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grayscale08's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Torture, Violence, War, and Body horror
Moderate: Grief, Kidnapping, Child death, Infertility, Suicide, Gore, Confinement, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Classism, Forced institutionalization, and Self harm
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Body shaming, Pregnancy, Animal death, Medical content, and Sexual content
queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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? No
4.0
4 ⭐ CW: violence, torture, blood, gore, death, war
Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake is the fourth and final book in the Three Dark Crowns series. This is such a good and underrated YA fantasy series! So many strong female characters, a cool magic system, a matriarchal society, and lovable and dynamic characters. Warning for spoilers of previous books.
This book did a great job bringing the series to an exciting climax and satisfying conclusion. I loved seeing how each of the sisters grew and changed throughout the four books. I love that it was a story about sisters, and about how none of them were what they were supposed to be. Mirabella, the oldest and a strong elemental unwilling to harm or fight others; Katherine, the youngest raised as a poisoner, but giftless and possessed by the dead; and Arsinoe, raised as a naturalist while actually being a poisoner, who ultimately, was only really good at low magic. The island needed them all, while breaking the line of queens.
I love that Jules got more of a role in this book as the Legion Queen. She's our powerful bisexual babe. I also liked the unexpected growth of Pietyr Renard. He's not someone I really liked in the other books, but he kind of grew on me. This edition also had a bonus epilogue, so we got a really cute reunion scene. I really want to be friends with Camden (cougar) and Braddock (brown bear).
This is a great series if you like dark fantasy, different types of magic, sister dynamics, animal companions, and political intrigue.
Five Dark Fates by Kendare Blake is the fourth and final book in the Three Dark Crowns series. This is such a good and underrated YA fantasy series! So many strong female characters, a cool magic system, a matriarchal society, and lovable and dynamic characters. Warning for spoilers of previous books.
This book did a great job bringing the series to an exciting climax and satisfying conclusion. I loved seeing how each of the sisters grew and changed throughout the four books. I love that it was a story about sisters, and about how none of them were what they were supposed to be. Mirabella, the oldest and a strong elemental unwilling to harm or fight others; Katherine, the youngest raised as a poisoner, but giftless and possessed by the dead; and Arsinoe, raised as a naturalist while actually being a poisoner, who ultimately, was only really good at low magic. The island needed them all, while breaking the line of queens.
I love that Jules got more of a role in this book as the Legion Queen. She's our powerful bisexual babe. I also liked the unexpected growth of Pietyr Renard. He's not someone I really liked in the other books, but he kind of grew on me. This edition also had a bonus epilogue, so we got a really cute reunion scene. I really want to be friends with Camden (cougar) and Braddock (brown bear).
This is a great series if you like dark fantasy, different types of magic, sister dynamics, animal companions, and political intrigue.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, and Torture
cardlikecredit's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This one was way more intense than the previous books but a pretty solid wrap up. Not for the faint of heart though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, War, Violence, and Death
Moderate: Grief, Confinement, Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death
Minor: Kidnapping and Infertility
sarcasticheart's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and War
pagesbycaroline's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and War
Moderate: Torture and War
mia_luvsreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Violence
Moderate: Body horror, Death of parent, and Gore
Minor: Sexual content, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
pageafter_paige's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This final book wrapped up the series better than I had anticipated. I laughed, I cried (twice), and I screamed throughout the story! The character arcs came full circle and really tore my heart out. Even though romance isn’t the focus of the book I am always rooting for Billy and Arsinoe so without the bonus epilogue I would’ve been in limbo. Overall great series and I found this book very fast paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Infertility, Torture, Body horror, Grief, Murder, War, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Violence, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, and Confinement
eddiroll's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Murder
esme_may's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I adored this! I'm so glad I decided to finish this series because it was so much better than the last one. An incredible end to the series
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Death, Gore, Blood, and War
Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Self harm, Xenophobia, Confinement, Grief, and Kidnapping
Minor: Animal cruelty and Sexual content
rinku's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Just like its predecessor, Five Dark Fates couldn’t spark the same excitement in as like the first two books of the series. Maybe my 3.5 stars rating is a bit generous; I generally liked this book and the series but for some reason, I mainly focussed on the negative things in my review.
The revolution plot of the last book continues, and the rebels are still trying to overthrow Katharine. Mirabella has changed sides but it’s honestly good for her since she can be with her friends again and the rebels treated her terribly. This is one of the reasons I was not so invested in the revolution, and it only became interesting when Billy got kidnapped by Katharine and in return, the rebels kidnapped Pietyr. I felt so sorry for Billy since he’s the only character in this series that is actually good . Another amazing moment was Katharine killing Mirabella so that the dead queens can’t take her over. This is such a defining moment for Mirabella, but it made me so mad because she was my favorite queen of the three .
In general, the ending was dramatic and epic: Katharine saves Arsinoe from death and then dies with the dead queens. I’m honestly mad that Arsinoe is the only queen surviving since she’s the most boring one; Jules of course is able to defeat Rho as well and survives. Already before, I’ve noticed the trend of YA books only telling and not showing us what happened after the big final battle; this is the case here again. I strongly dislike that Jules became the new queen because I don’t think that she’ll be a good queen and she doesn’t deserve to be in this position. I’m normally a fan of characters changing the status quo but here, they keep the monarchy going instead of using the opportunity to create a more democratic system .
Coming to the characters, I’ll have to say that I’m quite mad that only the boring characters survive . The characters around Mirabella, who takes this great role as a mediator on in this novel, are so great and I love them. In comparison though, I really disliked the people around the rebellion. Emilia is the worst character in the entire series, I just hate how impulsive she is. Apparently, she’s in love with Jules but this love is barely shown on screen, and she just talks about it. Besides this, the other romances are also not that great.
All in all, the finale of the Three Dark Crowns series was a bit underwhelming. For me, the series started so amazingly with the first two books that had interesting conflicts and introduced us so well to the characters. Those are almost all thrown over in the last two books for an arbitrary revolution apparently every YA book needs. Don’t get me wrong, I love revolutions, but they get so predictable with the time. The ending of the series was also just not that great and I wished it had a different outcome. I’m honestly not sure if the series is worth it; probably when you’re invested in the characters and world after the first book like I was.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Blood, Violence, Confinement, and War
Moderate: Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Infertility
Minor: Murder and Sexual content