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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
medium-paced
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Just as great as the rest of the series.
I thought I would struggle adjusting from childhood Bitterblue, but it was wonderful to see her come into her own person.
I thought I would struggle adjusting from childhood Bitterblue, but it was wonderful to see her come into her own person.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting
medium-paced
in the end i found that i quite enjoyed the book! that being said, while i love bitterblue and all of the characters, the overall story to me felt a bit slow up until that last quater or so of the book. that being said, though, i still very much enjoyed it and the characters and i do not regret reading it, i just wouldn't say it was my favorite of the graceling books so far
March 31, 2020
3.5/5 stars
Bitterblue is the final instalment in the Graceling series/companion novels. While Graceling and Fire can be read out of order, reading Bitterblue prior to the other two novels will definitely spoil you for the series. This review contains potential spoilers for both Graceling and Fire.
Bitterblue takes place several years after Graceling and we follow Queen Bitterblue as she tries to rebuild and heal her kingdom after the hardships faced under the malicious and uncompromising King Leck.
Graceling is a series that revolves around Leck. With Graceling Leck was this threatening, and disturbing figure, looming in the background and I enjoyed the sense of mystery revolving around his character. With Fire we explore Leck’s origins, and his motivations. And lastly with Bitterblue we explore Leck’s reign and the damage and trauma he inflicted on his people, and it's dark, Leck is truly one of the worst villains I’ve ever read.
Kristin Cashore is a fantastic writer but, and I didn’t feel this way about either Graceling or Fire, I felt I wasn’t the correct age demographic for this novel and that there were often things hinted at that I thought obvious but that took Bitterblue ages to figure out. Bitterblue's inner monologue wasn't exactly exciting, and I really wasn’t interested in all the talk of ciphers and thought they bogged down the text quite a bit. As much as I wanted to connect to Bitterblue's character, I really didn't. I wasn't too invested in any of the other characters though either, and while I did love seeing Katsa and Po again, I didn’t care about their conflicts. The one relationship that I was surprisingly invested in was that of Bitterblue and Giddeon. I really enjoyed seeing how much Giddeon matured over time and I thought his relationship with Bitterblue was very sweet.
I also liked exploring the consequences of a country governed by a toxic ruler and difficulties endured in order to reverse the damage. I especially liked discovering Monsea’s history along with Bitterblue and thought that was a great addition to the world building.
This novel also contains one of my least favourite types of romantic conflict, That just annoys me to no end. I'm now of the opinion that Graceling is the strongest novel of the three, but if you enjoyed Bitterblue's character in Graceling then I think Bitterblue is worth picking up.
May 17, 2017
4/5 stars
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3.5/5 stars
Bitterblue is the final instalment in the Graceling series/companion novels. While Graceling and Fire can be read out of order, reading Bitterblue prior to the other two novels will definitely spoil you for the series. This review contains potential spoilers for both Graceling and Fire.
Bitterblue takes place several years after Graceling and we follow Queen Bitterblue as she tries to rebuild and heal her kingdom after the hardships faced under the malicious and uncompromising King Leck.
Graceling is a series that revolves around Leck. With Graceling Leck was this threatening, and disturbing figure, looming in the background and I enjoyed the sense of mystery revolving around his character. With Fire we explore Leck’s origins, and his motivations. And lastly with Bitterblue we explore Leck’s reign and the damage and trauma he inflicted on his people, and it's dark, Leck is truly one of the worst villains I’ve ever read.
Kristin Cashore is a fantastic writer but, and I didn’t feel this way about either Graceling or Fire, I felt I wasn’t the correct age demographic for this novel and that there were often things hinted at that I thought obvious but that took Bitterblue ages to figure out. Bitterblue's inner monologue wasn't exactly exciting, and I really wasn’t interested in all the talk of ciphers and thought they bogged down the text quite a bit. As much as I wanted to connect to Bitterblue's character, I really didn't. I wasn't too invested in any of the other characters though either, and while I did love seeing Katsa and Po again, I didn’t care about their conflicts. The one relationship that I was surprisingly invested in was that of Bitterblue and Giddeon. I really enjoyed seeing how much Giddeon matured over time and I thought his relationship with Bitterblue was very sweet.
I also liked exploring the consequences of a country governed by a toxic ruler and difficulties endured in order to reverse the damage. I especially liked discovering Monsea’s history along with Bitterblue and thought that was a great addition to the world building.
This novel also contains one of my least favourite types of romantic conflict,
Spoiler
that’s when the main character is hiding their identity for a good reason and when their love interest finds out the love interest is unreasonably angry.May 17, 2017
4/5 stars
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“...when truths disappear, they leave behind blank spaces, and that is also dangerous.”
This was definitely better than Fire but perhaps not as well developed as Graceling? I still haven't decided because Bitterblue provides a lot of development for the Graceling Realm, but it's very long and drawn out. This was a LONG book and I often felt like we lost the plot. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because the side plots were connected to Leck, but it wasn't as focused on Bitterblue rising to power rather unraveling the past that Leck had in Monsea. All of her advisors were the staff of Leck's and they were all absolutely hellbent on erasing the past from the kingdom. Many of them also suffered from extremely poor mental health, due in part to Leck's mind control.
This was definitely better than Fire but perhaps not as well developed as Graceling? I still haven't decided because Bitterblue provides a lot of development for the Graceling Realm, but it's very long and drawn out. This was a LONG book and I often felt like we lost the plot. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, because the side plots were connected to Leck, but it wasn't as focused on Bitterblue rising to power rather unraveling the past that Leck had in Monsea. All of her advisors were the staff of Leck's and they were all absolutely hellbent on erasing the past from the kingdom. Many of them also suffered from extremely poor mental health, due in part to Leck's mind control.
Bitterblue wanted to increase the literacy rates in Monsea based on meeting two commoners on the street, who claimed that most people couldn't read and that the school systems were in shambles. However, her advisors claimed that the kingdom had a 98% employment rate and that 90% of the citizens could read. This kicked off several side plots including romance, a civil war in Estill, mazes in the castle, callbacks to Fire and the monsters of the Dells, the suppression of knowledge and burning of books, and so many ciphers that she can somehow decipher at the age of 18.
Favorite Character: Sapphire. I didn't like him at first because I was hoping based on his description that he was a descendant of Archer from Fire, but he wasn't. He's a graceling from Lineid who doesn't know his grace. But more importantly, he's determined to find the truth from Leck's reign. He and his friend Teddy have a printing shop where they print dictionaries and historical texts that are seemingly obliterated from Monsea. Saf also steals things that were stolen under the Leck regime and returns those items to their original owners. He's a very Robin Hood type character and I think it suited the trilogy better than Bitterblue's character. Katsa, Po, Fire, Brigan, and Archer were all rebels in some form, while Bitterblue was more or less obsessed with becoming the perfect queen and focused on things that made her "queenly" rather than a good leader. Oh, and I loved Death and his cat Lovejoy.
The Good: we learn more about what happened under Leck's rule, which was horrendous and disturbing, but it gave more depth to the first two novels. After meeting Fire, Leck was OBSESSED with recreating the Dells in Monsea. He wanted monsters with mind control and he wanted to control the Gracelings. Even with a thousand different plot points, most of it came together as the book progressed. Sapphire and Teddy are providing intel from the city, Katsa and Po are providing updates from Lineid and the Middluns, Giddon is aiding the Counsel in freedom for oppressed Gracelings, and the Dellians finding a passage way into Monsea with Fire at the lead. All of this is happening simultaneously with Bitterblue unraveling the madness that went down in the kingdom as she dodges life threatening situations and turncoat spies. It's A LOT.
The Bad: the CIPHERS. You're telling me that an 18 year old queen who spent most of her childhood living in fear and under the control of a mind freak can just determine ciphers and decode messages from decades prior? This was such a big plot point and while a singular cipher or secret language could have worked great, there were so many different ciphers that made absolutely zero sense. Bitterblue could look at a message, guess a word that the cipher followed, and decode the message. And she's not a Graceling. Other than that, I felt like the twist with the advisors was glaringly obvious from the start and the romance with Sapphire AND Giddon was incredibly forced. Runnemood, Rood, and Thiel (horrible names by the way) were actively erasing history that occurred under Leck's reign to "avoid further pain for the queen". They were killing off people, framing the innocent, and burning anything that mentioned Leck. While this behavior is associated with their crimes committed under Leck's rule, that he FORCED them to commit with his grace, erasing history isn't the answer and was a tad selfish on their part. Thiel's suicide was the only logical thing for his character to do. But Bitterblue crashing out that no one should ever take their own life? It's his life to take, yes it's tragic and Leck forcing him and the others to kidnap, rape, and murder children is equally as tragic. That entire side plot frustrated me. They couldn't live with themselves once they regained their memories. They shouldn't have erased history to make everyone else forget. Bitterblue shouldn't have threatened them to not commit suicide. But that's my opinion
Well, a long review for a long book. I didn't hate it but didn't love it either.
The Bad: the CIPHERS. You're telling me that an 18 year old queen who spent most of her childhood living in fear and under the control of a mind freak can just determine ciphers and decode messages from decades prior? This was such a big plot point and while a singular cipher or secret language could have worked great, there were so many different ciphers that made absolutely zero sense. Bitterblue could look at a message, guess a word that the cipher followed, and decode the message. And she's not a Graceling. Other than that, I felt like the twist with the advisors was glaringly obvious from the start and the romance with Sapphire AND Giddon was incredibly forced.
Well, a long review for a long book. I didn't hate it but didn't love it either.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No