21/11/22
This time, there was no “slowly getting into it”.
I knew the characters, I loved them and I eagerly jumped back in. Once again, the action was contant, the planning was constant, always moving to a new plan, to a new list of things that need to be done and where any of them can go wrong. I have to say, reading this book may not even be healthy for anxious people - I'm not usually anxious while reading and when I am it's not so bad. But here I looked at what will happen next a few times, which I almost never do. But something crazy happens to a character and then you switch to different povs and you know… sometimes you just have to know right away that they survived, otherwise how am I supposed to focus. And when it comes to them surviving two books of absolute batshit situations, it can start to look ridiculous after some point, but it was always written well and seemed somehow natural and no, I won't tell you if they did till the end, you will have to be anxious as well.
There was a point where I felt like if I read the word “plan” one more time I will punch someone. The book probably. I actually felt tired at that point - because they had one goal and went through two hundred different plans to achieve it. Especially when Kaz said a plan, then Nina wanted to so something before it, so they created a plan before a plan, but to achieve that, they needed a plan for the plan before a plan and I literally read three plans one after the other, each one completely crazy and when I imagined how I will have to go through all of them with them before we get to THE PLAN I just wanted to throw that book out the window. It was a little exhausting. And you know, Kaz and his constant “being ahead” was done very well, but there was also at least one point when I was like “that's enough”. I would say that compared to the first one, this book was “more” in everything, to the point where it may have been a little overdone. Just a little, okay? Otherwise it was great.
What I loved the most, once again, were the characters, but specifically the parallels between them - two soldiers on opposite sides, two most dangerous people in the city, that can't stand touch for different reasons and two boys, one that is hiding the skill he would rather not have, the other hiding that he doesn't have the skill he would like to have. It created great dynamics and points of view, when they were either standing on the opposite side of things or just had a different experience with the same thing and they completed each other nicely (and a little too conveniently, but so what). And while I felt only some chemistry between Kaz and Inej in the first book, here it went off and I finally felt the full force of that ship. It hit me hard, I admit.
Anyway, this review is surprisingly negative in focusing on some issues, but I just had to say them. Still, I didn't really mind them - I loved the characters, really, really much, I loved being in that world with them, I was immersed and it was great to be fully enveloped in a fantasy book in a different world and with a fictional family once again. My feelings were all over the place and I was so invested I wasn't sure what to do when it was all done.
Overall, these books are great and I adored the characters in them. I know I won't stop thinking about them for some time, which is a big success. Because of them, Crows are definitely somewhere up there: belonging on the shelves with the books that are special to me.
!!!SPOILER WARNING!!!
Really, don't read further if you want to read it in the future.
And now. We are going to talk about that chapter and that scene and then we will continue to pretend it doesn't exist.
Firstly, I will say this: obviously, I was devastated. I already told you how much I loved Nina and Matthias and how I have such a soft spot for blonde Northmen in general. But secondly: the death of Matthias was a bit cheap. Yes, it was poetic in a way that his “younger self” (or someone resembling it) killed him when his development came full circle, but just… It pissed me off in more than one way. I've found the theme of a brainwashed soldier trying to get better incredibly interesting and his character as well (even though I've also found out I'm actually in the minority it seems, many people weren't such big fans). So yes, I was hurt. But that I can take.
It kinda bugged me however that it seemed like I'm the only one really hurt - sure, some characters weren't that close to him and they were used to people dying and they showed their sadness anyway, but it really felt like his death was just brushed away. Especially from Nina. And that was my trigger point, because Jesus, how I loved those two together. And then it felt like she let him go and really just… let him go. She even jokes almost right after and was just the usual Nina and it felt so wrong for me. I was also a little angry with the author, because I knew one of them would die to make all that “crazy surviving” more believable, so it was predictable in a way, and I also knew it would be Matthias, which was again, predictable. He was the obvious choice because he was the safest choice from the cast - in more than one way, I think you can figure out which the others are. And I just don't like it very much, when something is easily predictable and when the author follows an obvious pattern. Either take a bigger risk or just defy the expectation completely. But I'm honestly just a little bitter and maybe I'm just frowning uselessly and stumping the ground like an angry child, because I cared a bit too much, but whatever, it makes me feel better, okay? So there it is.
Now we can go back to pretending he's fine, just somewhere out there calling Kaz a demon over and over again while eating waffles with Nina.
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