Crooked Kingdom

It’s a book to enjoy for the ride, and it is a wild and fun one.

The writing style was slightly better in this installment, although it could still be hard to follow or picture a full scene. Some scenes were rushed or underprepared. The POVs weren’t always distinct, and even when you were following a specific character, their thoughts could mislead you at key moments. That didn’t happen in the beginning, only when action happened. I also would have loved to see more of their internal thought process. The book could have used more pages to fully explore all of that.

I thought it would have been better not to include the foreshadowing about Matthias’ death. It made it clear that someone was going to die, and with Nina growing stronger, it became obvious to me that it would be Matthias since she became too important for other books. It took away the full shock of it. That said, I appreciated Matthias’s growth. He genuinely acknowledges that he was wrong for hunting Grisha and for blindly believing the propaganda he was raised on. I liked that he still hears that lingering voice of prejudice in his mind and actively works to fight it. That complexity made his journey feel more meaningful to me because it shows how hard it is to unlearn deep-rooted hate. His death was also bittersweet since he was killed by a Fjerdan but still hoped his people would learn the truth about the Grisha not being monsters. I hope his death has consequences for Nina in the following duology and wasn’t just added for shock value or to raise the stakes.

Another character I liked was Wylan, and I think that’s simply because he (next to Matthias) had a real arc in this story. Some of the others didn’t. Jesper decides not to take the money due to his addiction, but beyond that, not much changes for him. Inej stays fairly the same throughout the book. Kaz only shows some progress at the very end. While I do understand that certain things are hard to get over or work through, when you make your characters a central focus, there should have been more development.

Kaz was my least favourite character. He’s very well thought-out, but I just didn’t like him. Kaz has very few redeeming qualities. He was written to be too smart, and I didn’t find it believable. He could solve everything, and everyone just kept believing in and following him. It would have been more realistic if even one of them had contributed something major to the plan, or if they had deviated from it because they thought it was better. But the other characters weren’t really allowed to think like that. I also would have liked to see more of the actual scheming: how long it takes to consider all the possible steps and how one action leads to another. In the end, Kaz finally acts like he cares about Inej, and he does start to take small steps to work through his trauma.

Kuwei felt like he was just there for the plot. Nobody had a proper long conversation with him. Sometimes it seemed like certain characters were added just to give others something to do. For example, Dunyasha felt like she was created just so Inej had someone to fight and wouldn’t be left standing by. I had the same feeling with Jesper fighting the enhanced Shu soldier.

The ending felt a little rushed. The reunion between Wylan and his mother could have been part of the story more actively. I also wish the crew had thought more about each other at the end, not just about their love interests. Inej seeing her parents again after everything she’s been through was emotional. She is a quiet, strong, and compassionate person.