I need to just express my appreciation for the Six of Crows duology and it’s ending. Not only does the hero’s story begin and end with plague, one of which controls him and the other controlled by him, not just that. His motif, his insistence that he’s a monster. The story told by the two books starts and ends with Kaz employing the same tactic to win: when everyone knows you’re a monster, you don’t have to do every monstrous thing. He’s done some horrific stuff over the course of the books, and we, the readers, start to get comfortable with him, to understand his backstory, even excuse his behavior. It isn’t until the end of the second book that we are confronted with the idea that Kaz may be beyond saving, and not until later do we find out that yes, he is human, yes, he is worth saving. AND, his story begins and ends with an innocent little boy on the brink of death for a crime he didn’t commit, and the choice Kaz makes to spare him, so the cycle of hardening children ends with him. Anyway, the parallels in just his story are amazing, so they needed a rant. I’m sure more will follow.