It brings me no pleasure to write that I did not like Six of Crows. So many people I know have recommended it, and while there were some enjoyable elements in this tale, overall there was ultimately more bad than good.

In terms of what I thought did work well, the book has what I would call good 'readability.' This novel is not a literary epic by any means, but it is the movie equivalent of a 'popcorn flick,' which is easy enough to digest. I also quite liked the character Nina; she was easily the most developed and multi-layered of the main six. Sadly, I cannot say I liked much else.

For starters, more than half of the plot takes place in flashbacks. While this mode of storytelling might work well enough in a screenplay adaptation, it made for uneven pacing and awkward narrative backtracking in novel-format. And I have enjoyed paralleled timelines in other stories, but as the flashbacks were presented here to provide individual character exposition (for five of the main six), by halfway through the novel this shifting began to feel like a cheap plot device employed to superficially up the emotional stakes.

On that point, this story had far too much ‘telling’ and not enough ‘showing.’ This is best exemplified with the main character Kaz. We are told numerous times throughout the novel that he is remarkably clever and intelligent, an effective leader. Yet throughout the novel he does not really do a whole lot to warrant this reputation; we never actually see him doing anything beyond the obvious. Instead, he is quite narrow-sighted in his planning, and at most every turn he fails to take a number of apparent variables into account.

This brings me to my final annoyance, which is that this book’s heist plot is pretty 'by the book,' to the point that it was super predictable. I should not be yelling at the ‘intelligent’ leader, who often acts on arrogance over insight, about an impending menace. A twist cannot shock if you anticipate it 10 pages in advance. Without getting into spoiler specifics, I’m also frustrated that beyond Nina and Matthias, the remaining characters felt super underdeveloped. I have a vague notion of what they are about, but everything else I know about them reads like the summary of a police report.

Overall, this was a bit of a disappointment. Of course, one person’s opinion does not constitute fact, so feel free to read it and decide for yourself. Just because I was bored doesn’t mean you will be too, especially if this book’s popularity is any indication.