Oh, To Be The Owner Of A Small Bookshop On A Cobblestone Street With Roses Climbing The Front Of The

How Six of Crows taught me that it was okay to not always feel fine

Since today is World Mental Health Day, I wanted to address a side of Six of Crows that has always been quite an important aspect to me.  

Mental illness and awareness is a huge topic in today’s society, and right of the top of my head, I can think of some brilliant YA novels that talk about the subjects; The Perks of Being a Wallflower, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Turtles all the Way Down, and so on. The list is endless. But there seems to be a distinct lack of YA fantasy books that deal with mental health topics. I did a google search, and sure, you could argue that Harry Potter suffers from PTSD (controversial topic which I’m not going to express my opinion right here), or that Frodo Baggins suffers from depression (not a YA book, but you get the point), but the actual amount of YA fantasy novels where we can actually all agree that the protagonist or a side character suffer from a mental illness is incredibly small. Yes, it does exist, and a quick shoutout to all the fantasy authors who do write about mental health issues. I’m not gonna name any out of fear for forgetting any, but feel free to reblog this with any fantasy YA mental health awareness books you’d recommend (my personal favourite apart from SoC would probably be the Raven Cycle).

But honestly, Leigh Bardugo shows us that it is very much possible. A couple of her protagonists suffer from actual mental illnesses, others are insecure, or non-conforming in some way. Their issues are smoothly integrated into the story and help advance the plot by creating problems and secrets. It makes the characters incredibly interesting and round. It creates the least-cliché romantic side-plots I’ve ever read in a YA novel. And you know what? I think we, as readers, can learn something from every single one of the Crows.

Kaz Brekker teaches us that mental illnesses shouldn’t stop us from achieving our dreams. He teaches that you can not be able to touch anyone but still be powerful. That a horrible childhood doesn’t have to drag us down. Kaz teaches us how to be determined.

Inej Ghafa teaches us that faith can get us anywhere. She teaches us how to stand up to the people we’re afraid of, and that things that have happened to us in the past don’t have to define us. Inej teaches us how to be strong.

Jesper Fahey teaches us that it’s sometimes okay to go off the rails. That people make mistakes (and sometimes make a lot of them). Jesper teaches us how to be human.

Wylan van Eck teaches us that we are not our parents. He teaches us that we have the right to be our own people and don’t have to follow in anybody’s footsteps if we don’t want to. He teaches us to not listen to mockeries and insults. Wylan teaches us how to be independent.

Like Jesper, Nina teaches us that sometimes, we make terrible mistakes. she teaches us how to make them right. But she also teaches us to not be ashamed of who we are, even if we are different or special, and that our body weight does not define us. Nina teaches us to be proud.

And Matthias. Matthias Helvar teaches us that the way we we were raised doesn’t define us. You don’t have to follow the morals and the values and the hatred that may have been burned into your head. He shows us that people have the ability to change. They have the ability to forgive and be forgiven. He shows us that sometimes it’s okay to not know whether you’re doing the right thing. That sometimes, humans lose their way and have to find it again. Matthias teaches us how to develop.

Determination, strength, humanity, independence, pride, development. You know what? Those are some values I can get behind. And these six anti-heroic criminals teach us so much more. Of course, they teach us that it’s okay to not be heterosexual. They teach us that love isn’t always easy. That sometimes our pasts catch up with us. That we can’t always do what we want. But they also teach us that there are always people out there for us. A family. Friends. People who love us.

And I guess I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you to Leigh Bardugo, for creating such wonderfully human characters that I cried for and smiled for even though the real world was trying to drag me down. Thank you for creating characters who helped me understand that it’s okay not to feel fine.

And I also wanted to say, to everybody who is reading this horribly long monologue of mine (thanks for that, by the way), that you’re an amazing individual and you too can be a total badass like our favourite criminals if you put your mind to it. Stay safe, folks. And stay strong.

Happy World Mental Health Day.

ALSO, there’s a difference between stanning Joost - who was an innocent boy who literally didn’t mean to harm anyone and was just caught in the crossfire of an experiment gone wrong - and stanning an entitled white woman who wanted to harm a girl of colour because she thought she would find glory in her death. 

Basically: Dunyasha stans don’t try to excuse away your bad behaviour and learn reading comprehension 🙄

“I hear a symphony” by Cody Fry is literally Wesper

No cause what if Locke had a crush on Cardan the whole time

Kaz in Six of Crows: 

Kaz in Crooked Kingdom: 

This scene, honestly. I just love it. especially the part where Kaz says "that's the laugh".🧡😭🧡.

Also... That little "is my tie straight" vulnerability from Kaz is one of the most precious things I have read.

And also that "He had his arm around her".

The fact that they both had such deep wounds and their PTSD. And also maybe because they never really had any kissing scenes, my brain has just made all of of their encounters super intimate. And. I.cant.stop.crying.

I just love this scene so much.

CROOKED KINGDOM AND RULE OF WOLVES SPOILER

“Go little rockstar” but it’s Matthias watching Nina have mercy on his people

This is the scene that says Kaz has officically adopted Wylan.😂😂😂

This is Kaz being a dad.

I would LOVE to see him as a dad though one day. He would either be showering his kids in Kruge or reading to them Suli bed time stories. Or idk what. My imagination is running kinda wild at the moment.

@sixofcrowsnet heist: tragedies

“wylan understood then that he would never reach the school in belendt. he’d never been meant to. there was no secretary. no account in his name. no one was expecting his arrival. the supposed enrollment papers in his pocket might say anything at all. wylan hadn’t even bothered to try to read them. he was going to disappear, just as his father had always wanted, and he’d hired these men to do the job. (…) black spots filled wylan’s vision. he thought he could hear music”

CHARACTERS OF COLOR: inej ghafa → six of crows

But what about the rest of us? What about the nobodies and the nothings, the invisible girls? We learn to hold our heads as if we wear crowns. We learn to wring magic from the ordinary. That was how you survived when you weren’t chosen, when there was no royal blood in your veins. When the world owed you nothing, you demanded something of it anyway.