Crooked Kingdom

April 18, 2011
Fans of purple pulp prose will welcome this Hubbard novella, which first appeared in the November 1934 issue of Popular Detective magazine. The lurid opening sentence sets the tone: "Rising to a crescendo of stark horror, a scream of death hacked through the gaiety of the night." Bob Clark, carnival detective for Shreve's Mammoth Carnival but actually a covert operative for the U.S. Treasury Department, suspects someone is using the carnival as a cover for dope-trafficking. While Clark's cover is ostensibly solid, he has still been the subject of multiple attempts on his life. Against this background, the investigator must track four cannibals who escaped from their restraints and who are the logical people responsible for the decapitation murder of their barker. The climax even features a showdown in a house of mirrors. A short story, "The Death Flyer," about violence onboard a train, helps fill up this slim volume.

Starred review from October 1, 2016

Gr 7 Up-Teens will be excited to return to Bardugo's marvelous world, first visited in her "Grisha Trilogy" and in this duology's previous Six of Crows. They will be treated to a visit from old friends-the graceful (and deadly) Inej; Nina, the Grisha Heartrender; Wylan, the discarded, illiterate merchant's son; and the mysterious and vengeful Kaz. Characters from the original trilogy (most notably Stormhund, prince-turned-privateer) also make an entrance in the heart of the slums of Ketterdam. Plots to take control of the city's underworld abound as Kaz rallies his allies and takes on the might of the rapacious merchant class and Pekka Rollins, King of the Barrel and ruler of the dregs of the city. Following the death of his brother, the antihero has surrounded himself with the castoffs of Ketterdam, all of them very young, defective in some way, and abandoned. Together they will either rule the city victoriously or fail magnificently. While it isn't absolutely necessary to have read the other titles in Bardugo's series, readers will be better served by this continuation if they are already familiar with the complex world and characters. This fast-paced dive into the Barrel, where fortunes are made and lost and life itself hangs in the balance, will keep readers enthralled long past bedtime. VERDICT A must-purchase for all YA collections.-Jane Henriksen Baird, Anchorage Public Library, AK

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

This hefty sequel to Six of Crows (2015) brings high-tension conclusions to the many intertwined intrigues of Ketterdam.It's time for revenge--has been ever since old-before-his-time crook Kaz and his friends were double-crossed by the merchant princes of Ketterdam, an early-industrial Amsterdam-like fantasy city filled to the brim with crime and corruption. Disabled, infuriated, and perpetually scheming Kaz, the light-skinned teen mastermind, coordinates the efforts to rescue Inej. Though Kaz is loath to admit weakness, Inej is his, for he can't bear any harm come to the knife-wielding, brown-skinned Suli acrobat. Their team is rounded out by Wylan, a light-skinned chemist and musician whose merchant father tried to have him murdered and who can't read due to a print disability; Wylan's brown-skinned biracial boyfriend, Jesper, a flirtatious gambler with ADHD; Nina, the pale brunette Grisha witch and recovering addict from Russia-like Ravka; Matthias, Nina's national enemy and great love, a big, white, blond druskelle warrior from the cold northern lands; and Kuwei, the rescued Shu boy everyone wants to kidnap. Can these kids rescue everyone who needs rescuing in Ketterdam's vile political swamp? This is dark and violent--one notable scene features a parade of teens armed with revolvers, rifles, pistols, explosives, and flash bombs--but gut-wrenchingly genuine. Astonishingly, Bardugo keeps all these balls in the air over the 500-plus pages of narrative. How can such a hefty tome be un-put-down-able excitement from beginning to end? (glossary) (Fantasy. 14 & up) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 15, 2016
This hefty sequel to Six of Crows (2015) brings high-tension conclusions to the many intertwined intrigues of Ketterdam.It's time for revengehas been ever since old-before-his-time crook Kaz and his friends were double-crossed by the merchant princes of Ketterdam, an early-industrial Amsterdam-like fantasy city filled to the brim with crime and corruption. Disabled, infuriated, and perpetually scheming Kaz, the light-skinned teen mastermind, coordinates the efforts to rescue Inej. Though Kaz is loath to admit weakness, Inej is his, for he can't bear any harm come to the knife-wielding, brown-skinned Suli acrobat. Their team is rounded out by Wylan, a light-skinned chemist and musician whose merchant father tried to have him murdered and who can't read due to a print disability; Wylan's brown-skinned biracial boyfriend, Jesper, a flirtatious gambler with ADHD; Nina, the pale brunette Grisha witch and recovering addict from Russia-like Ravka; Matthias, Nina's national enemy and great love, a big, white, blond drskelle warrior from the cold northern lands; and Kuwei, the rescued Shu boy everyone wants to kidnap. Can these kids rescue everyone who needs rescuing in Ketterdam's vile political swamp? This is dark and violentone notable scene features a parade of teens armed with revolvers, rifles, pistols, explosives, and flash bombsbut gut-wrenchingly genuine. Astonishingly, Bardugo keeps all these balls in the air over the 500-plus pages of narrative. How can such a hefty tome be un-put-down-able excitement from beginning to end? (glossary) (Fantasy. 14 & up)

COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from August 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* A last-minute double-cross at the end of Six of Crows (2015) left Kaz and his gang in a tight spotInej has been captured, they never got their money, and, thanks to their new companion, a highly sought-after Grisha, they're desperate to stay out of sight. But that's not enough to stop Kaz, who concocts gambit after gambit to retrieve Inej, swindle vicious merchant Jan Van Eck out of his wealth and reputation, and finally get their hands on the cash they're owed. Bardugo cultivates an evocative, visceral sense of place, seamlessly weaving world building background into the narrative without resorting to clunky expository dialogue. Kaz's harebrained but brilliant schemes and Bardugo's twisty plot both walk a tightropeshe deftly misdirects readers' attention by revealing some secrets and elsewhere keeping her audience teasingly in the dark. Amid all the hairpin plot turns and immersive scene setting, Bardugo keeps the focus on her vivid, charming characters, slowly revealing secrets from their pasts, which offer meaty context for their actions and motivations, and following their moving, redemptive growth in the present. It's a delicious blend of masterfully executed elements, and while Bardugo ties up many loose ends, she leaves a few threads tantalizingly dangling. Knowledge of the first book is required, naturally, but Bardugo outdoes herself in this exhilarating follow-up, and series fans will have their eyes glued to every page. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Fans of Six of Crows, which got cozy on the New York Times best-seller list, already know about this one, and they're champing at the bit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)