Threes Across the Board

It took me a while to get through this book. It had a slow beginning. The middle and end are pretty lively. I think this is generally a good heist book. It has some twists and turns to keep you engaged. The perspective characters are solid. The world-building is similarly solid. Bardugo manages to insert enough character backstory into the narrative to really flesh out the individuals' motivations. Just the right amount actually. All in all, a well-executed caper.



I get that this book is aimed at the teen demographic so it makes sense that the characters be around that age. The characters in this book think they are in their mid 30s to mid 40s the only one who disagrees is the author. She thinks they are all late teens. They all make perfect sense in manor, personal backstory, and speech, except when their ages are brought up. One character being wise and hardened beyond his or her years, I get. Maybe two. But every single one of them, by the exact same amount? Come on.



It was also quite ambitious for the author to take on so many perspective characters. I feel that this was a mixed blessing. It does add texture, but it also gets overused to keep you ignorant of what is going on so that the author can bring out surprises.



The many readers was also a mixed blessing. Some were good. The female readers were generally very good. The male ones were much more uneven. The man reading the main character, Kaz, sounded like he was telling a vampire story to 4 yr. olds around a campfire. He wouldn't just read the words as much as sing some of them. Too much over-emoting. The one reading Jesper's tone was solid, but had different pronunciations for many of the in-book concepts. You'd figure the editor would just tell them that they pronounce "X" a certain way.



It looks like this series will continue though as of this writing, book 2 has not been published. I might check it out. Maybe. It is not going into my list of ones to watch out for. I could take it or leave it.

