Limited Edition Six of Crows & Crooked Kingdom Litjoy Review

Hello! I am so excited to finally make this post!

During April of 2023, I pre-ordered the Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom special edition volumes that were put out by Litjoy. This special edition set was slated to ship in the Fall of 2023, and includes all of the following:

• The Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo: Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom
• NEW Foiled Casewrap Covers
• NEW Foiled Dust Jackets (with clever die cuts!)
• Leigh Bardugo’s digital signature in both books
• TIP-IN ART pages
• Custom ENDPAPERS
• 100+ Handwritten ANNOTATIONS by Leigh Bardugo with thoughts and insights in the first book,Six of Crows
• Custom SLIPCASE
• Custom PAGE EDGES
• Printed on acid-free paper
• Preorder gift – Key to the Crow Club

Yes, I did copy and paste that straight out of my email. For authenticity’s sake, of course, and not at all because I’m lazy.

Considering this is one of my favorite fantasy duologies, I was extremely interested in a special edition set that contained annotations from Leigh Bardugo herself. I love being able to get a glimpse into an author’s mind as they’re working on their craft, especially as an aspiring writer, so this was an offer too enticing to pass up.

As someone who had never ordered from LitJoy before, I didn’t really know what to expect. I imagine there are other readers out there who may be in the same boat, so I’m breaking this review up into three parts:

• the shipping process and updates
• the extra’s included with the order
• the books and annotations

This way, you’ll get a thorough review of not just these specific books, but what you can expect if you order a different special edition set from this website in the future. Let’s get started!

Ordering, Shipping & Delivery

The first section of this review will cover the process of ordering and receiving the books. LitJoy does a lot of special or limited edition novels (they recently did Coraline and Stardust by Neil Gaiman), so I want to leave a review of what the process was like for anyone who is interested in using their service.

When I ordered the books in April, there was no set date for shipping. “Fall of 2023” is pretty broad, but one can generally assume that this means October or November. They sent regular shipping updates, but these updates only included information like “the books are still slated to ship in Fall!” which made them more redundant than informative.

Around October, the emails started saying “late Fall”, and then eventually there came the email that the shipment had been pushed to early 2024. This wasn’t especially disappointing for me because I had already waited a long time, so why not wait a little longer? However, I don’t like that they never set an actual date for shipping. Instead, I got an email that the books were preparing to ship in early January (no date included). Then, the next email I got was that the books had shipped and were on their way with no deliver estimate. All in all, it’s not terrible service, but more information would have been appreciated.

The reason the shipping was so far delayed was because the dust jackets arrived scratched up from being shipped to the LitJoy facility. Their solution was to ship out the book as is, and then ship reprinted dust jackets out separately. I understand issues can arise during shipping, and I thought it was great that this email was very detailed, informative, and addressed the issue before the books arrived. I will say that none of this information was available until after the notice about the books preparing to ship. It may have been nice to receive this information in the Fall, or whenever they realized the issue, to help understand why the books were taking so long.

The actual shipment and delivery went pretty seamlessly. They shipped the books through FedEx, which has been a solid shipping option in my area. I also received a notification the morning of the delivery, letting me know that the books would be delivered that day with a time estimate. This email came from LitJoy (not FedEx), so I appreciated that they took that extra step. It was raining on the day the books arrived, but I was able to ensure someone was home to retrieve them.

The books were shipped inside the box for the box set, and then the box itself was wrapped in large bubble wrap. The box for the set is made of a material that could have gotten scuffed or dented if it were rolling around in the package during transit, so I appreciated that they packaged the item well to stop this from happening.

Ultimately, I would say this was a pretty average online order. The delays and dust jacket issues weren’t great, but they handled the issues well enough that I’m not upset about it. Plus, these books are unique to LitJoy, so it’s not possible to order them through another service anyway. Even though there were hiccups, I’m happy with the actual product I received and how I received it.

Box & Extras

As seen in the header, the books come in a sturdy box with some extra fun bits added on. The material is a thick cardboard, and the outside has a gritty texture to it that I thought was a fun addition. The doors open to reveal the books inside, and the wings and sign pull out to create a nice visual for a shelf or display case. The wings and sign also have magnets on the back, so they will hold themselves onto the box if you prefer a sleeker look.

The Books

Each book comes with a foil dustjacket that I thought looked extremely well done and detailed. As mentioned, my copies do have scuffed dust jackets, but I’m excited to get shiny new ones in the future. They’re very reflective, and I did have to place them high up on my shelves to avoid the sun glinting off the foil during the day. This wouldn’t be an issue if you keep them in the box or face them spine out, but I think they look amazing and wanted to display the covers fully.

Speaking of detail, look at these! The page ends for the books are comprised of stunning artwork that shows essential characters and scenery from the books. I thought this was a nice touch since some of the other book editions have the red and black dyed page ends, though these are significantly more intricate. They did not skimp on the detail in any of the artistic or illustrative aspects, which has really created a stunning set of books.

Both the first and second copies have illustrations (like the above) throughout. They are printed on thick paper and have a satin finish (not too matte nor glossy). The thickness of the page may make the actual reading experience less pleasant since they’re harder to hold down, but it will ensure the longevity of the artwork, which is the priority for decorative editions.

There are also illustrated quotes spread throughout the book that have intricate designs similar to the covers of the books. I do like these designs, but I think I personally would have been in favor of more character artwork rather than illustrated quotations. Illustrated quotes to me always feel like the book versions of “Live, Laugh, Love” signs. Some of the quotes they chose weren’t ones that stood out to me, and then while the background illustrations are neat, they’re not as interesting or exceptional as the illustrated characters and scenes.

I really enjoyed the annotations, but I didn’t get as much out of them as I expected to. Some, like the one pictured above, explain why she included certain lore in her book, and I thought those were interesting to read. There are a lot of folklore stories built into this world, so understanding why certain stories were included is a neat piece of information.

However, some of the annotations were just Bardugo bracketing a paragraph or a few lines of writing with no explanation. In her defense, this is also how I annotate my books. I typically do this to emphasize a section or point out a bit of writing I found particularly engaging. However, it seems odd to do this in your own book, sort of like patting oneself on the back.

I’m sure that’s not the intention, but without any additional notes, I’m uncertain what the intention is. It seems odd to hype up your own writing, but she may just be pointing out a bit of the story she really likes. I don’t really know. Regardless, it’s too ambiguous for me. It seems unfair to say there are 100+ annotations included in the book, but then several of them are these seemingly random lines.

Considering that was the part of this set that I was most looking forward too, I am a little bit disappointed. I also wasn’t aware that she didn’t annotate both books. This is an oversight on my part, though, as it was stated in the description that only Six of Crows is annotated. I’m sure it was a time thing, but I do wish she’d been able to do both books since they come as a set. It feels odd to have one annotated book and one non-annotated book.

Overall, I’m really happy with my purchase. I think these special editions look absolutely lovely, and since I was already expecting to wait a while to receive them, I didn’t find the added delays too bothersome. It is unfortunate that I’ll have to wait another 6-8 weeks (at least…) to receive new dust jackets for the books, but this likely isn’t something they could have known ahead of time. It’s just all part of the process.

The Lit Wiz