3.5/5
With the news of the Grishaverse Netflix adaptation, I decided to reread the Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology, and took it as a perfect opportunity to get around to reading King of Scars. While this novel can be read without reading all of the Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology first, I highly advise against that because King of Scars is more of an extension of these series rather than its own being.
While the cast of characters are each strong enough to hold his or her own, it still feels as if their main stories were already told. I felt as though Bardugo could not think of a new adversary or challenge, which is why in King of Scars the plot line is still focused on the aftermath of the previous novels. The entire novel is about Nikolai's recovery from the nichevo'ya bite. Nina's scenes felt completely unrelated from Nikolai's storyline and she was in the exact same mindset as the end of Crooked Kingdom, which made her chapters dull and static. It emphasized the feeling that this novel is more of a "Where are they now?" story than a strong tale that stands on its own.
While the cast of characters are each strong enough to hold his or her own, it still feels as if their main stories were already told. I felt as though Bardugo could not think of a new adversary or challenge, which is why in King of Scars the plot line is still focused on the aftermath of the previous novels. The entire novel is about Nikolai's recovery from the nichevo'ya bite. Nina's scenes felt completely unrelated from Nikolai's storyline and she was in the exact same mindset as the end of Crooked Kingdom, which made her chapters dull and static. It emphasized the feeling that this novel is more of a "Where are they now?" story than a strong tale that stands on its own.
I'd heard a lot of hype over a plot twist at the end of the King of Scars, and when I finally reached it I found it incredibly disappointing. As I stated earlier, the plot twist only reinforced Bardugo's lack of new ideas. She extends the challenges she created in earlier novels, and her move of bringing back an old adversary is a cheap trick.
I'd recommend King of Scars to those who have read the Grisha novels (if you haven't, you should, because they are amazing stories dealing with themes of greed, power, and belonging) because you get to see your favorite characters again. Knowing their backstories makes it feel like you know a secret when you read King of Scars. But overall, this is nowhere near the strongest of Bardugo's work.
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