Bitterblue

1: Graceling ★★★★★
#2: Fire ★★★
#3: Bitterblue ★★
#4: Winterkeep ★★
#5: Untitled - will not be reading

2★

I found Bitterblue to be an incredibly annoying character and thought this book was way too long and convoluted for its own good. Getting more and more nervous about reading Winterkeep!

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It's a little slower than Graceling and Fire, but the exploration of history and memory and trauma requires the extra space I think. It feels more YA than the two previous books, despite its subject matter, and I didn't buy into the politics, especially towards the end. The resolution felt both oversimplified and unsatisfying to me. Regardless of the ways it fell flat for me, it did make me cry several times. Most notably when Fire shows Bitterblue how much bigger she is than the hurt she's feeling.

“...when truths disappear, they leave behind blank spaces, and that is also dangerous.”

“The more I see and hear, the more I realize how much I don't know.”

3.5

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD it definitely has to be my favorite book in this series so far, plot wise

Bitterblue was bittersweet. I liked to see al the old characters, but I didn't really enjoy the story. It felt dragging a lot. And the ending was not here not there. With the same success, I could've stopped after the first book.

Oh boy was this a disappointment. I pretty much devoured Graceling, and liked Fire all right, so I was expecting to enjoy this book. Nope!

Among the problems in this book:
The romance subplot adds nothing - unlike in Graceling and Fire. Bitterblue doesn't seem to learn about herself or grow as a person, the romance subplot seems to just teach her that kissing is nice.
Nobody ever said anything with a personality - it felt like every other line, someone was saying something either blandly or dryly. That really grinds on your nerves after a while!
The sort of overall plot - people recovering from mind control while Bitterblue discovers there are parts of the castle she's never been in - didn't really make sense given the, what, 8 year in-universe gap between this book and Graceling. I get the mind control fog was thick, but, come on. 8 years and people are still recovering?? Bitterblue's almost 18 and had no idea there was an art gallery in her home??
The TOTALLY pointless Gracelings. Okay, not every Grace has to be super interesting or super useful. But did we really have to waste page space meeting a kitchen employee who has a Grace where he can smell people and know what food they'd find most desirable at that moment? He never comes up again, and the Grace is pointless (just ask people what they want!), and it was kind of annoying.
The whole “there's nothing wrong with being gay” thing. To be clear, I'm not objecting to the message. Just, it doesn't make any sense in-universe. We don't hear of any religions that forbid homosexual relationships, and we don't hear that any of the kings have banned it, we don't hear of ANY reason in-universe why people would feel like they need to hide their same-sex relations and why Bitterblue is all “Good, I'm happy, they shouldn't have to hide it.”

The best part of this book in my opinion was Po playing with a paper airplane outside and then falling off the little stone wall. Not that I was happy he fell, it was just a cute, funny moment in a book full of bland pointlessness. I mean, maybe that scene was also pointless, but at least it was cute.

WAS THAT EVEN REAL ? DID I ACTUALLY HOLD THE BOOK IN MY HANDS ? NO. ( OK . yes . yes i did . i confess )


THERE WAS A QUEENDOM . LECK IS ANNOYING . VERY MUCH SO . IT WAS SOOOOO SAD AT TIMES . THE ROMANCE ??! ( NOT SURE IF THERE WAS ANY ?) BUT HEY , IT MADE ME CRY AND QUESTION MY LIFE CHOICES .
IT DID WELL !

the characters :
Bitterblue - Queen of Monsea , trying to sort out her QUEENDOM , and erase Leck's mark on it . she also is very much sneaky + likes to get things done .
Rood - adviser / healer dude .
Runnemood- yes , adviser ! healer ! dead adviser healer.
Darby- always drunk , tired ( me !drunk on BOOKS though . cmon . and tired because of books taking up my sleep , for good reasons ).
Teddy - cute guy who wont stop reading .
Saf ( Sapphire Birch , to me and bitterblue ) - ENDANGERED SPECIES OF ADORKABLENESS . MY FAVOURITE PERSON IN THE 7 KINGDOMS . BEWARE . HE WILL HIT YOUR FEELS RIGHT . OH AND HE IS A THIEF . BUT HE IS A THIEF . I LOVE THOSE.
wait .
don't ‘ forget one person.
DEATH ! - the actually real name of Bitter-blue's librarian , who keeps Cats and remembers every word he writes + reads.
I am honing on my skills to do the above . watch out .


TO ADD UP :
I love this book .
I love SAF .
It isn't driven by the romance ? ( the romance is questionable . )
read the book .
please.

love,
wordswolf

I love how everything came together. There was lots of complications and lies which really made the reader think. As Bitterblue doesn't know what is going on, neither does the reader and many mysteries are not the kind to come to ones mind quickly.

Seeing how Bitterblue grew up was nice but, 8 years seems like such a long time for her not to see any of these things going on around her.

It wrapped up the first and second book and I don't see how another book could be made but, if there is I would love to read it.

if the feminist propaganda of graceling (which I in no way disagree with) was barely noticable, the message of equality (which I also do not disagree with) in bitterblue was like being hit over the head repeatedly with a shovel named feminism, especially in the ending. take what you will from that, but it's a really minor quible for me.

A well handled romance all things considered, although the sex was suddenly thrown in at a moment when I don't think it would have naturally happened. The false sense of complexity at the start of the novel was annyoing. Being inundated with every little slightly off detail, much of which has no relevance, made me feel like bitterblue was paranoid.

A ending which was altogether to happy for my tastes was bearable due to the well foreshadowed and executed plot twists. The characterisation of leck's worst victims was very very good. The revolving door of characters and time skips helped to speed up a suprisingly slow story for its length.

I have really enjoyed the graceling books. The dialog and plot of this book seems geared to a young audience, but the content is mature and disturbing. There is a lot of violence and discussion of atrocious acts similar to those described during the world war II Holocaust, except it's set in a fantasy setting. The descriptions are very dark and I'd be very hesitant to recommend it to young readers.
I do appreciate that there is a theme about the damage covering up mistakes can cause. I do like that the author describes that avoiding problems and putting our head in the sand makes problems larger and more complicated. The themes are good, but the writing is sub-par. I had difficulty getting to sleep at night after reading this book due to the content.

Makes me want to go back and read Fire!

You can read my full review here: http://knowitnotsomuch.blogspot.com/2012/10/bitterblue.html

I ended up totally loving this series. I didn't think I'd enjoy Bitterblue as much but I got really into it, especially the ending. I want to buy and reread the whole series. Soon.

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD I CANNOT EVEN HANDLE IT.

I WROTE A REVIEW HERE BUT MAINLY JUST OMG SO GOOD. READ THE WHOLE TRILOGY IMMEDIATELY.

–

it's.....upsetting.......that the fucked-up politics of these books has only gotten more relevant with time???? :/

but also <3

(Review originally posted here at Fictionally Inclined.)

Bitterblue was definitely one of my most-awaited books of the year. I absolutely fell in love with Graceling when I read it last year, and I loved Fire nearly as much. I couldn't wait for the next (and final, as far as I know sob) book in the story! But along with this anticipation came the fear it wouldn't live up to my expectations, as well as the desire for the story of the Graceling Realm to never, ever end. Therefore, I let it sit on my library pile for weeks before I finally picked it up. Once I finally did, though, I never wanted to set it back down!

Writing this review is going to be difficult because I have some conflicted feelings about Bitterblue. I've taken a couple days to sort them out, though, and I think I'm finally able to articulate them without writing down my reaction to EVERYTHING, which would include some massive spoilers. There will still be some minor spoilers for the earlier books in the series, though, so be warned!

It was great to see Bitterblue grown up. I really felt for her and all her problems as an 18-year-old queen who knew very little about her own country, limited only to what her advisers saw fit to tell her. I found her an interesting character. I didn't think she'd be as fierce as Katsa or Fire, but Bitterblue was fierce in her own way: intelligence. She could do crazy hard math problems, all in her head. She purposefully wrote in ciphers. Bitterblue was also a very genuine person; she stayed true to herself and did her best to act on what she felt was best, if possible.

I loved so much about this book. One of the main things I loved - and didn't expect at all - was that Katsa and Po were in it, and not just brief mentions! That made me supremely happy. The secondary characters including Teddy, Raffin, Bann, and others were wonderful. I even grew to appreciate some I didn't think I would like in the beginning. I vaguely remembered Giddon from Graceling, but more his name than anything else. Over the course of Bitterblue, I totally fell for him. I would love to read a book all about him! I am intrigued by his past, but I really want to know what came next for him. Another factor I loved about the book was how personal it was; unfailingly, every time I took a break then came back to the book, I felt a mild shock when I remembered it was written in third person. It just felt so intensely personal that I expected to be reading from Bitterblue's first person POV. I just thought that was something that was interesting and warranted a mention.

Now, onto Saf. I don't really know where to start. Saf was a thief. But an honorable thief who was fiercely loyal to those he cared about. His relationship with Bitterblue was messed up from the beginning. As a queen and a commoner, there was no possibility of a normal romance for them, ever. It was interesting to see how their story was handled, even though there were some things about it that didn't quite sit right with me. I really felt the beautiful connection between the two of them.

The plot for Bitterblue was interesting and complicated and, at times, difficult to read. From his first introduction in Graceling, you know that Leck was one messed up, evil guy. You get a little more of him in Fire. But until you read Bitterblue, you don't even know the half of it. Bitterblue really had a challenge in front of her, trying to rectify damage done to an entire kingdom over the course of a 35-year-long reign of a madman.

The main thing I didn't like about Bitterblue was the lack of closure on several fronts. That's all I will say about the matter, because it would be impossible to get into without going spoiler crazy. I can appreciate it on one hand, because it added a dash of realism. There were obviously some things that simply couldn't be resolved unless the book went on for years and years. But some things I felt could have been handled better.

Supposedly, Bitterblue can be read as a standalone. I suppose this is true, but I would highly discourage anyone from attempting this. For one, it would probably be confusing. For another, you would not get anything near the full impact of the story, especially regarding several of the characters. Last, but not least, Bitterblue would spoil several things about both Graceling and Fire that would lessen your enjoyment of those books should you want to read them later.

I could probably say more, but I have rambled on long enough. I have no idea how the review got this long already! Overall, even though I was disappointed in some aspects of it, Bitterblue was an addicting (though I was reading under a library deadline, which may have heightened the addicting effect), solid, and enjoyable addition to the Graceling Realm.

❝Bacon improved things dramatically.❞

❝She was trying to come up with a casual way to broach an unapproachable topic. How is everyone feeling today? Did you all sleep well? Anyone missing any gargoyles?❞

❝The more I see and hear, the more I realize how much I don't know. I want to know everything.❞

❝Think how satisfying it'll be to attack me with a sword.❞

I found this quite disturbing; so much so that I feel I must classify it as adult, not young adult, and will be forbidding my children from reading it despite their eagerness to do so.