Crooked Kingdom

By: Leigh Bardugo

Narrated by: Roger Clark, Jay Snyder, Elizabeth Evans, Fred Berman, Brandon Rubin, Kevin T. Collins, Lauren Fortgang, Peter Ganim

Length: 17 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

The highly anticipated sequel to the thrilling New York Times best-selling Six of Crows.

Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives. Double-crossed and badly weakened, the crew is low on resources, allies, and hope. As powerful forces from around the world descend on Ketterdam to root out the secrets of the dangerous drug known as jurda parem, old rivals and new enemies emerge to challenge Kaz's cunning and test the team's fragile loyalties. A war will be waged on the city's dark and twisting streets - a battle for revenge and redemption that will decide the fate of the Grisha world.

©2016 Leigh Bardugo (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Perfect, but now what?

Loved it. This book leaves me with that rare feeling that I don't know what to read next. Actually, the even rarer condition that I need a break from reading so I can continue to savor this book a little longer. I don't think I can review it properly. However, it's a story intricately wound and wonderfully wicked. I loved getting to know each of the characters, even though Kaz is the star, you learn to appreciate all six of the gang. The settings and fantasy elements were great - sometimes helter skelter and at other times melodic. The ending. That was perfect. It's worthy of recommendation!

PS - Agree with others that Wylan's narrator was terrible for the part, and still this didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book.

42 people found this helpful

Storytelling at its finest! L.Bardugo is a master

Leigh Bardugo does not disappoint in Crooked Kingdom the sequel to Six of Crows. It is the ending of the duology which could have easily been a trilogy...my selfish want as I love the world Leigh has built. As with Six of Crows the book continues with each character providing their POV. Not my favorite style of writing but Leigh pulls it off well in both books.
Don't want to provide any spoilers but the journey to the end is worth it. Ok..one tiny spoiler which made me VERY HAPPY is Kaz and the crew get help from some very special characters of the Grisha trilogy. Yeah it felt a bit gratuitous on Leigh's part but I enjoyed it anyway.

Now for the narrators...anytime it gets past 2 narrators I find it distracting. Elizabeth Evans (Nina) and Lauren Fortgang (Inej) were brilliant and well cast to the characters. Their last scenes at the end of the book were AMAZING and worth the whole listen! As for the men...returning narrators Fred Berman (Kaz), Brandon Rubin (Jesper), Jay Snyder (Matthias), Roger Clark (Pekka) gave very consistent performances to Six of Crows and matched the characters well. Jay Snyder made me fall in love with Matthias or maybe with Jay himself ;-). New to Crooked Kingdom...Kevin T Collins (Wylan) and Peter Ganim (Jan). I don't think Kevin gave a bad performance but he had almost all the pronunciations of the characters and the world incorrect which made his performance distracting. I kept correcting him while I was listening. Don't let it deter you from choosing to the book. Just know that it is coming and you will have to suck it up a bit when you listen.

23 people found this helpful

Great except for one thing

Book is awesome! I loved it.....except for whoever narrated Wyland and whenever Wyland was talking for Kaz.....holy evil old man gravel. Sort of rediculous!

37 people found this helpful

Great story, hit or miss performers

First of all I love this story, and the different voices are mostly wonderful. Each lends so much to the tale, and whether it was planned this way or not, each sort of lends their own viewpoint--we get to see how each character sounds, from the point of view of each character. The performer for Wyland was a bit off, though--i can't quite describe it, but it was somewhat jarring to listen to, and he made Kaz sound like an old lady, which was an odd choice.

The performer for Jesper was odd too--after having a normal American accent for the last book and most of this one, towards the end he started having a sort of bastardized cockney/Australian lilt to some things, and not only when Jesper was speaking but when other characters were speaking, too! It was super weird, like why is Nina suddenly talking this way? It made the whole thing seem poorly edited or poorly directed, which is a shame.

All that being said, this is still one of the most engaging and fun stories I've listened to in a while, and the performers for Kaz and Inej in particular were fantastic. I would absolutely listen to it again.

19 people found this helpful

WHY YOU TAKE MY FAVORITE NARRATOR?!

You get four stars, sir, simply for not using my favorite narrator from last book. This story is so good, but I felt like I was slapped in the face when we get to Kaz's POV maybe halfway through and IT'S NOT THE SAME GUY! UGH!

18 people found this helpful

Great story, so-so performance and production

The story was great. Kept me on the edge of my seat. I really didn't like the narration for Wylan, though. His rendition of Kaz's voice was hard to listen to, his pronunciation of names, places, and words was gratingly inconsistent, and there was an audible hiss throughout.

11 people found this helpful

I love a lot of narrators

Except for this time. As mentioned, Wyland's voice for Kaz sounds like he was the Wicked Witch. The fact that every narrator did a different voice for each character made it a bit hard to follow. I didn't listen to Six of Crow, I read the physical book, and everything made a lot more sense that when I started listening to this one. Since each character sounds completely different, it's harder to follow, but it still wasn't all bad.

I loved the actual story, I think it was a great follow up to Six of Crows, and I hope there is another book in the series soon!

16 people found this helpful

So much dialogue, so little plot

I liked a lot of the world that was built in the first book so I was okay with the first book and stuck with the story through the second. That being said, this book had even less plot and more mindless, unnecessary dialogue. I can not believe how little actually happens in this book, but at least the performances were good. This book is an easy skip in need of an editor with several red pens.

4 people found this helpful

Typical

The performance was great. The story on the other hand was typical. If you didn't like kaz and his crew's relationship from the last book don't expect much of a change here. I will say though that this book is a definite improvement from the last one, but it still needed a more character development. The author tried to redeem Kaz's character at the end, but it was kinda too late for that. She spend way too much time trying to make him seem like a badass to actually give him a good story arch. The other characters didn't really add much either. They were all bland and did nothing exceptionally great.

2 people found this helpful

How did this get such high reviews?

I am an hour into the book and really, really dislike it. The first narrator was horrible, the others I listened to much better. The story is torture -- no, really, torture. If you like gang violence, gambling, physical and psychological torture, and can stomach the first narrator, then this book is for you. I had such high hopes after reading Six of Crows. This sequel has gone terribly wrong. I hope that I can return the book.

5 people found this helpful

Great book, terribly read

More of an enunciation contest than a performance. While a few of the narrators do a great job, most of them emphasize the wrong words in the sentences and make it difficult to keep the thread of the action. And while some of these improve a little, or maybe I became accustomed, as the story goes on, whoever is narrating Wylan's chapters sounds like he is doing a practice exercise for elocution lessons, and failing.

Luckily the story is so well constructed that it can cope with the mauling, the characters are well developed, and it is usually clear how the author intended the passage read.

10 people found this helpful

staring down the barrel of a gun

This book has everything. The thrill of the chase an amazing heist, love, friendship and most of all an unpredictable story. If you like suspense this book is for you! Read now or else the wraith will come for you...

3 people found this helpful

Love

it was a gorgeous story and amazing characters that exapnded the world so much and I can't wait to read more about the extended world

2 people found this helpful

WORST. READING. EVER.

I don’t understand how Audible would allow sale of this audiobook. Wyland’s character sounds like he just learnt how to read. Pacing completely wrong. Wrong words emphasised in almost every sentence. I’m returning this one.
If terrible reading and pacing don’t bother you, this one’s for you! Good story line. Guess I’ll have to read it to myself.

3 people found this helpful

Best Duology

I read Six of Crows a few years ago and thought it was okay. After re-reading it and now Crooked Kingdom it has to be the best Duology I have ever read.Completely fell in love with all the characters!!

1 person found this helpful

EPIC

Six of Crows had me hooked and when it ended I just had to carry on with the series immediately. By now we know each of the characters, we know quite a bit of their backstory but there are still some things to learn about each of them.

Unlike Six of Crows, this story is action from the beginning. The book is full of schemes and manipulation. Kaz Brekker is a master manipulator. His schemes are the best in Ketterdam and even as the reader you can't be sure if you are being tricked or not. There were times when I really didn't know how it was going to go for the gang and I was holding my breath for the resolution.

One character I enjoyed seeing again was Sturmhond. It was great to see his wit and brutal honesty again.

I can't describe how much I loved this story. It's undeniably epic and Leigh does an exceptional job of dragging you into her world and wish you never had to leave.

I am now counting down the days until I can be back in the world of Leigh in King of Scars.

1 person found this helpful

Omgggggg

So happy I started listening to this series - absolutely loved it. Can’t recommend enough !!! Brilliant

1 person found this helpful

Really enjoyable

I loved the characters. From The Six Of Crows I already knew that, and I knew and loved their relationships. This book nicely advances all of that, there's character growth and relationship growth, and the plot of this book nicely wraps up what's started in book 1 and makes it feel complete while leaving room for possible continuation.

1 person found this helpful

Great listen

Another great listen, good ending. shame there's only two books in the series. Good book.

1 person found this helpful

amazing book

amazing book and I loved listening to it. it was incredible and I am glad I decided to listen to it on audio book. loved it.

1 person found this helpful