Six of Crows

-They’re not exactly friends; they more so use each other for their own ends. And over that relationship they do develop a begrudging fondness for each other, which I think is very important because this a mixed group of people and the relationships are all gonna be different. Kaz learns to open up and trust others slowly, and the fact that this trust extends to Nina is really important for his character. 

-They’re both masters of BDE. Putting them together is too much power. They obliterate everyone in their presence.

-Everyone’s got their own way of standing up to Kaz, but Nina’s really obvious about it. She’s not afraid of him or soft on him the way Jesper, Inej, and Wylan are. She’s not easily bested by him like Matthias. That leads to Nina flat-out challenging him multiple times. He wants to leave the Grisha in the city, and she’s like “Fuck that. You may be a horrible person, but I’m not” and then proceeds to get his biggest player (Inej) on her side. 

-I think of everyone, she poses the biggest threat to him because he can’t exactly stop her from plunging his heart rate. (And she threatens it a lot.) He relies on her goodness and his bargaining chips to prevent her from actually doing it.

-Also, let’s not forget her fun little dig at his hair. Everyone thinks he looks a little ridiculous, but who the hell is gonna say it to his face but Nina? 

-Calling each other by their last names. But ALSO, “Nina dear” and “Nina sweet”. Like how the heck did that get started. Is it the fact that he knows that she can best him so he has to be sweet to her but he’ll only do it sarcastically? Anyway, I love that he has pet names for her. 

-Go reread her introduction in SOC. It’s literally full of internal praises from Kaz. He admires her skills, her surviving, her power, etc. 

-While you’re rereading her introduction, notice that she’s the first one he tells the plan to. He doesn’t tell Inej or Jesper. He tells Nina about it first. He probably figures she won’t be game unless he tells her, but he could also just have been like “Yo, I need Helvar. Let’s go.” But he takes the time to explain it and bargain with her into going along with it. He clearly respects her.

-They have great comebacks. “How about I crack your skull open like a robin’s egg?” “You don’t want a look at what’s inside my head, Nina dear.”

-They don’t have a lot of interactions in CK which is a fucking shame because they are the definition of Power Bro couple.

this ask is probably a year old at this point and i’m very sorry about this, but here ya gooo

- kaz insists on smoking hand-rolled cigarettes only and he has mastered the art of rolling them while wearing gloves

- every now and then he’ll let nina roll them for him instead

- ‘come on, my love, i need to practice. everything i do is part of the art of seduction. and it’s an art that is only worth anything when well-practiced.’

- she’d bat her lashes innocently while saying this and kaz would hand over his tobacco and papers without a word, a cold, amused smirk on his face

- jesper steals fuel from other people’s cars of course

- and also steals fuel straight from the petrol station while nina distracts the owner of the place: her head tilted to one side, a seductive smile on her face as she looks up and hands him a perfectly rolled cigarette

- nina absolutely refuses to cut her hair in the fashionable flapper bob because ‘that style was not made for girls like me with face shapes like mine. absolutely not, kaz. you go chop off your hair, why don’t you?’

- inej quietly complies. she is too easy to pick out in a crowd as it is. there aren’t many suli in ketterdam and fewer still with a long braid hanging down their back. these are times of fringes and sequins.

- kaz grinds his teeth when he sees wylan cut straight across her thick braid. ‘i’m good with a pair of scissors,’ he assures her. inej had always had a soft spot for the gentle boy. 'i’ve trusted you with my life, i think i can trust you with my hair’

- he’ll be damned if she ever finds out, but kaz keeps a lock of her hair on the inside of a custom made pocket watch.

- kaz gets inej to carry a small gun in her beaded handbag whenever they go to the dancehalls of the barrel for negotiations. she insists that her knives are all the protection she needs, but gives in to the pleading look in his eyes.

- inej’ bob is often scraped back on one side with a suli hair-comb. needless to say, she had wylan work on it and it now includes a retractable knife.

- the absolute most that matthias will agree to do for the dregs, is to work as the crows’ bodyguard.

- he’s a boy from a conservative country. these jazz tunes blasting from each and every den in the barrel are new to him - as are the revealing dresses and easy manner of the women in ketterdam.

- disapproval struggles with longing when he watches nina apply dark eyeshadow and heavy perfume.

- inej does up nina’s hair in elaborate styles with diamonds and rubies clipped in.

- nina reaches up to squeeze her hand when she notices the sadness in inej’s look. 'it’s silly, it was only hair-’, inej starts. nina cuts her off: 'it was a part of you and your past. it was part of everything you’ve become.’ she lights a cigarette and blows the smoke up, her gaze still holding inej’s 'but that can be a good thing: now that it’s gone, so is the pain that it grew through.’ she smiles at inej’s reflection. 'now, when did you start to smoke?’, is her reply. inej is grateful for nina’s lightness.

- keeping jesper away from the kids that sell coke is a job and a half - and it usually falls to nina to do it.

- 'i wouldn’t take it’ jesper is reluctant to look her in the eye. 'there’s money in it, though. kaz told me to see what’s what, you know? see who’s selling and for how much.’ 'kaz would gladly send all of us to the devil if there was money in it.’ there is bitterness in nina’s urgent voice. 'that’s not true. it can’t be. surely…’ jesper suddenly looks very tired. nina lowers the gin bottle from her lips and looks at him. she hugs jesper tightly before passing the drink over to him.

- inej cherishes cold mornings in ketterdam. with a flat cap on her head, her wiry build easily allows her to pass as a messenger boy on his first errand of the day. she breathes in the morning mist as she walks past staggering figures emerging from gambling dens. she can almost taste the sea breeze on the air.

- kaz runs a tightly-structured shop. his only concession to personal weakness is his smoking habit and his gloves, of course.

- oh yeah, he carries a silver cigarette case with a crow engraved on the front.

- however, he uses matches instead of a lighter because he’s 'a boy from the barrel, after all’

2018’s Top Books

The oldest book on this list is from 1813. They didn’t even have the internet back then.