Here’s a compilation of my reviews of Leigh Bardugo’s various books, I will update this post as I read more of her books but as a big fan of this author, I thought it’d be smart to pop them all in one place!
I have not edited these reviews, they are authentic to the time I read them and the style of reviews I was doing back then! Use the contents table below to skip to your favourite.
- Six of Crows Duology
- Shadow and Bone trilogy
- King of Scars duology
- Ninth House
- All Leigh Bardugo books in review
Six of Crows Duology
(First read 2019)
Numbers 1 & 2 of my renewed and much more disciplined attempt at the #100booksinayearchallenge was Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo. These books were part of a bunch I bought off the back of a couple ‘books all fantasy book lovers must read’ type lists; an endeavour that has served me very well so far.
Honestly, it took me a little while to get into the books at first, I was reading in fits and starts around work and these books have such a rich depth too them that it took a proper long reading session to really get into them.
Once I did though, oh wow did I enjoy reading them! It’s not the kind of fantasy I usually enjoy, being a sucker for either the tacky tween vampire crap or more dystopian- leaning stuff. The universe the author created has such rich depth to it, with its own races, cultural identities and well thought out history that is bread crumbed throughout the novels. Each character is equally rich, with the point of view hopping quite a lot but it never felt hard to keep track of, as every narration had such a distinct voice.
Without spoiling the ending, I really did enjoy how every character gets what they desired, to some extent, but not the way you would expect them too. Plus, I really loved how half of the main characters were described to be POC, from rich cultures that were massive factors of their identity, faith, personality and actions, no characters’ roots went unacknowledged but nor were they dropped into the story for the sake of it.
So yes, I would definitely recommend these books! Here’s a link to the Goodreads page on the Six of Crows.
Shadow and Bone trilogy
(First read 2021)
A vague attempt at summarising
These books take place before the events of the Six of Crows duology and if you have read them first, this will fill in some of the blanks around the history of the war in Ravka. It follows Alina, who is just an average mapmaker in the Ravkan army, until her unit is set upon by Volcra- monsters that live in the shadow fold, a dark expanse that cuts West Ravka off from the rest of the country. In her attempt to shield her childhood friend (and crush) Malec, we discover Alina might be more than she seems.
With this discovery, Alina is thrust into the world of Grisha (powerful people who wield powers tied to various elements), with the weight of the future of Ravka on her shoulders. As time passes and Alina doesn’t hear from Malec, she grows closer to the most powerful Grisha of all, the Darkling, whose powers are the antithesis of her own. Unsurprisingly, given his name, The Darkling is not all that he appears to be. The novels’ follow the events that unfold as Darkling’s plans take shape and Alina attempts to fight against him and save her country.
What did I think?
So, I was a little taken aback at first because of how different these books are to Six of Crows, both in writing style and narrative style but this is not a bad thing, just shows off the talent of the author, in my opinion. I do think the Six of Crows female characters are a little better written but I am thoroughly prejudiced because of how much I love Nina and Inej.
King of Scars duology
(First read 2021)
A rubbish summary
These books follow the aftermath of The Shadow Bone series and The Six of crows duology, the story follows Nina’s journey now that she has come back to her homeland, as well as Nikolai and Zoya, as well as many other favourites from the series that came before (trying to be non-specific about who because that does involve spoilers). The rumours about Nikolai being a bastard threaten his throne, all while Ravka is trying to hold back incursions from Fjerda and the Shu at their borders. There is another threat sweeping across all the countries, land is being lost to areas just like the fold that divided Ravka in two. Nina chooses to return to Fjerda as a spy, to save Grisha and smuggle them to safety in Ravka but, after spending too long with the Crows she finds it harder and harder to obey orders, so when the opportunity presents itself to get inside Yard Bruhm’s household (the fearsome commander of the Fjerdan army), she takes it. Nikolai and Zoya try to keep Ravka from descending into war again, all while they try to unravel the legacy of the Darkling’s magic on Ravka and the Grisha.
My thoughts
Ah, I loved it! Although, I will say that for Leigh Bardugo, this ending was suspiciously happy and I don’t trust it. If you’ve read the books that came before, you will not regret reading these! There were some mutterings online (specifically booktok) that this was vanity publishing for the fans and the story wasn’t meant to carry on but that’s absolute nonsense. These books tie up a lot of loose ends from the prior series’, as well as giving characters such as Zoya some interesting depth and roundness that we didn’t have before but the seeds for which were definitely planted earlier. You see so many favourite faces and get to continue the stories of characters I loved from the previous books (specifically, we visit the Crows for a bit!). I will say, it’s unlikely these books will make a lot of sense if you haven’t read the ones that came before, or at least, some of the emotional depth will be missing.
Ninth House
(First read 2022)
An attempt at summarising
The story follows Galaxy ‘Alex’ Stern and her introduction to Lethe, one of 8 prestigious ‘tombs’/ secret magical societies at Yale. The narrative switches between Alex’s POV in the present and Darlington’s POV in the past. In the present with Alex we know something disastrous has happened to Darlington, while she tries to carry on her duties as Lethe, monitoring the other societies, keeping them in check and warding their rituals against other supernatural forces. The flashbacks to the past follow Darlington meeting Alex for the first time and introducing her to their duties, while he tries to unravel her mysterious past. Alex can see the Greys (ghosts), when everyone else can’t without magical intervention. When she’s recruited into the society, Alex has just survived a tragedy, where she was discovered overdosed on fentanyl, next her friends dead body, with the eviscerated corpses of her boyfriend and local drug dealer in the room next door. Something is wrong with the magic in the town connected to Yale, a girl is murdered and Alex can’t help but suspect it’s all related to Darlington’s disappearance.
My thoughts
As usual for a Leigh Bardugo book the characters in this are so rich, as is the magic and the world building of these elitist societies that you don’t have to stretch your imagination too much to believe could be real, especially once you know the author’s back story of belonging to a Yale secret society herself. You really don’t get to the bottom of everything that happened until right at the end of the book but the build up and Alex’s investigation creates great tension, leading you to want to keep reading to find out what happened.
-I’m yet to read the next book in this series! I waiting for the paper back to come out… and then I’ve been poor since then.
All Leigh Bardugo books in review
Six of Crows is still my favourite, even after all this time, I’ve since bought the audio books and I still love them. The characters have so much depth and layers that I rediscover on every re-listen. Reading these books sent me into a whole new world of fantasy books, which as I said in the review I didn’t typically read before then. So these remain really special to me, if this ever changes, I’ll update this section too but I doubt it will.
Check out these Six of Crows meme blogs I made at the height of my obsession:
Six of Crows memes because I can part 1
Six of Crows memes because I can part 2
*these are affiliate links, you won’t pay any extra but I may receive a small commission!
Antonia Bernardin 
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