If you laughed, cried, and kicked your feet through the events of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, you won't want to miss Leigh Bardugo's latest addition to the Grishaverse: Six of Crows: A Darker Shore, Letters From Ketterdam. An interactive short story brought to life with stunning illustrations, the fantasy release makes for a fairly fast read — and it's the perfect return to Ketterdam after all these years.
While Bardugo's story primarily serves as a means of catching up with the Crows, it's not just the happily ever after they deserved in Crooked Kingdom. There's a mystery at its core, one involving a massacre off the coast of Ketterdam. Readers are given the chance to unravel it through a series of letters, documents, and transcripts used for the investigation. Naturally, they place Kaz and Inej at the center of it all. This allows Letters From Ketterdam to give their feelings some much-wanted closure, while also proving that Kaz remains a master schemer. It's an all-around great time and a must-read for diehard Grishaverse fans.
Letters From Ketterdam feels like the extended epilogue that wouldn't have worked in Crooked Kingdom
Crooked Kingdom brings the Six of Crows duology to a bittersweet close, giving several characters satisfying send-offs — but also killing a key member of their crew. Bardugo balances this masterfully, painting a realistic picture of what happens in the immediate aftermath of their two-part adventure. It's a believable and fitting end, but it leaves things on a somber note.
It also leaves plenty up in the air, with Inej setting off to hunt slavers, Nina embarking on a new mission (covered in Bardugo's King of Scars duology), and the rest remaining behind. Their stories can go anywhere, though it seems obvious that the remaining pairs will settle down eventually. Letters From Ketterdam weighs in more definitively.
A decade later, Letters From Ketterdam gives the Crows the epilogue that would've been too long and joyful to top off Crooked Kingdom. Don't worry, there's still a nod to Matthias in its pages, but it shows the remaining characters achieving some level of purpose and peace. It also confirms they're still in touch, which is nice to see from an unlikely fantasy crew.
The communications between the group contain emotional notes that will leave the romantics in the fandom swooning. There's also the charm and humor you'd expect from the Crows, with Bardugo falling back into their voices seamlessly. It is worth noting that you'll need to be caught up on the King of Scars duology to understand one portion of the story. (If you don't mind spoilers, a quick Google search will also do.) All in all, Letters From Ketterdam is a reminder of why we love these characters and their dynamics. They're the central focus, though it does offer a story amid all the closure.
Six of Crows: A Darker Shore's central mystery and interactive nature are great additions
Six of Crows fans will eat up the interactions between the characters in Letters From Ketterdam, but Bardugo does an impressive job taking this story beyond a simple epilogue. The central mystery gives readers an actual plot to cling to, and it manages to be compelling at just 64 pages.
The massacre being investigated ties directly into the events of the duology, highlighting the political fallout of the Kuwei Yul-Bo business on Ketterdam's merchant class. In this regard, Bardugo isn't just wrapping up her characters' narratives with this new release; she's also giving closure to the iconic backdrop of her story.
The two characters investigating the incident are hardly the heart of this book, but they're developed and entertaining enough to keep readers thoroughly engaged. And the letters and documents they're poring over turn out to be more than meets the eye. Leave it to Kaz and Inej to turn regular correspondence into messages to decode. They're still a step ahead of everyone, and while one twist is out there even for Kaz, their plans come together nicely.
That's the most clever aspect of Six of Crows: A Darker Shore, and it proves that, like Kaz, Bargudo remains a talented plotter herself. She leaves us with two last letters to decipher. And although it may take readers a minute to piece everything together, the final messages between Kaz and Inej are well worth putting in the work for. They'll leave fans teary-eyed in the best way possible.
2026's new Six of Crows story will leave readers wanting book 3
If there's one complaint 2026's new Six of Crows story will leave readers with, it's this: it's just not enough of this world and these characters. That's a good problem for Bardugo's book to have, but if you're anything like me, it'll leave you desperately wanting Six of Crows 3. Bardugo seems open to returning in some capacity in the future — her letter in the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition says as much — but it does risk the satisfying endings established here. Needless to say, this story will leave you gutted to say goodbye again and satisfied all at once. I suppose that's how any great narrative should make you feel.
Verdict
Six of Crows: A Darker Shore is a masterful return to Bardugo's world and characters, and the unique structure lends itself well to its story. The illustrations, letters, and surprises within all contribute to the narrative in really fun ways. It makes the whole thing incredibly immersive, even if the book keeps readers at a distance with its epistolary format and coded messages. The choice to hide such communications within its pages is very on-brand for the Crows. Bardugo's latest has the feel of a Ketterdam adventure, even if we're just reading about one.
The author recaptures the characters' voices and relationships well, too, balancing familiarity with how much they've progressed since Crooked Kingdom's end. She gives them deeper send-offs as individuals and pairings, and she even addresses the aftermath in Ketterdam on a larger scale. It's a lot to accomplish in such a short space, but Bardugo pulls it off impressively. The final messages between Kaz and Inej could easily be the end of their story, but they're ambiguous enough to revisit if she chooses to. This is the follow-up the Crows and Grishaverse fans deserve, and the 10-year wait makes it that much more gratifying.
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