Warning! Mentions of forced prostitution
Spoilers for the novels.
The duology Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo is about to get its own part in a TV show, which I am very excited about because I greatly enjoyed the novels. For everybody who has no idea what I’m talking about, the novels take place in a fantasy world where Bardugo’s other series take place as well. Instead of focusing on the power struggle and war in Ravka, fantasy-Russia, however, these novels follow young street gang members in Ketterdam, fantasy-Amsterdam, as they commit a near-impossible heist in fantasy-Finland (Six of Crows) and deal with the resulting consequences (Crooked Kingdom).
The leader of the operation, Kaz Brekker, is a ruthless criminal, cruel and seemingly without mercy. He is respected and feared and appears to care about nothing except money. His right-hand woman, Inej Ghafa, is an acrobat and spy, who joined the gang to pay off her debts after they freed her from forced prostitution.
Despite his cold and callous exterior (the most positive thing anyone might hear from him is that they’re useful), Inej (along with the group’s sharpshooter Jesper) is in love with him. That Kaz cares more than he lets on - and more about her in specific - becomes obvious when Inej gets wounded early on.
The novels are fast-paced, action-heavy and dense in plot. Character development, nevertheless, is communicated very well through the changing point-of-view with every chapter. Thus, the reader is privy to every character’s thought processes and emotions which provides ample opportunity to get to know the characters, their relationships towards each other, and their growth and change.
By the end of Crooked Kingdom, it is clear that Inej’s love for Kaz isn’t and has never been unrequited*. Due to Kaz’ role, circumstances and character, however, he didn’t acknowledge these feelings even to himself. But it’s all good now, right? We did some growing and some changing and things happened that prompted us to confront our feelings for each other, so we can be together now, right?
Wrong. Because mutual feelings and mutual acknowledgement of those feelings does not erase years of trauma.
As the reader finds out, Kaz’ stoicism and style - he wears clothes that cover all parts of his body except his head - isn’t just carefully curated to evoke fear and respect, it is also necessary for him to cope with the world. When he was a child, he and his brother were tricked out of their money by con-artists and forced to live on the street. Consequently, they were vulnerable to an illness sweeping the city at that time. His brother died and he was presumed dead and thrown in with the rest of the corpses on islands. To survive he had to use his dead brother’s corpse as a float to get back to the city. This experience, naturally, left him with deep psychological scars and as a result he isn’t able to touch another human’s skin without it triggering a paralyzing flashback.
Inej lived a happy life with her parents’ traveling circus until she was kidnapped by slavers and forced into prostitution. In addition the owner of the establishment was cruel and regularly beat her for perceived misdeeds. And while Inej is more free with the gang than she was before, the gang leader technically still owns her, a fact that doesn’t change until the end of Crooked Kingdom.
They try to touch and kiss, but their respective traumas prevent them from even enjoying it. They recognize that while their bond is strong and their love for each other deep that they both need to heal and recover some more before anything resembling a romantic relationship is possible and healthy for either of them.
And that’s. That’s just so good and important. Because often in media love is presented as this cure-all which overcomes all obstacles. And sure that is a romantic staple and a beautiful thought but in real life the fact that you love each other sometimes isn’t enough for a romantic relationship to be healthy and good. As someone who lives with mental illness this is especially poignant. Sometimes a romantic relationship isn’t what you need, even if you might want it, and might even be counter-productive to your recovery process, which, nevertheless, does not diminish the love you feel.
Satori over and out
*Jesper, in the meantime, found a new love in merchant’s son and explosion expert Wylan Van Eck. They end up happy and living together in the mansion that they threw Wylan’s asshole father out of and help each other through their difficulties, which is also very good.
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