Okay, hi guys. It's Cari. And I know that my book videos tend to be
a little incoherent, but I literally struggle to form proper sentences regarding my feelings
towards all of these books so this is going to be even worse, but we're going to give
it a grand old try. As you guys can probably tell, I am talking
about Leigh Bardugo's Grishaverse. And I know that the hype train has left the
station years ago, and I'm quite late but better late than never. I think a lot of you guys have already read
these books based on messages I received when I said I was starting Six of Crows and half
of you guys were like "Oh! Enjoy it! Savour it! I wish I could read it for the first time
again," and then the other half were like "Turn back. Don't go forward. Proceed with caution. It will ruin you. It will break you." And now that I'm on the other side of it,
I can honestly say both of you guys are correct. I simultaneously feel both of those things. So if you haven't read these books yet, especially
the Six of Crows duology, enjoy it. You will love it. It will break you. It will ruin you. And it will leave you feeling equal parts
whole and so empty. This is your final warning. I feel like if you've already clicked on this,
you're halfway into renting or buying one of these books so yeah. Proceed with caution is all I can say. That being said, this video will not contain
spoilers. I'm just going to briefly introduce the books
and give kind of my vague opinions on them. I don't even think I'm capable of going into
detail about how much I love these books. But I'm going to leave a couple book reviews
by proper booktubers in the description box. Some of them are laugh out loud funny. So please go give them a view. And if you've already read these books, these
reviews...you will feel seen is all I'm going to say. Let's begin. I put Six of Crows on hold at my library based
on your recommendations but I really didn’t know anything about it other than the fact
that you guys said I’d like it. I didn’t know it was part of a universe
or anything like that. And even though, I would say Six of Crows
can really stand alone, you don't need to know about the universe to love it, I wish
I knew how to read them in order. This is the order that I read them in. I'm not mad about it. It's not the way that you should read them
but it's how I did it and I didn't really mind. In my opinion, it doesn't really matter if
you read Shadow and Bone or Six of Crows first. Chronologically, Six of Crows does come after
Shadow and Bone series and the Shadow and Bone series is really like the introduction
to the universe. Six of Crows alludes to a few things that
happen in Shadow and Bone but nothing that would ruin the plot at all. But! As you guys might have seen in one of my vlogs
where I said "I finished Shadow and Bone, now I'm going to read King of Scars"....Don't
do that. King of Scars is pretty much a continuation
of Shadow and Bone and it does ruin the ending. I wasn't super mad because I kind of knew
where Shadow and Bone was going to go. But DO NOT. Read King of Scars unless you have finished
Crooked Kingdom, the second book of the Six of Crows series because it - I'm surprised
she didn't put a warning, because it ruins a major plot point. Like...UGH. Even if that's the only book that is available
at your library and you want to start reading the Grishaverse, don't do it. That book has to be read last. That is my PSA, now I'm going to jump into
the books. That's the order. Do with it what you will. Starting with the Shadow and Bone series we
follow our main character Alina who is just a normal girl. Her country Ravka is sort of involved in this
long unending war and so all the young healthy people typically find themselves in the army
in some way or another. And the book starts with her regiment I guess
is going to cross this piece of land called the Shadow Fold. The Fold is just this desolate darkness. It was basically created by really dark magic
and it's just emptiness. It's inhabited by these really gross creatures
called volcra. Basically, 90% of the people who cross it
don't make it to the other side. Without any spoilers, there's basically an
incident while she's crossing it (as there always is). She ends up finding herself in a very weird
position where all she wanted to do was be a map maker and live a happy normal life and
of course, the opposite happens. She just gets thrown into horrible war and
power struggles and all that good stuff. This is also where we are introduced to the
concept of Grisha. Grisha are people who are born with magical
powers I guess is the only way you would describe it. There's a lot of different kind of Grisha. You kind of learn that they're simultaneously
revered for their powers, their talents, because they're very useful. But there's also a lot of people who fear
and hate them. They're considered witches and they're very
scary. In some countries they're hunted, in Ravka
they're pretty protected. Shadow and Bone basically just sets the scene
of the entire universe. How do I feel about these books? Well. Complicated. So the main issue I have is that I genuinely
didn't like a single character until the final book. In the third book is when I was finally like,
okay these characters are growing on me. I'm not sure if it's because I was so strongly
attached to the characters in Six of Crows. But literally every single character in this
book is borderline annoying, if not completely annoying. They've all got these big flaws. Like some of them are just straight up evil,
some of them are just mean. You just basically can't trust anybody so
I just had a really hard time getting into the book because I wasn't necessarily rooting
for anybody to win. But the redeeming quality of this trilogy
is that Leigh is the queen of plot twists. I pride myself on - I read a lot of mysteries,
I read a lot of thrillers, I like to think that I can figure things out at least right
before it happens. But the end of this trilogy, there is a twist
that I genuinely didn't see coming and I thought it was very interesting. I could see some people not liking how it
ended but I was honestly just pleased that I was surprised. So good on you Leigh. You got me. Great job. So basically, I enjoyed the series. It did help give me more content, like I just
wanted to read more in that world. So that's kind of why I liked reading Six
of Crows first. Even though Shadow and Bone wasn't better,
it kind of helped like heal my wounds. I don't know...bring me down from the Six
of Crows high. So yeah it was a solid series, no hate. Just kind of overshadowed I think by Six of
Crows. Which brings me to this damn duology. Six of Crows. So Six of Crows is about a crew of six people
that are brought together for a heist thanks to kind of the ring leader, Kaz Brekker. It takes place in Ketterdam which is a city
where there's basically gangs or merchants. It's all about, it's like a major capitalist
society. It's all about money and success and power. So Kaz is kind of a higher-up in one of the
gangs called the Dregs. And he lives his life for cutting deals, getting
good bargains. And he describes himself as a businessman. A very violent businessman. I think he honestly has more bloody violent
moments than a lot of the villains which is weird for someone who kind of becomes one
of the most loved characters. He is offered a job that will bring him a
ridiculous sum of money that even if he splits it with his crew, it's going to be life changing
for him. So of course, even though it is a completely
impossible job, he takes the challenge. So I'm going to briefly introduce each of
the characters because like I said previously, I love them all so much. One thing I really really love about this
book is how diverse the characters are. Whether it's racially I guess you would say,
or their sexual orientation, their backgrounds, their beliefs, their attitudes, their views
on life. They're all very different and it doesn't
feel forced. And I really appreciated that so, let's jump
in. First Kaz brings on Inej and she is so interesting. She is an acrobat by trade but she has just
had the crappiest time. She basically gets kidnapped and sold into
slavery and put into a pleasure house at the age of 15. So she's tough as nails. She is basically like a spy for the Dregs. She's just a very interesting character because
she has a really strong moral code. She is pretty much the only character that's
constantly struggling with is she being a good person or not. There's this quote that you know so I'm paraphrasing:
Be careful when fighting monsters that you don't become one yourself. And I think that she's the one that kind of
keeps the crew conscious of that and is constantly asking "okay but are we really the good guys
here, aren't we kind of turning into the bad guys?" She's just a really interesting character. Next up is Jesper who is so charismatic and
so funny. Usually if an author tries to write a character
that is specifically there to be kind of the comedic relief, to be very witty, sometimes
I think they go overboard and the character ends of annoying me. Jesper literally had me laughing out loud. It wasn't overkill, he's just very funny. And he basically is really good with guns. That's his skill. He keeps the moral up and I really love him. Wylan is another member who is talented with
chemistry and making things go boom. He is there to make bombs and he has a couple
other reasons but the book gets into it for why he is on the team. We don't get a whole lot of Wylan in Six of
Crows. Pretty much everybody gets at least one piece
of the story told through their point of view, which really helps us get to know the character,
but Wylan actually doesn't get one. He is still sort of a mystery but he does
get a lot more character growth in Crooked Kingdom. But basically in Six of Crows, him and Jesper's
banter is *chef's kiss* And I love him a lot, I came to love him so much more. After that we have the lovely Nina who is
Grisha so that means she does have powers and they involve the workings of the body. So she can make your pulse go faster or she
can put you to sleep. She can vaguely change appearances. She's very handy for this kind of thing. And she is a firecracker. I think the more that I think about her, the
more that I reread her parts, she is so complex and just such an interesting character. I think for a strong female character she
is so vulnerable but so strong-headed and so sure of herself and so strong. I just really really - at first she wasn't
my favorite but honestly I love Nina. And she deserves the world, she gets put through
so much. I just want to give her a really big hug. Yeah Nina, just a really excellent character. And last but not least is Matthais [forgive
my pronunciation] who is an ex-soldier who used to hunt Grisha and thinks they're an
abomination so you can imagine how Nina and him get along. But the actually do have a history that the
book gets into and it makes the story so much more interesting and I think Matthais is a
really important character because it kind of questions whether or not someone can unlearn
the prejudices that they were born into and taught, and can a person change? I just think that he's a very important character
and you grow to really really love him. In the end I am very thankful for Matthais. So basically they have to stage a heist that
involves breaking into an impenetrable fortress in a foreign land. It's so action packed, and there are so many
twists and it leaves you on the biggest cliffhanger. I literally had a meltdown. If you follow me on Instagram, you might have
seen me just post "I am so angry about this" that was the tip of the iceberg. Kurt can attest to this. I literally was just laying in bed, having
a temper tantrum. I was so mad because I had to wait for I think
it was like 10 weeks for my holds, for Crooked Kingdom to come in on hold. And there was no way I was going to wait 10
weeks to figure out what happens in the second one. So luckily my mom is the best. She actually saw my post on Instagram and
so she sent me the Kindle version so that I could read it the next day. So thank you mom. Crooked Kingdom picks up pretty much immediately
where Six of Crows leaves off. This book, I think most people would agree
with me that Crooked Kingdom is even better than Six of Crows. You just get to know the characters so much
more deeply. You get a lot more of their history, why they're
the way that they are. Because like I said they're borderline bad
guys. They're not "good people" like Kaz, literally
just kills people who are in his way so....It's really helpful I guess to learn about why
they are the way that they are. Which also makes you feel so much more connected
to them which makes every painful thing that they have to go through like 100 times harder. There is action, and romance, and comedy,
and tragedy. I think even if you aren't really into fantasy,
I would say still read this duology. Because it's almost like the fantasy element
kind of just takes a backseat. Which is sort of why I liked Six of Crows
more than Shadow and Bone, because it didn't feel like I was reading this fantasy. There weren't castles and going to magic class. Strangely it felt more based in reality even
though there was magic. So I would definitely recommend this even
to people who aren't interested in the fantasy genre. Last but not least is the King of Scars duology
which actually isn't finished. Only the first book is released. It follows Nikolai who is a character in the
Shadow and Bone series. You meet him in the second book of that trilogy. And finally, I really like his character. So I actually read this right after Shadow
and Bone so I never met Nikolai in the Shadow and Bones series yet. I'm honestly kind of glad that I read King
of Scars first because in Shadow and Bone, like I said, you can't really trust anybody
so it feels like everybody has these hidden motives and stuff like that. But in King of Scars you learn about his true
personality and why he is the way that he is. I really really love him as a character. So going back and reading Shadow and Bone,
I saw him in a kind of a different light than how he was originally painted. I actually quite liked this series. I think that Leigh's writing just keeps getting
better and better. I'm very excited for the second one. But like I said, you have to read this one
last. Do not just like jump in reading this one
because yeah, don't do it. And last but not least, will I watch the Netflix
series? So I'm really hesitant to watch it because
- first of all. First of all. Whoever cast Kaz Brekker. Excellent work. Excellent work. But I'm not sure if I'm going to watch it. I'm always scared of watching things based
on books because I've created such a cool world in my brain that I know the second I
see whatever they've made, the images that I have in my brain will kind of be messed
up. So I'm going to watch the trailer for sure. It looks like whoever did the casting did
an amazing job so yes. We'll have to wait and see. And that's pretty much it. I've heard rumors that there's going to be
a third Six of Crows, but I'm honestly so happy with how it ended. I would love for more content but at the same
time I feel like more content might ruin it. I'm happy with just kind of letting my imagination
continue the story. She left it I think at a really good point. I'm just a really big fan. I was kind of in a reading slump until I read
Six of Crows and now I'm just like back in it, devouring books so if you are in a reading
slump, pick up Six of Crows, pick up Crooked Kingdom cause you're going to want to read
Crooked Kingdom too. Thank you to everybody who recommended it,
I'm sorry it took so long for me to get around to reading it. But yeah I'm so glad that I did. So yeah just thank you everybody. I...man. I don't know how to end this other than please
go read these books if you haven't and I will talk to you guys next time. I'm going to try to do another book video
cause I have read quite a bit more recently and I know we're all spending a lot of time
at home reading so! I will catch you guys a little bit later. Thank you as always. Bye!
