Warning: this review contains spoilers for Ruin and Rising and Crooked Kingdom.

It’s been a few years since I read anything by Leigh Bardugo, and I wasn’t sure if I’d like her newest book the way I used to love her others. King of Scars proved to be an entertaining start to an intriguing new series, and definitely shows Bardugo’s growth as a writer.

Complex characters, an intricate world, and very high stakes are bound to hook readers the way they hooked me. More depth is given to side characters from the original Grisha trilogy, and we see the next step in the journey of a beloved Six of Crows protagonist. Familiar faces return alongside new ones, mostly lovable but occasionally loathsome.

Although I did enjoy Nikolai and Zoya’s storyline and the emotional revelations regarding the latter’s past, my favorite chapters were Nina’s. For roughly the first third of the novel, she’s grieving Matthias—for the record, I’m still salty about his death to this day. Anyway, my point is that Bardugo wrote her grief in such a raw, poignant way and it broke my heart. Seeing Nina handle and overcome that was amazing, and so was the rest of her story. I love Nina Zenik with my whole heart.

I’ll be honest—I didn’t pick up on the supposed budding romance between Nikolai and Zoya. Other reviewers were talking about flirting between the two of them, and I’m over here completely confused. To be honest, while I could probably be convinced to ship them, I hope their relationship stays platonic. They work really well as a king and a general, and I like it when two characters with opposing attitudes are friends.

I did, however, pick up on Nina’s crush on one of the new characters. That could be brilliantly developed in the sequel, if said character returns those feelings. I’m just...not sure if I want it to be? As much of a hopeless romantic as I am, part of me wonders if Bardugo started dropping hints too soon after Nina buried Matthias. I mean, to each their own, everyone handles grief differently, but hardly any time passed between her grieving him and crushing on them. Does that even make sense? Not sure, but I’m going with it.

My primary issue with this book was entirely unrelated to the romance; in the second half, I found some aspects difficult to follow. At times, it felt like Bardugo was trying to do too much, and to me, it didn’t fully mesh with the world-building she’d already done.

The other element I really didn’t like was the ending. I didn’t see any of the three big twists coming, but only one seemed to work in the grand scheme of things. As for the other two, they just didn’t make sense to me, and there’s likely going to be some repetitive drama in the sequel.

So, yeah. I liked King of Scars for some reasons and disliked it for others, but overall, it was enjoyable. It was nice to be back in the Grishaverse. I’m interested to see what goes down in the sequel, especially for my girl Nina.

Representation:
• Nina is fat and bisexual.
• There’s a married sapphic side couple in Nikolai’s inner circle.
• One of Nina’s companions, Adrik, has one arm.
• I can’t remember specifics, my apologies, but I believe there are other diverse side characters scattered throughout.

CW: drug addiction, drug use, torture, captivity, death of a loved one, grief, mention of murder and gore