Danielle Reads

Bitterblue

By Kristin Cashore

Published: May 1, 2012
Dial, 576 pages

Eight years after Graceling, Bitterblue is now queen of Monsea. But the influence of her father, a violent psychopath with mind-altering abilities, lives on. Her advisors, who have run things since Leck died, believe in a forward-thinking plan: Pardon all who committed terrible acts under Leck's reign, and forget anything bad ever happened. But when Bitterblue begins sneaking outside the castle--disguised and alone--to walk the streets of her own city, she starts realizing that the kingdom has been under the thirty-five-year spell of a madman, and the only way to move forward is to revisit the past.

Two thieves, who only steal what has already been stolen, change her life forever. They hold a key to the truth of Leck's reign. And one of them, with an extreme skill called a Grace that he hasn't yet identified, holds a key to her heart.

-- Amazon.com description

Bitterblue has realized that she knows little about her kingdom or the people she is ruling, and begins sneaking out of the castle at night to find out more. She begins to see that everything is not well in the kingdom, as her advisers have told her. She discovers puzzle after puzzle of things that don't make sense, and enlists the help of those around her to figure out just what is going on in her kingdom. She uncovers many secrets of both the past and present and finds herself in the middle of a deeply woven and intricate plot of secrets that have been going on for nearly fifty years, since the beginning of Leck's reign.

Bitterblue has a truly amazing plot. Cashore has managed to brilliantly weave her two other novels, Graceling and Fire into Bitterblue's story while still giving this book plenty of material on it's own. I was amazed by Cashore's ability to write such intricate story lines with several different mysteries happening at once, and then tie them together in the end neatly. I have truly fallen in love with each character in the book, even those I did not expect to.

If you haven't read Cashore's Graceling or Fire first, I strongly recommend that you do so. You won't be able to truly appreciate the world or characters without knowing the other two stories as well. Katsa and Po from Graceling make several re-appearances and we get to read more about their relationship dynamic, as well as various Council members. At the end of Bitterblue,  there is a surprise character appearance that I was thrilled over.

The entire trilogy is extremely well-written and complex. The world that Cashore has created is certainly a fantasy world, but is still believable. The characters are truly unforgettable -- I have become quite attached to each of them! Bitterblue is an excellent novel and deserves more recognition and readers than it has.