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Six of Crows about? Six of Crows is a heist fantasy set in Ketterdam, a city built on trade and corruption. Kaz Brekker — seventeen-year-old gang leader, the most dangerous person in most rooms he enters not because of strength but because he plans further ahead than everyone else — is offered the impossible job of breaking into the Ice Court, the most secure prison in the world, to extract a scientist whose research could change the continental balance of power. He assembles a crew of six.

What makes Kaz Brekker such a compelling protagonist? The review calls him ’the most compelling YA protagonist I’ve encountered in years.’ He is not a good person and not trying to be. The gap between who he performs as and what he actually carries is the book’s emotional core. Bardugo ‘reveals him in fragments — a detail here, a scene there — and by the time you understand him fully you are so thoroughly on his side that the understanding itself is a kind of devastation.’ His trauma and relationship with touch are handled without euphemism or exploitation.

How does Bardugo manage six protagonists in Six of Crows? Inej, Jesper, Nina, Matthias, Wylan, and Kaz are each described as ‘a full person, each with their own relationship to the crew and to the mission, and each gets moments that are entirely theirs.’ The review calls managing six protagonists without any feeling thin ‘genuinely difficult and she makes it look easy.’ The Kaz-Inej dynamic is described as ‘one of the great slow burns in recent YA.’

Do you need to read the Grisha trilogy before Six of Crows? No — the review explicitly states ‘Six of Crows is designed to stand alone, and it does.’ It works ‘completely without’ prior Grisha context. However, for readers who have read the trilogy, the review notes the Grishaverse ‘is richer and more interesting for Ketterdam’s existence, and the characters here cast the earlier trilogy’s events in a different light.’

Is Six of Crows recommended as essential YA fantasy? The review calls it ‘one of the best YA fantasy novels of the decade’ and places it as a book that ‘changes the conversation about what the genre can do.’ Crooked Kingdom, the sequel, is described as ‘if possible, even better,’ and the complete duology is called ‘among the best things YA has produced this decade.’ The review recommends reading them back to back.

Further Reading from Authoritative Sources

  • Six of Crows — Wikipedia’s Six of Crows article provides publication details, series context, and critical reception information that complement the review’s strong endorsement, helping readers understand the book’s significance in the Grishaverse and YA fantasy more broadly.
  • heist genre plotting and conventions — Wikipedia’s heist film article contextualises the genre conventions Six of Crows is transposing into book form, helping readers who love heist films understand why this YA fantasy will deliver the same structural pleasures.