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.
I really loved Graceling and liked Fire. The characters were so well developed and the action was great. Bitterblue was introduced in Graceling as a child. I didn't particularly like the character, so I wasn't overly excited about reading this book. But the great writing and plots of the other two convinced me to read it. I was terribly disappointed.
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.
I really loved Graceling and liked Fire. The characters were so well developed and the action was great. Bitterblue was introduced in Graceling as a child. I didn't particularly like the character, so I wasn't overly excited about reading this book. But the great writing and plots of the other two convinced me to read it. I was terribly disappointed.
Bitterblue started out so slow. The writing wasn't as crisp and concise as the other two books and I felt a lot of the book could have been cut out. The real spark in the book was when all the old characters from the other two books were at the center of the action. I read some reviews and thought maybe I was being too harsh- maybe I didn't remember the other two books well enough. So, I went back and reread Graceling and Fire and determined that I was correct in my critique! This one doesn't compare to the other two. And though the publisher would like to tell you that you don't have to read the other two to read this one, I think a reader would be quite lost without reading the other books!
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