This book excelled in everything I look for in a story; the characters, worldbuilding, and plot were all strong, complex and well-described. There were relationships to root for (and against) and a few compelling twists. It was especially a relief after the disappointment of the Shadow and Bone trilogy; it felt too much like 'standard' YA fantasy to me, with contrived love triangles and forced angst (partly due to overuse of those tropes since that trilogy's publication).

This book had excellent characterization; though they are somewhat similar, the Darkling from Shadow and Bone was incredibly shallow - he's supposed to be evil and hot - while Kaz is a genuinely compelling, morally grey character. I appreciated that Bardugo created romantic angst without resorting to love triangles. All of the characters got strong backstories, but I'm definitely looking forward to learning more from the second book.

I found the exploration of bigotry/discrimination/brainwashing was a little heavy handed and too easily resolved, but it was still effective. I'm starting to understand older readers' frustration with YA character ages; what do you MEAN Kaz is a year younger than me and essentially running a criminal empire? That's ridiculous. All the characters could all easily be aged up a decade. But that's an issue with publishing and not really with a specific book so whatever.

Regardless, I had a great time reading this book and I'm excited to start Crooked Kingdom!