Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

**This review will contain spoilers for the first two books in this series, Graceling and Fire**

After enjoying Fire last week, I decided to move on to the last book in the Graceling Realm series right away. I was really in the mood for some young adult fantasy and I didn't want to wait too long to finish the set, since I tend to start forgetting details about the books I read pretty fast. Bitterblue is classified as a companion novel set in the same universe as Graceling and Fire. However, unlike Fire, which had its own unique locations and characters, this novel shares quite a bit with Graceling. That being said, there will be some unavoidable spoilers in this review for Graceling and Fire, so anyone interesting in starting this series probably shouldn't read any further. If you will be stopping here, just know that if you are a young adult fantasy fan, I do highly recommend this series. Bitterblue ended up being my favorite out of the three books.

The plot of this novel follows Bitterblue, daughter of the evil King Leck that Katsa and Po rescue in Graceling. At the end of that novel, Bitterblue, who was only a child at the time, became the queen of Monsea after her father was defeated. This novel picks up several years later. Bitterblue is now a young adult, and is struggling to lead her kingdom past the trauma Leck inflicted on the population during his thirty five year reign. Leck used his mind control grace to inflict horrors on the people of his kindgom, and the nature of his abilities have left people confused about the truth of things and ashamed of the bad times that they do remember.

Bitterblue has a team of four elderly advisers who try and help her move her kingdom forward. They advocate hard for "forward thinking" policies, meaning that they want to try and legislate a fresh start for Monsea. All crimes committed under the reign of Leck have been forgiven, and efforts to investigate into past matters are strongly discouraged. Bitterblue goes along with this at first, but she is continually troubled by using this strategy. She senses that it is not working; strange events are occurring in her kingdom, people are behaving in illogical ways, and she gets the distinct sense that her advisers are hiding things from her.

Out of frustration, Bitterblue starts disguising herself and wandering the streets of Monsea at night. She hopes to get a true view of how things are in her kingdom, and what she finds only raises more questions. It is clear that some people are struggling mentally, some are desperate to remember and record the events of the past, and some are just as desperate to stop people from remembering anything at all. On these nightly wanderings, she meets Sapphire and Teddy, two young men who work to steal back items stolen during Leck's reign and return them to their rightful owners. As she begins to build a relationship with them, she is drawn deeper into the mysterious problems plaguing her kingdom. 

As time moves on, and as Bitterblue sees more and more events that confuse and sadden her, it is clear that there is a secret at the heart of her kingdom that she needs to uncover in order to help her people heal. Her quest to do so, however, will mean she has to dig deep into Leck's past, a painful and dangerous prospect. Leck was an unfathomably cruel man, and trying to uncover his motivations and his methods dredge up memories that many would prefer to stay buried. As she pushes deeper into her investigation, she must decode ciphers, explore hidden passages, and decide who to trust so that she can lead her subjects through the horrors of their past and into a kinder, more peaceful future.

I mentioned in my Fire review that I really liked that novel, but was embarrassed to have liked it so much because it was pretty cringey in parts. I am happy to say that Bitterblue was not as bad in this regard! I fell completely in love with it by the ending. In this novel, Kristin Cashore pulled back a bit on the romantic elements (although they were still present) and went all in on the mystery elements, and the story was much improved for it. The plot was extremely well-crafted. Bitterblue is a detective in this novel, and the secrets she uncovers are shocking and intensely engaging. Her growth throughout the investigation is well-written, and it was a joy to watch her transform from a peevish, inexperienced ruler into a mature, confident leader. She is wonderfully three-dimensional, with a past that haunts her and leads to some very believable internal conflicts. I also enjoyed the fact that she didn't have any unnatural powers, like Katsa and Fire before her. She is a normal, albeit quite clever, protagonist, and I liked seeing her navigate the story as a mere mortal. The only thing I didn't like about her character was her trademark exclamation. She says "Oh balls!" a whole lot, and I hated it. That's a small annoyance to put up with though, and it didn't take too much away from my enjoyment of the story.

I haven't written about Leck much in my previous reviews, even though he is an important force in all three novels. I couldn't say much about him earlier without revealing spoilers. He is, however, one of the most chilling literary villains I have ever read. His ability to control the minds and actions of others is genuinely scary, and what he chooses to do with those powers is incredibly disturbing. His actions are so harmful that they continue to damage his subjects long after his death. He isn't even alive for the entirety of Bitterblue, but he is still very present in the story. In fact, a unique aspect of the novel is the fact that the antagonists that are actually alive in this narrative are all acting in response to things Leck has done, and when their secrets are uncovered, what is left is just sadness. This is a novel with people who behave wrongly, but their reasons for doing so are understandable and spring from an unthinkable inner pain. Bitterblue works hard to solve a mystery that is necessary to uncover for the future of her kingdom, but heartbreaking in what it reveals. The true villain is already vanquished as the novel begins. Bitterblue's job is to be strong enough to reform a kingdom out of the broken pieces he left behind.

Similar to the other books in the series, Cashore doesn't shy away from including realistic characters and topics in her story. She includes characters of different backgrounds and sexualities and touches on topics ranging from gay marriage to birth control to consent. Again, some very serious plot elements are included, involving sexual assault, self-harm, and suicide. I always hesitate when an author incorporates these kinds of issues into their stories, as it's important to write them respectfully and sensitively. I believe that Cashore has done that here, and her writing is appropriate and realistic to her universe.   

The entire Graceling series, and Bitterblue in particular, ended up being a wonderful surprise to me. I expected that I would like these books, but I didn't anticipate the level of storytelling I found here. Cashore created an intricate world full of interesting characters that feel real, and unlike many other series, the stories here get better as they go on. They definitely have their awkward, cringe-inducing moments, but there is a sneaky maturity to the work as well that took me by surprise. I started my reading thinking that I would probably end up donating these books to my classroom library once I was finished, but I liked Bitterblue enough to want to hang onto them. In a world that is full of young adult fantasy series, this one really stands out. It's a new favorite for me.


Challenge Tally
Finally in 2019: 18/6 Books Read - Complete!

Total Books Read in 2019: 34