Author: Leigh Bardugo
The resolution of the story had me in tears because Kaz loved Inej so much that he changed for her.
There were so many twists that got more outrageous than the last, to the point where they became a bit ridiculous. I thought the book was a bit cheesy, but the buildup for Kaz and Inej’s relationship and past were so well done that the ending was perfect. The auction scam as a whole was also pretty clever. Good description of scenes. Similes are more tacky than in the first book. Matthias’s death was mid. Nina and Matthias started becoming caricatures at some point. I felt weird that everyone paired off so well and Kuwei’s crush on Jesper was convenient and completely unnecessary. I was indifferent towards Kaz and Inej in book one and loved Nina and Matthias, but that flipped.
highlights
that low note, that bit of black harmony that crept into Kaz’s tone when things were about to get dangerous. — location: 432
We meet fear , he’d said. We greet the unexpected visitor and listen to what he has to tell us. When fear arrives, something is about to happen. — location: 792
He touched Inej’s shoulder briefly. That was all the signal they needed. He raced for the nearest alleyway. He didn’t have to look to know she was beside him—silent, sure-footed. She could have outpaced him in an instant, but they ran in tandem, matching each other step for step. — location: 2059
Kaz heard the clomp of boots approaching, felt Inej bend backward over his kneeling form, and heard a soft whoosh , then the sound of a body falling. The lock gave beneath Kaz’s fingers and the shackles fell free. He rose, whirled, saw one stadwatch officer down, the shaft of the oyster knife protruding from between his eyes, — location: 2018
That was all it took—she leapt onto the railing of the bridge and vanished over the side without a second guess. — location: 2022
He was just a boy fueled by a white flame of rage, one that threatened to burn the pretense of the hard-won civility he maintained to ash. — location: 2608
Yes, why the net? Why something that would complicate the assault he’d planned on the silos and leave them twice as open to exposure? I couldn’t bear to watch you fall. — location: 2617
She’d tricked him. The decent, honest, pious Wraith had outsmarted him. He turned to look back at the long expanse of roof he was going to have to traverse to get back to the boat. “Curse you and all your Saints,” he said to no one at all, then realized he was smiling. — location: 2751
So why had he insisted that he accompany her? That was dangerous thinking—the kind of thinking that had gotten Inej captured in the first place. — location: 2758
Thoughts of moonlight and silken hair evaporated in a black bolt of fury. — location: 2791
“I’m going to open Van Eck up,” he said quietly. “I’m going to give him a wound that can’t be sewn shut, that he’ll never recover from. The kind that can’t be healed.” “The kind you endured?” “Yes.” It was a promise. It was an admission. — location: 2799
“He was going to break my legs ,” she said, her chin held high, the barest quaver in her voice. “Would you have come for me then, Kaz? When I couldn’t scale a wall or walk a tightrope? When I wasn’t the Wraith anymore?” Dirtyhands would not. The boy who could get them through this, get their money, keep them alive, would do her the courtesy of putting her out of her misery, then cut his losses and move on. “I would come for you,” he said, and when he saw the wary look she shot him, he said it again. “I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.” — location: 2806
He was always in motion, like a lanky piece of clockwork that ran on invisible energy. Except clocks were simple. Wylan could only guess at Jesper’s workings. — location: 3065
“Unless the ghosts just got a lot more lively,” Jesper said, “it looks like we have company.” — location: 4011
On the high wire, she was beholden to no one, a creature without past or present, suspended between earth and sky. — location: 4105
that they could be more than two wary creatures united by their distrust of the world. — location: 4190
“You’re not weak because you can’t read. You’re weak because you’re afraid of people seeing your weakness. You’re letting shame decide who you are. — location: 4291
Kaz put on a spurt of speed and dropped into a slide. He braced his cane horizontally across his chest and shot between the guards, letting the cane bash into their shins, knocking them from their feet. — location: 4554
Nina glanced from Inej to Kaz and saw they both wore the same expression. Nina knew that look. It came after the shipwreck, when the tide moved against you and the sky had gone dark. It was the first sight of land, the hope of shelter and even salvation that might await you on a distant shore. — location: 4749
But they were his first friends, his only friends, and Wylan knew that even if he’d had his pick of a thousand companions, these would have been the people he chose. — location: 4889
“It’s done.” He’d liquidated every asset he had, used the last of the savings he’d accrued, every ill-gotten cent. — location: 5392
Tell her to get out , a voice inside him demanded. Beg her to stay. — location: 5434
It’s shame that eats men whole. He was drowning in it. Drowning in the Ketterdam harbor. His eyes blurred. — location: 5460
the voice that had once led him back from hell. — location: 5462
She’d had numerous chances to be free of Kaz, and she’d never taken them. — location: 5537
He stood leaning on his cane, hair neatly pushed back from his pale brow, a black glass boy of deadly edges. — location: 5592
Kaz wiped a sleeve across his face, smearing blood over his nose and forehead, and spat. — location: 5658
But this was no cheap comedy. It was a bloody rite, and Per Haskell had let the congregation gather, never realizing that the real performance had yet to begin. — location: 5686
And that was what destroyed you in the end: the longing for something you could never have. — location: 6350
Innocence was a luxury, and Inej did not believe her Saints demanded it. — location: 6860
We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary. That was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway. — location: 6887
“You’re my son, Jesper. I can’t protect you. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried. But I will be there even when you falter. Every time.” Jesper hugged his father tight. Remember this feeling , he told himself. Remember all you have to lose. — location: 7658
Now Inej was shaking, her hands pressed to her mouth, watching them move up the dock toward the quay. She started forward, then turned back to Kaz. “Come with me,” she said. “Come meet them.” Kaz nodded as if steeling himself, flexed his fingers once more. “Wait,” he said. The burn of his voice was rougher than usual. “Is my tie straight?” Inej laughed, her hood falling back from her hair. “That’s the laugh,” he murmured, but she was already setting off down the quay, her feet barely touching the ground. “Mama!” she called out. “Papa!” Inej saw them turn, saw her mother grip her father’s arm. They were running toward her. Her heart was a river that carried her to the sea. — location: 7890