Can You Read Six of Crows Without Reading Shadow and Bone?

Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows is consistently rated higher than Shadow and Bone — it’s darker, faster, has a better ensemble cast, and is widely considered one of YA fantasy’s finest heist novels. But it’s set in the same Grishaverse as the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and was published three years later. Can you start there?

The Short Answer

Yes, you can read Six of Crows first. It works as an almost-standalone novel. Many readers have done it.

But the recommendation is to read Shadow and Bone first. Here’s exactly why.

What You’ll Miss Starting with Six of Crows

The World-Building

The Grishaverse — the world of Grisha magic, the Second Army, the political map of Ravka, Fjerda, and Kerch — is established in the Shadow and Bone trilogy. Six of Crows drops you into Ketterdam (a city based on Amsterdam) and assumes you understand the world’s basic mechanics.

Readers who start with Six of Crows often find they’re picking up world-building on the fly rather than having it explained — which some readers prefer (deep end learning), and others find frustrating.

Character Context

Kaz Brekker, Inej, Jesper, Wylan, Nina, and Matthias are all new characters introduced in Six of Crows. They’re not from the Shadow and Bone trilogy. So the main cast is fully new regardless of reading order.

However, Nina Zenik is a Grisha whose understanding of her own powers makes more sense with Grisha world-building from the trilogy. The Darkling is referenced in ways that land differently depending on whether you’ve met him properly in Shadow and Bone.

Spoilers for Shadow and Bone

Six of Crows contains minor spoilers for events in the Shadow and Bone trilogy — specifically, events from the end of the trilogy are part of the world’s recent history. If you plan to read Shadow and Bone eventually, starting with Six of Crows slightly flattens some of the trilogy’s tension.

What You’ll Gain Starting with Six of Crows

• Better first impression. Many readers who bounce off Shadow and Bone fall in love with Six of Crows. If you start with Shadow and Bone and give up, you’ll never reach Six of Crows.
• Faster pacing immediately. The Gunslinger-problem: if the entry point is slower than what follows, some readers don’t make it to the good stuff.
• The heist structure. Six of Crows is a heist novel — it has a very different structure from Shadow and Bone’s coming-of-age fantasy. Readers who specifically want heist fiction may prefer starting where the heist is.

The Recommended Compromise

Read the Shadow and Bone trilogy’s first book (Shadow and Bone) before starting Six of Crows. Just the first book — 350 pages — gives you enough Grishaverse context to understand the world Six of Crows inhabits, without committing to all three trilogy books before getting to Kaz and the Crows.

After Shadow and Bone (Book 1), go to Six of Crows directly. Come back to Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising (Shadow and Bone Books 2 and 3) after the Six of Crows duology if you want the complete picture.

The Six of Crows Reading Order

1. Six of Crows (2015)

2. Crooked Kingdom (2016)

The complete Six of Crows reading order is on the series page. Two books; complete duology. Crooked Kingdom concludes the story satisfyingly — this is a finished arc, not a cliffhanger waiting for more.

After Six of Crows

The King of Scars duology (King of Scars, Rule of Wolves) continues in the Grishaverse with characters from both Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. Read the full Grishaverse (both trilogies/duologies) before starting King of Scars.