Six of Crows

Los entornos violentos y hostiles crean personas violentas y hostiles. En esos lugares de miseria y marginación, convertirse en un delincuente nunca es una decisión activa: es mera supervivencia. Y Leigh Bardugo ha confeccionado un personaje que encarna muy bien esta subjetividad obsesionada con salir adelante. Kaz Brekker no vive, él pelea, y en las peleas a muerte no hay hueco para la empatía o la humanidad. Por eso es un ser despreciable. Yo, personalmente, le he despreciado durante toda la lectura. Aún ahora lo hago. Pero también sé que en ningún caso hay que cargarle con la responsabilidad de haberse convertido en alguien sin más principios que salvar su propio pellejo y satisfacer sus intereses. Creo que 'Seis de cuervos' encamina hacia esa lectura: no podemos culpar a las personas por aferrarse a la única vía de supervivencia a la que las hemos condenado. Invito a extrapolar la empatía que despiertan algunos pasajes que hablan de los orígenes de Brekker con esas personas, niños y niñas que hoy nos dicen que encarnan todos los males y que llevan el crimen en su propia naturaleza. Quizá la responsabilidad de sus actos está más en nuestro lado de lo que pensamos.

Me ha gustado especialmente que Bardugo haga una conexión tan explícita entre la mercantilización de la vida y la violencia estructural que ha convertido a Kaz, Inej, Jesper, Nina y, en general, la comunidad lumpen de El Barril. Se dibuja Ketterdam como un lugar gobernado de forma totalitaria por los intereses económicos. Su dios es el del dinero y el mercado. Y así les (nos) va.

En cuanto a la forma, tengo que destacar cómo cambia la narración en función del punto de vista desde el que se está contando. Cada capítulo está escrito desde la voz de un personaje, así que la narración cambia porque las perspectivas de lo que está ocurriendo son diferentes. Los capítulos de Jesper subliman este modo de narrar, porque -por motivos en los que no entraré para no hacer spoiler- la mayoría de los planes se urden a sus espaldas, así que cuando habla él, nosotres, como lectores, tampoco nos enteramos de cuáles son las artimañas hasta que nos explotan en las narices. La sorpresa de Jesper es también la nuestra, y eso genera una sensación que engancha mucho a la lectura.

Por poner una pega, creo que hay algunos giros de guion nada justificados y que Bardugo termina abusando del recurso del deus ex machina.

I have no words.
(SPOILERS AHEAD)


THE PLOT:
I never realized how much I liked chaos until now.

THE CHARACTERS

Wylan Van Eck, my wonderful gay explosives-loving son: I love him more than words can express. His character is nuanced, and everything about him is really well written. I love how he is simultaneously a cinnamon roll and salty.
"How about I push you in the canal and we see if you know how to swim?"
" He was Wylan Van Eck, and he told them everything."

Inej Ghafa: Poor, poor Inej. You deserved better. (Also, her mentions in Rule of Wolves? I'm so proud T-T)
"When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway."

Jesper Fahey: Tied with Inej for second favorite character. I'm really happy there's so much bi representation here. Also, the character development is so good here breaks down into tears
"The same thing I always do. I took a shot."

Nina Zenik: As a bisexual fat girl, she is an amazing literary role model!! Her addiction is also really well handled.
"She was the Queen of Mourning, and in its depths she would never drown."

Kuwei Yul-Bo: Criminally underrated.

Kaz Brekker: He also has really good character development.
"He knew exactly what he intended to leave behind when he was gone. Damage."

Matthias Helvar: I think his death was a really important part of his redemption arc. He just wanted to change the little boy who shot him for the better.

Favorite scenes:
1. Kaz and Wylan fall through the ceiling
2. The conversation involving such gems as "Nina can raise the dead"
3. Fjerdan might

In the first book the crew pulled off the heist of the century, but now they need to get paid.

The author has really improved as a writer since she began Shadow and Bone, and it shows in this book. Wheels within wheels of schemes and plots, that all seem to make sense once they come to fruition. Character development that feels natural and earned. Excellent pacing of up and down beats.

One of the few flaws of her earlier works was that you quickly learned that if a character explained a plan, that you weren't going to see any of that plan come to fruition. Now if a character explains a plan, you know it won't go off 100%, but you don't know just how far it might go wrong. Far enough to fail, or just enough to require some improvisation to make it succeed, or were there elements of the plan we didn't know about? The reader doesn't know until they read further, and there's more solid suspense as a result.

A solid addition to the Grishaverse.

The first book [b: Six of Crows|23437156|Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1)|Leigh Bardugo|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1500689111s/23437156.jpg|42077459] was really good and I enjoyed reading the heist and loved following the characters (even though I had some minor gripes about the amount of romancing going on). And then came along this one. I disliked the cliff-hanger ending of the first book but ...

The sequel made it all worth it twice over. It does not happen all the time that I cannot put down a book and have to finish it right then, reading deep into the night.

The stakes in this book weren't necessarily higher but somehow more personal. In the first book they were on a job. In this book Kaz & crew fought for themselves. And how they did it! With style. And so much went wrong ... because even Kaz cannot see everything.

I even liked that not everyone got a happy ending with Matthias dying. It fit well with the whole tone of the book.

I definitely recommend reading both books.