Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

Bitterblue (Graceling Realm, #3)

by Kristin Cashore

The long-awaited companion to New York Times bestsellers Graceling and Fire

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.

Reviewed by Leigha on

2 of 5 stars

Share
A young queen deals with the ramifications of her tyrannous father...or as my husband likes to say, the book about a kingdom suffering from PTSD.

I walked into this book prepared to love it. One of my all time favorite books is Fire, and Graceling is just marvelous too. However, I left this book feeling very dissatisfied. The plot meandered from one point to another in a cumbersome way. The characters felt very two-dimensional, even the returning characters from previous books. The romance, such a strong element in her past books, was subpar at best.

This book dealt with a lot social issues, which I do not mind at all. However, the story (plot, characters, etc.) really needed to flesh out these issues or integrating them more fully into the story. The book had too many ingredients, and not enough time to integrate them well. Finally, the best part of the book was Death. Maybe I'm biased because he is a librarian, but he was the only real enjoyable new character to the Graceling realm. Can I have a book solely on him?

tl;dr A really disappointing conclusion to the Graceling Realm trilogy with depthless characters, world building issues, and a boring plot.

Last modified on

Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 26 January, 2016: Finished reading
  • 26 January, 2016: Reviewed